Cairns

[G&G]

I am looking to purchase an investment property in Cairns. I am originally from Cairns hoping to find a positive geared property. I have read the many posts on the forum on Cairns and get the feeling that it may have already grown quite substantially in the last 12mths and I may have missed the boat. Does anyone have any current thoughts on Cairns? Any particular suburbs of interest? I am interested in purchasing a house, duplex or small block of units.

Cheers
G&G

 

[ellie]

Hi G&G, as an ex-Cairnsite too, I would try Lake Placid, Brinsmead, Kamerunga, Redlynch, Smithfield and the non-aircraft noise affected beach suburbs (mainly Trinity, Clifton, Palm Cove, Kewarra). Some of the old houses in Gordonvale village (as opposed to the estates) pref the ones on the 1/2 acre blocks rather than the 300-500 sqm blocks may come out positive too.

I think the nothern beaches and western suburbs are generally more appealing to tennants - closer to city, beaches, non-beach swimming, uni.

I'd always stay away from the three Ms (Moroobool, Manunda, Manoora) due to much higher insurance costs and shorter term tennants. Maybe one day these placaes will become more atractive.

Depending on your income and tax situation and options, you should be able to find properties that are neautral and positive after tax. For positiove before tax properties I think you would need to go further afield such as to Mareeba, Atherton etc.

I believe you won't get as much capital growth, have higher maintenance costs (old queenslanders) and you will have slummier tennants generally, but that may be worth it for the + cashflow.

 

[Elly7]

Hi ellie

I to have been interested in purchasing in Cairns, and have spent many hours researching this area.

However it is not an easy job when you have never actually been there so I found your post a great guide for further research.

There does seem however to be a very high rental vacancy rate in this area which is hindering my decisions.

Are you able to make any comment on this point.

Thanks again for the informative post

Cheers Elly7

 

[chrispy]

Cairns

The old adage of not buying in a suburb starting with an M or a W no longer holds true Ellie. Particularly Manunda, it is so close to Cairns and the property values have gone through the roof. As a previous post of mine details, I purchased a 2 BR in Jan 2003 for $52,500 which I can now sell for over $90k.

I gave it to the agent to rent on the Wednesday and the tenants moved in on the Friday.

The 12 month lease is about to expire and the tenants have already said they will stay as there is such a shortage of good rental accommodation in the area.

I have bought another townhouse at Manunda settling tomorrow, very high quality set on an acre, close to Cairns and already tenanted.

Woree takes longer to let and the type of tenant is different. I have business couples at Manunda whereas I have single mothers at Woree. No problems with the rents at either location though. It took 7 weeks to let 4 at Woree.

I have also purchased at Yorkeys Knob where the next big Junipers development is to be located. Although there is still a bit of aircraft noise, I believe it to be a good beachside area for future growth with it being so close to Cairns.

Chris

 

[ellie]

interesting, I know there is a lot of regeneration in the Ms but most of it still has high crime, housing commission, and does not appeal to owner occupiers (and therefore may not appreciate as much for using your equity for further purchasing). These are not reasons not to buy there - it depends what you want to achieve. Very close to the city will have good capital growth but there are a lot of areas of the three Ms at least a few kms from the city.

Re aircraft noise, some tennants won't like it and will pay more for somewhere that doesn't have aircraft noise.

What do people in Sydney find about renting and capital growth places with aircraft noise. In my opinion the aircraft noise in the affected areas I have seen in Cairns is much louder than those I have seen in Sydney, and many in Sydney may expect noise as part of living there?

 

[waf]

junipers

chrispy, I was wondering where you obtained information on the forthcoming Junipers development in Yorkeys Knob. We, too, have bought in Cairns in the last 6 months. We are also thinking of buying in Yorkeys but we have been unsuccessfully searching the net to find confirmation of this proposed resort development. Please help us.

 

[chrispy]

Yorkeys

I buy the Saturday Cairns Post each week and it was front page, the day after I bought at Yorkeys. The vendor then tried to get out of the contract!!

Also you will see it on realestate.com.au in the blurb selling at Yorkeys some of the RE's are already pushing "site of the new Sea Temple"

I don't know whether it will have any effect on the price but we can hang on to the coat-tails surely!!

Chris

 

[chrispy]

Yorkeys

WAF

here is on on RE that mentions the development

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...5&f=0&p=10&t=res&ty=&snf=rbs&cu=&fmt=&header=

Chris

 

[waf]

chrispy
Thanks for your reply and information. We have since had an offer accepted on a two bedroom unit in Yorkeys and have our fingers crossed that it will do well. We are hoping that it will provide good capital growth for future investments.
Do you have, or does anyone have, an opinion on the growth at Yorkeys?
Thanks Waf

 

[ellie]

My 2c is that Yorkeys is one of the nicer beaches both naturally and devlopment wise. Other than the aircraft noise which is not near as bad as at Holloways, Machans or around the city centre, it is quite a nice place. The uni shopping village is nearby and there are always lots of people wanting to rent there because of the proximity to the city relative to the other beaches and closeness to uni. The lack of over-development and not having tourists in your face all the time is important to me too. The knob itself obviously too - You can have a good walk up the knob and with nice views. The hill at Trinity is mostly a gated community so you can't walk on most of it unless you know someone there who'll let you use their code. Also, Yorkeys has that nice understated unpretentious beach feel. Clifton and Palm Cove are my favourites since they are so nice and long and you don't have to navigate dangerous rocky areas to have a really long beach walk. Also Clifton and Palm are a bit flat so are not as interesting physically. Clearly there are many more determinanats of growth but these are the attributes of Yorkeys that would make me want to live there as either a renter or a reasonably budget PPOR.
What do others think?

 

[Ray Brown]

On Kamerunga

I arrived in Cairns a year ago and after searching around for a month or so stumbled across Cairns Rainforest Estate.

Its name says it all, very jungle-like, in the stoney creek valley. It's cooler than the city by a couple of degrees thanks to the air coming down from the tablelands. It is closer to town than many northern beach suburbs, and is elevated and flood proof.
It has stoney creek swimming holes within a couple of hundred metres which stayed full, fresh and running even through the last extended very dry season. There is no more room to develop, the estate is jammed up next to the barron gorge national park boundary.
The houses are predominately pole-home variety, however there are some brick and architect-designed types.
At a very rough guess I'd say there where about 180 houses in the estate - someone might have a better idea - and one comes up for sale about every 2 months.

So yes I bought a house here and I'm shamelessly promoting the location. But just about everybody new that comes up here says "wow this is really nice, how come i've not heard of it before?"

cheers