Rent relief for savvy on Cassowary Coast
RENTERS struggling to find a place to live in Cairns’ competitive market could turn their sights to a southern location with plenty of properties to spare.
Recent Real Estate Institute of Queensland data revealed the highest vacancy rate for the December 2019 quarter was recorded on the Cassowary Coast at 6.8 per cent.
In Cairns, that number is holding steady at just 1.7 per cent as at December 2019.
The unspoilt region south of Cairns will also leave a renter plenty of spending money with a house in Innisfail costing just $290 a week to rent, compared to $415 per week in Cairns.
First National Real Estate Innisfail property manager Silvana Torrisi said rentals in the town were popular with workers transferring to the region at this time of year.
“Generally, we speak to a lot of new people transferring in – police officers and nurses,” she said.
“We had some people from Cairns this week looking for somewhere to live, nurses who had positions at Innisfail Hospital they were transferring to.
“Then we’ll get people getting into a better place and moving into somewhere bigger.”
Ms Torrisi recently listed a two-bedroom home at Moresby, south of Mourilyan, for $245 a week and the new tenants could negotiate to have pets.
For those looking to buy a property, Herron Todd White Cairns Report author Rick Carr said median house sale price trends “appeared to have firmed slightly during the latter half of 2019”.
“But they have wavered for land and units,” he said.
“The latest trend median prices, for properties sold in the month of December 2019, came in at $422,500 for houses, $215,000 for units, and $214,500 for vacant land.
“Twelve month median trend price movements, for the period from December 2018 to December 2019, stood at plus 2.1 per cent for houses and minus 2.2 per cent for units.”