First, tourism started booming.

Second, investors started buying up Cairns hotels.

Then the jobs market started improving, including a steady increase in the number of construction sector jobs.

Now, the latest statistics show local real estate is starting to turn for the better.

New figures from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland reveal Cairns is the only city outside the south-east corner to be considered a "rising" market. 

While house prices in other cities such as Townsville and Mackay have been falling, the median house price of $395,000 in Cairns is steady and predicted to rise.

An REIQ spokesperson told News Corp that Cairns was one of the "few markets to withstand the median house price falls that other regions experienced".

"Cairns is 10 per cent higher than five years ago, giving it a solid level of growth over the median term, which gives investors and owner occupiers confidence in this northern city’s real estate market," the spokesperson said.

"The unit market is growing when compared with a year ago and also compared with five years ago, a remarkable feat when compared with similar regional markets."

Suburbs experiencing the greatest growth over the past five years are:

• Trinity Beach: up 34.5 per cent with the average house selling for $497,500 this year
• Earlville: up 32.6 per cent with an average house price of $378,000 this year
• Bungalow: up 24 per cent with an average house selling for $355,000 this year

The picture is even rosier in the unit market, with the annual median unit price of $235,000 being 4.4 per cent higher than 12 months ago.

TropicNow reported in September that agents were seeing a rise in the number properties being put on the market after a flat period following the Aquis rollercoaster.