RURAL RICHES
THE Newman family’s Toonpan home has become a property success story, selling for $ 920,000 after they purchased it five years ago for $ 572,000.
Sharee Newman, who lives at 242 Mountview Dve with her husband and two children, says the sale is proof there is still money to be made in Townsville’s downtrodden property market.
The family gutted the five- bedroom home during a five- month renovation to create a picture perfect homestead sitting in pride of place on 26ha.
Even after completing a six- figure renovation, Mrs Newman said they had come away with a healthy profit.
“When we bought it in 2012, it was a bit of a mess and they had renters here at the time,” she said.
“It was on the market for a long time and we came back to look at it again and the renters had gone and they had cleaned it out but there was still a lot of water damage.
“I was pregnant at the time and I THE exclusive Townsville suburb of Castle Hill is expected to become Queensland’s next million- dollar suburb. According to realestate. com. au, the median house price for Castle Hill sits at $ 950,000 but according to price trends that will increase to $ 1,040,105. Realestate. com. au chief economist Nerida Conisbee said Townsville’s market was starting to o show signs of improvement and price rises would hit premium suburbs first. “It was a surprise when Castle Hilll came through because normally we would expect suburbs in capital cities to reach that $ 1 million price point,” she said. “I think it’s probably the early signs of recovery and you start to see the money flow to these kinds of suburbs first and then it flows on to the rest.” just thought, ‘ I can’t do this’, but the previous owners had all the right infrastructure in place so we went ahead and bought it.”
The property was sold to a Townsville family with three children who want to be able to enjoy a rural lifestyle. Mrs Newman said well- maintained acreage properties were a rarity in Townsville and she felt that was why it sold for such a high price.
“I noticed in Townsville that you don’t see a lot of acreage propertiesperties of this size where it’s tidy inside and out and I think there is a real lack of these properties in the market,” she said.
“We had overseas interest, interstate interest and the rest was locals.
“We’ve kept it well maintained and that’s what really attracted people and within three weeks we had an offer.”
The home has a large undercover entertaining area and a six- bay shed,