Fortunately, this seems to have not hit the north west as bad as other places around the nation.

City and Country Realty manager Kieran Tully said they were really worried at the beginning of COVID, but surprisingly, business is booming.

"We were really stressing out at the start of COVID but as time has gone on the market hasn't pulled up at all. If anything its busier than normal and we have been doing really well," Mr Tully said.

"There are very minimal rental vacancies left which has driven the prices up."

Mr Tully had several convincing reasons as to why.

"We think this may be due to job losses in the bigger cities and on the coast with workers having to relocate to Mount Isa to support their family. As far as I'am aware the mines are still hiring and that is playing a huge role," he said.

"Then there's the factor that there hasn't been any COVID here which may entice people to move if they are worried about the virus and are thinking of the safety of their family."

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There was also positive news for the selling market.

"As far as selling goes we have already hit our annual target and we are just getting into July. It's been the busiest six months since 2013," Mr Tully said.

"People are probably also thinking about how international travel is a long time away so its a great time to knuckle down and buy a house, especially given that Mount Isa's market is cheaper to buy rather than rent.

"The local house evaluators have told us the prices are just starting to take a slight turn up but it all depends on how many more houses are sold over the next 45 days."

Mr Tully was hopeful things remained this way for a while.

"If the demand stays there for a long period of time we will see a rise in land evaluation which was down 44 per cent in October 2019," he said.

"Land values are measured over several years so we won't fully know until then.

"All our staff have stayed on and almost all our tendencies have remained so it has been remarkable."

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