A three-bedroom house has hit the market at just $99,000, a massive 58 per cent discount on its last sale price, in a town where entry level jobs can pay as much as $130,000 a year.
Local real estate agent Janessa Bidgood of Outback Auctions & Real Estate, who is taking the home to market under instruction from the mortgagee, shakes her head when she sees families struggling to rent “out east” when they could be heading west where there are jobs waiting and empty homes available.
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A three-bedroom house at 7 Short Street, Cloncurry, Qld, has been listed at $99,000 by its mortgagee.
“We have some of the cheapest houses in Queensland in Cloncurry and we offer one of the locations that have the highest incomes. You can $130,000 to $180,000 in the mines here in Cloncurry, and buy a house for under $200,000.”
“Live here, have a nice work-life balance in a nice little town, low crime rate.”
“You buy a house for $100 grand, put $60,000 into it, you end up with a pretty nice house and you’re still talking low dollars really.”
Ms Bidgood has three houses for sale in Cloncurry priced under $100,000 – including a three-bedroom house on an 809sq m block at 7 Short Street, Cloncurry, which is now priced for sale at just $99,000 by the mortgagee in possession.
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The home is large and functional as is.
“There are three good sized bedrooms plus a sleep out or sunroom and a handy central bathroom. The back of the house has a shaded laundry area that can be a storage space or even room for a gym set.”
The home also has a shed and four bay carport and loads of potential, according to Ms Bidgood, suited to those who want an affordable lifestyle in a town where they can get a well paying job and not have to fight for real estate.
“The stories I’m hearing is that many people turn up to an auction and it turns into a bidding race whereas that doesn’t happen out here.”
The dated bathroom is crying out for an update but works as is too.
She said if you type in Cloncurry on online job sites several mining jobs would come up including entry level ones and where you don’t need a degree to get ahead.
“It does make me scratch my head (at why more people don’t move out west),” Ms Bidgood said.
“But I know the answer which is that it’s too easy to offer FIFO which is fly in, fly out. If you’ve got 10 families to live in Cloncurry, probably six of them stay and probably four run back to the coast quicker than they unpack. So there will be people that don’t like it and that’s okay because you can’t put us in the middle of the city, we won’t stay there. But there will be people that go I underestimated how nice it is to live out here, I’m going to stay. I’d love to encourage more people to do it.”
She said for young families struggling to make ends meet “there’s a better way”.
”Even people that want to open their own businesses like a trade, there’s such a lack of trades out here. You’ve got young tradespeople on the coast trying to make it on wages when they could come out here and open their own business and make really good incomes out of it.”
This one bedder at 7 Cloncurry Road, Malbon, Cloncurry, is $70,000.
Two other properties Ms Bidgood has for sale at the bottom end of the market in Cloncurry are also fixer-uppers, with a one bed house priced at $70,000 located at 7 Cloncurry Road, Malbon.
Ms Bidgood said it was 50km south of Cloncurry in a “cozy little town” with just 10 residents.
“The block is 2,023sq m with room to develop further with shed, gardens or carport.”.
The other was a two bedroom house at 17 Scarr St, Cloncurry, priced at $80,000 – also in need of work. “It needs a lot of work, but it is cheap,” she said.
A two bed house requiring upgrade at 17 Scarr St, Cloncurry, Qld, is priced at $80,000.
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Ms Bidgood said industries in the area included mining, agriculture, rail industry, which all pay good wages.
“What we offer here is that ability to make an impressive income, yet buy a really affordable property and I don’t know why more people from the coast aren’t taking that opportunity. Use it as a stepping stone in a two to five year plan then go back to the coast with some equity in the house under your belt, and you’ve got an investment property.”
The firm, which is the oldest still operating in the area, has around 300 rental properties being managed at present on behalf of investors – many of whom got burnt in the previous mining boom around 2008 to 2012 but who have since recouped their losses.
“It’s a good time for people on the coast to go maybe I should head west. Maybe there’s a better opportunity than trying to argue with all these people on the coast to buy the same house.”