Hi all! I hope all is well. My Partner and I have been continuing on to purchase a larger property in the cairns region. We currently own in Mooroobool however will be converting this to an IP and have been looking through the tablelands and down south also. We do like the location of Babinda and the council have a lot of plans for future development, actively working towards increasing the population. We have submitted an offer on a 3 bed 1 bath on a 2.4k sqm large elevated block on the mountain with beautiful views ( missus has always dream of living the quite life close to nature to raise her family). The property intially was advertised in the low 300's but due to the drive way being in an odd spot and some cosmetic renovations as well as needing aircons we have submitted an offer in the low 200's which is likely going to be accepted so there is great potential to make a good amount on the way in. Comparable sales would have this going for between 260k-$280k in current condition however if we added a verandah, fixed the driveway, added aircon and did a cosmetic renovation I could see this easily getting 350k. I have a good job in Cairns however we have been expanding into the tablelands and Innisfail so I do enjoy being somewhat between the three. I do like the potential this has in the future as there is current talk at freeing up land for house and land packges which will increase the house value in the medium term. There had also been significant plans to market Babinda more for tourisim with work with cruise ships doing day trips, increasing nature tracks in the national park as well as plans to mordernize the town. Curious if anyone has lived in Babinda as I noted some people from the SS forums had lived there. Or for the other Cairns locals what their thoughts on Babinda are. Warm regards
I think in general the SS forum had a much more rounded demographic with a good representation of regional investors and residents Hard to make any meaningful conversation on Property chat regarding regional investment without every second post saying stupid things like you will never have any growth. In my honest opinion I don't think Babinda is going to shoot the lights out. Nothing wrong with the town but i dont see what will cause significant growth. Tourism is good but retirees is where the money comes from for residential property If i was going to pick a couple of placese outside of the main offenders such as Cairns /Kuranda/ Cairns northern beaches/ Port Douglas to perform then top would be Mission Beach - has real tourism potential and a lot of the infrastructure is there and waiting, also has a bit of a name down south (Melb and Sydney people know it) - which is huge for tapping into retiree market Another one would be Mossman - not really due to tourism but because its where all the daintree/port douglas locals get pushed to due to it being a bit more friendly on the hip pocket. Has good amenities and seems to be a growing town Anyway so none of that probably helps but low 200k for a nice PPOR in an area you like is pretty much a pipedream for most so i wouldnt worry about the investment potential. Its not a significant amount of money so i wouldnt stress
Hi Strongy, your input is always greatly valued. I would agree with you in terms of investments the main offenders is where I'd park my money. We did consider Mossman and Mission beach however as I do work in Cairns the commute to work is just a tad too long for my liking (want less than an hour). I think in both mentioned places there are some good deals to be had. I do recall Innisfail having the most millionares per SQKM however would personally not want to live there.
cheers the mission beach market is interesting 6 months ago a tourism capital mob came through and bought up several hundred properties (mostly land) in the town, i believe they also bought dunk island good strategy if you have the cash! the corona virus thing is not good fpr them as im sure they were pushing for international tourism yes innisfail appears to attract some strange people. cant see anything there that will change that trend unfortunately
Offer accepted which has made the missus very happy. Had some very interesting negotiations but got our own way in the end. My personal view is we have bought in the best location in town and a lot of potential to value add so we can make some equity in the short term. I'm interested to see what happens in Babinda once tourisim returns.
