Queensland’s city of Gladstone is now number one among Australia’s property hotspots, thanks to the resources boom. The regional city was chosen for Australian Property Investor magazine’s annual Hot 100 this year, which lists 100 locations around Australia where property prices are expected to rise.

Many experts predict Queensland will be one of the first states in which property takes off again, with price growth driven by the impending mining boom, predicted to be much bigger than the last. Some 19 locations in API’s Hot 100 list were in Queensland.

Gladstone made API’s list of the hottest 100 locations for property for the second year in a row. Over the past year house prices in Gladstone grew by some 7.8 per cent and it’s believed even greater growth is just around the corner.

The regional city, situated around 100 kilometres southeast of Rockhampton, is expected to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the current and planned activity in resources, especially with several gas projects planned for the area.

“At the moment, Gladstone is considered to be fairly affordable for a resource-driven area,” says API deputy editor Vanessa De Groot. “The median price for houses is $398,000 and for units it’s $319,000 but both property values and rents are expected to be sharply driven up due to the wide range of resource projects. In recent times growth in Gladstone may have paused, but the projects slated for the area will significantly push it along.”

Gladstone isn’t going to the only beneficiary of resource-related projects in Queensland – also on API’s Hot 100 list this year is Toowoomba and the Surat Basin, the latter of which includes towns such as Dalby, Chinchilla and Miles. Property in these areas is also expected to become very sought after and valuable, largely due to gas projects.