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Bundaberg, Townsville, Cairns, Rockhampton, and so many more. Queensland's major regional centers have been performing really well over the past few years. But which ones are still set for strong growth ahead? This episode, we rank a regional Queensland list from the potential top performer to the bottom moving into 2025. My name is Junge Ma, the lead research analyst at InvestorKit.
Let's get into the episode. So in this episode, we are going to go through the economic strength, market pressure in the sales markets and rental markets of six regional Queensland cities. They are Bundaberg, Glaston, Rockhampton, Townsville, Mackay, and Cairns. Just bear in mind, we're ranking them purely based on their market pressure and the potential for growth. We're not taking too much of the economy into account when we rank them.
So first city, Bundaberg. Bundaberg's population growth over the past year was actually really strong, 2% in a year. That should be the highest among all these six regions. And among the 2% population growth, 0. 9% is contributed by internal migration.
That may sound not much, but that is much higher than Bundaberg's last decade average internal migration level. The job market is more active than ever. The current unemployment rate in Bundaberg is 4. 1%, and it has been declining in 2020. In 2022 and 2023, when the cash rate hiked, many cities' unemployment rates actually increased, but that didn't happen to Bundaberg.
So its local economy is just keeping strengthening. In a sales market, market pressure is still high, but we are seeing signs of slight relief. Days on market now is around 54 days. It has stabilized ever since the end of 2022. Vendor discount around 6.
7%, very similar to days on market. It has stabilized over the course of 2024. And inventory. Inventory is where we see this slight relief in market pressure. Number of listings for sale has been slightly trending forward since mid-2023.
At the same time, we're not seeing significant increase in the sales volume. So these two combined together, we are seeing inventory slightly trending forward since mid-2023. Now the inventory level is around 2. 6, 2. 7 months of stock.
It is still low if we consider 3 to 4 as the balanced level, but we say the market pressure is relieving because of the slight increase over the past one year. In the rental market, pressure is still high as well. Vacancy rate hiked around late 2023, but since October 2023, it has come down again. And now it sits around 0. 5%.
That is extremely tight. As a result, rental prices have been increasing very steadily over the course of the last two years. Rental yield is still healthy, 5. 4%. Still very attractive to investors.
And in the end, market cycle position-wise, Bundaberg's last 10-year annualized growth was 6. 7%. That is still in line with the long-term average of 5 to 7%, but it's at the higher end of this average range. So we're seeing strong economy in Bundaberg, high sales market pressure, but slightly relieving, high rental pressure, and long-term growth very much in line with Australia's long-term average. Combining all these, especially its market cycle position, I would say Bundaberg has entered the second half of its current growth cycle.
And if we want to put it on the leaderboard, I will put Bundaberg at number six. Don't get me wrong, there is still healthy growth ahead in 2025. It's at the sixth place purely because all the six cities are doing really strong. So there has to be someone at the bottom. Next up, we are going to Keynes.
Keynes' population is also strong, 1. 8% growth in a year. And that is the highest in a decade as well. Internal migration contributes to around 0. 9% to the population growth as well.
Very similar to Bundaberg's. And again, as you can see in the chart, it is also the highest in a decade. Again, similar to Bundaberg, Keynes is also seeing a very active job market. Unemployment rate now is 2. 7%, the lowest among all these six cities.
And again, over the past two years, just against the interest rate hike headwind, Keynes' unemployment rate has been declining. So strong economy and active job market. How about the property market? In a sales market, just like Bundaberg, we are seeing a slight sign of market pressure relief. Although the market pressure now is still high.
So first data point we are going to see is the days on market. Days on market now is around 46 days. And it is already a bit higher compared to the same time two years ago. Vendor discount around 6. 6%.
And again, it is slightly trending upward. And from a supply and demand perspective, we are seeing this increase in number of listings in 2024. And at the same time, number of sales is declining gradually. Not fast, but we are seeing this slight downwards trend. As a result, inventory is showing this slight upward trend.
Now at 2. 3 months of stock, still low, but it is relieving. Rental market, just like Bundaberg, is also seeing high market pressure. Vacancy rate now is around 0. 6%.
Not seeing any significant increasing trend. So supply is still very tight compared to the housing demand. Rental yield is still healthy, around 5%. As we know, Keynes almost contains two parts, the north and the south. South has lots of older houses, while north is relatively new.
If we compare the rental yields of the two regions, north actually is seeing lower rental yields because of the higher house prices there, while south is seeing slightly higher rental yields. And at last, from the market cycle perspective, Keynes' last 10-year average growth or annualized growth was 5. 9%. Again, very much in line with the long-term average, but not as much as Bundaberg's 6. 7% annualized growth.
So in summary, in Keynes, we are also seeing a very strong local economy, sales market pressure is high but slightly relieving, and the rental market is still high. It's 5. 9% annualized 10-year growth shows that it is also towards the second half of its current growth cycle. Then overall, we are putting Keynes at the fifth place of our leaderboard. The next stop, let's go back to central Queensland and look at Rockhampton.
Rockhampton's population growth is around 1. 4% over the past year, and among the 1. 4%, 0. 7%, so basically half of it is contributed by internal migration. Both of these have been increasing ever since 2016.
Job market is not as strong or active as Bundaberg or Keynes, but it is clearly strengthening. Currently, the unemployment rate is around 5. 1%, not too much higher than its last decade lowest level. In 2023, there was an increase in unemployment rate, very likely because of the high interest rates, but now we are seeing it declining again. So in the sales market, we're seeing really high market pressure.
So days on market is still declining steadily. The current days on market is around 59 days, and moving forward, we are confident that it'll go down continuously. Vendor discount has been stabilized at around 6. 8%, 6. 9%, and there's no significant increasing trend at this moment.
Now supply and demand. The number of for sale listings has been a bit bumpy over 2024, but it's still hovering around the lowest level in over a decade. At the same time, number of sales has been stabilized over 2024. In recent months, there seems to be a slight tick up in the number of listings and a decline in the number of sales. However, given that Rockhampton's number of listing trend has been a bit bumpy, we would need more time to monitor these trends.
So overall, inventory level has been largely declining ever since late 2023, and now it is sitting around 1. 6 months of stock. That is an extremely low level. In the rental market, again, pressure is high. Vacancy rate is around 0.
7, being steady, and rental prices have been growing steadily as well. Rental yield, although declined over the course of 2024, is still sitting at 6%. Considering the high interest rate environment right now, that rental yield is really healthy. Long-term growth, over the past 10 years, Rockhampton's annualized house price growth was around 4% per year. That is lower than Australia's long-term average of 5% to 7%.
So in summary, we are seeing a strengthening economy in Rockhampton. The sales market pressure is high, and the rental market pressure is high as well. In the long term, from a cycle position perspective, Rockhampton should be at the peak of its current growth cycle. Based on that, on our leaderboard, Rockhampton will go to the fourth place. Next stop, Townsville.
Townsville's population is now around 1. 3, 1. 4% growth in a year. Although it's not really impressive, it's already the highest in the past decade. Internal migration is not really impressive compared to the other cities, but it's already recovered from the net negative growth in the previous years.
Job market is active with unemployment rate 3. 9%. Although we have seen this increasing trend since 2023, I wouldn't think that's a big concern because one, it is still well below 5%, and two, it is much lower than its last 10-year average. So overall, the economy is strengthening.
