Airlie Beach has become increasingly popular with sea-changers, typically from New South Wales and Victoria, who are seeking a better lifestyle for themselves and their families away from the stress of city life.

Led by an unprecedented development boom, with more in the planning pipeline ($3.5b), over the past two years $2 billion worth of construction has commenced. Airlie Beach retains its laidback charm and continues to be known as one of Queensland’s friendliest towns. The Whitsundays continues to be known as one of Queensland’s friendliest towns and enjoys an ideal climate without the oppressive summer humidity of Cairns to the north or slight chill of Brisbane to the south in winter. The flight frequency by the budget airlines to Hamilton Island and Whitsunday Coast (Proserpine) Airports, have enabled more southerners to experience the Whitsunday lifestyle. Tourism brings over $700 million to the region each year, with takings from accommodation counting for $125m.

Arguably the largest project for the region, The Port of Airlie has commenced. This $500 million development will include 15 beachfront homes together with 365 designer apartments, a 140-room 5-star hotel, a 240 berth marina and a variety of restaurants and shops. Most of the recent development has centred around prestige resort and residential projects by high profile developers like the Peppers Coral Coast Resort and the Peninsula marina/waterfront apartments. Price points running into the millions of dollars have been achieved in recent years exceeding expectations. Recently the area has seen growth in the industrial, commercial and office building in the Cannonvale area. The strong demand in Whitsunday industrial and commercial properties has been driven by a strong level of business creations. In the five year period ending December 2007, the number of registered businesses increased by 19.0% per annum. Lascorp’s Whitsunday Business Centre will meet the demand for modern state of the art work space for the growing business sector.

Major infrastructure works to support the aforementioned residential and commercial development are also underway. In 2006, Centro Whitsunday opened at Cannonvale featuring Woolworths, Big W, Best & Less, Betta Electrical, Mitre 10, Payless Shoes and 40 specialty stores in one location. This compliments major franchises like McDonald’s, Subway, Baskin Robbins and Dominos which have been operating in Airlie Beach for some time. It is no longer necessary to travel to Mackay (1.5 hours south) or Townsville (3 hours north) for a big city shopping experience.
Airlie Beach is also seeing a major improvement in marine facilities putting the town on the map for world-girdling yachts. The extension of Abel Point Marina is nearing completion and will comprise 500 berths, with several capable of accommodating 150ft Superyachts. Overseas representatives from the Superyacht industry have already inspected the area and are keen to include Airlie Beach on their list of desirable locations to visit around the world. Reinforcing the region’s appeal as a popular cruising destination are the regular visits by P&O cruise ships.

Over two thirds of the Whitsundays is dedicated to national park and state forest park. With regards to development, the Whitsundays is a finite resource. Property analysts estimate that only 3,500 residential titles remain to be developed.

The region offers a wide range of accommodation facilities catering for all ends of the spectrum from luxury travellers to families and international backpackers. The stinger-proof lagoon features a sandy beach, BBQ area and picnic tables enabling locals and holidaymakers to swim all year round.

Several of the remaining development sites are being secured by big high profile developers from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Some home prices have increased by 50% over the last two years and land is in limited supply. The lack of ocean view properties has caused prices to escalate over the past two years and in some cases properties have increased over 100% in value.

Development

$742 million of developments completed in the last 5 years
$1.498 billion of committed projects in the next 1-5 years
$1.329 billion of developments in early planning stages
$1.864 billion of developments under construction since 23/12/08

The new Port of Airlie development is a $500 million world class marina, resort and retail development to rival the best in the world with state of the art marina services, 240 wet berths and exceptional retail and dining.

The region is special, in that there is very little land left to be developed as it is landlocked by its natural surroundings between the Great Barrier Reef (World Heritage listed in 1981) and National Parks.