QLD Cairns, QLD

Now a $2B development pre Casino.

I would only buy between Machans Beach and Palm Cove, never South of Cairns.

 

Holy pre-conceived ideas batman, you just missed out on all that Southern suburb growth???
Never say never.

 

. Thanks for the laugh, Azazel!

Cheers, Jen.

 

Machans? Flood zone and the fact that you can practically touch the planes as they go over your head would see me choosing a Southern suburb first.

Cheers

Jen

 

Some people like watching the planes I had an agent tell me that some people like watching the trains go passed... the railway lines were 50m from the house and there was no fence!

 

Machans Beach is a suburb that polarizes locals.
Positives: It is the closest beachside suburb to the CBD, the water front area has several restaurants and is fairly quiet with very few tourists. From people who live in Machans there is a good community feel to the suburb apparently.

Negatives: Right under the airport final approach path, can be affected by noise when aircraft takeoff to the north.
Mosquitoes are a problem there.
The beach is very close to the Barron river mouth and as a result the water isn't very appealing, crocs aside.
Waterfront properties can be expensive to insure due to storm surge risk although the sea wall has been upgraded by the council recently.

Unless you are specifically heading there its not a suburb anyone passes through.

Along with Holloways they are considerably more down market compared to the rest of the suburbs on the north and northwestern side of Cairns.
I know someone who bought a ppor at Machans and renovated it over 18 months selling it with a nice profit.

 

Construction begins on Australia's first public aquarium built in 17 years - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

It's all happening in Cairns! $50m fish tank being built

 

Unfortunately we didn't get the patrol boat contract.

 

Mongrols.
Did they say where it is going?

 

I think I heard Perth?

 

Yeah it went to perth, i work in that industry. Cant beleive how confident cairns was of getting it considering the bidders in cairns have never built any boats before! Perth does. Oh well a major loss, hoefully aquis/goverbment gets it **** sorted soon

 

I have property in Yorkeys. There are certain times in the year when the planes come down very low. My son and I were staying in the townhouse, I slept through the planes going over as they do this quite often in Melbourne. My son woke up in a fright as the lights of the plane shone directly into his bedroom!!!

 

Well there you go. At least it will help Perth pick up eventually.
Yeah, hopefully the Aquis thing gets moving.

 

Hi @JenJen nearly forgot to reply to this i had it marked down on my calender. Purchase is all done and tennanted now.

Quick numbers:
Suburb: Earlville, Cairns - QLD
5 Bed, 3 Bath, (including sep granny flat - Dual occ)
50m from major shopping centre -5 minutes from CBD
Purchase: 315k
Budget Reno + Holding costs: 25k - 3 weeks
new Bank Val: 390k
Renting now for: 480/pw

The numbers didn't stack up to rent it dual occupancy. Even though no building required! As the council rates became double, infrustructure fee approx 6.5k and the rent would have been less than an extra 200 p/w. Turned out i under estimated the rental return on the house as a whole, i had budgeted for 380 p/w. Property is still only neutral to slightly positive cashflow due to the rediculous insurance costs.
I posted some pics on this thread link below
@Azazel @bob shovel @Bran though i'de tag you guys as you were commenting on this thread too.

Earlville Reno

 

I think I know that house and someone who lived there a while ago.
It's a shame you couldn't get the dual occ to work though.

 

If I was ever going to invest in cairns again I would buy in bungalow (assuming that it still undervalued given it's proximity to the CBD) however I really don't know as I'm not following Cairns

 

Hi Andrew. Your Earlville Reno looks great! Well done on the rent and cashflow. Have you got any more pics of the floor that you glossed?

Cheers

Jen

 

Hi Whitecat
Flood inundation is an issue in Cairns CBD. Depends what you want to do, but developments are restricted, and insurance is high for houses. Unit blocks are no longer insured according to location (Suncorp), so not such an issue to insure, and can be much cheaper than a house!
Cheers
Jen

 

Here are more pics of the painted granny flat floor. If you look at the detail you'll see how poor the concreting is. But because its SOO BAD i used gloss finish so it looked like a feature. The same doesn't apply if you have a decent finish with blemishs here and there as then it looks like its a cover up. I used the same system on floor and wall tiles through the house to save replacing tiles

I used 'Internationa'l brand paint 2 pack epoxy primer 'Interplus 1180' followed by 2 Pack polyurethane topcoat 'Interthane 990'. I don't trust bunnings crap for longevity. The benefit here is in say 10yrs time i can just mop and put another layer of the topcoat - Interthane 990 and have a new floor again. Even if i want a different colour.

 

Having been negative on Cairns for almost a decade I now sense a real change in mood. No hype, the CBD has a great atmosphere and vacancy rates very low about 1.5% after being stuck at about 2.3% like forever. There is less political noise and outrage, though some worrying issues at the hospital. Some owners holding back on selling and some houses taking ages to move so not yet translated to improved house prices. So worth monitoring at this stage imo. Central is unemployment which is still dire but improving. It comes down to business confidence and with this mood change perhaps that will lift and they invest in staff. Best signals in years though, finally but caution always.