Unit sales cheap path to paradise
FANCY buying a unit in paradise for $ 20,000?
On Magnetic Island you can. But you might have to go in with your eyes wide open.
Colliers International is marketing two units in threestar resort Amaroo on Mandalay at prices of $ 20,000 after taking them to market on behalf of Townsville City Council.
Five units in the resort have been put to auction because of non- payment of rates.
The agent who handled the sales, Angelo Castorina, said three had sold for undis- closed prices after being passed in at bids of up to $ 18,000.
“The two remaining units are for sale for $ 20,000,” Mr Castorina said.
Amaroo on Mandalay in Nelly Bay is one of the island’s older resorts and has had more name changes than a travel agent has seen hotel rooms. But in its heyday in the 1970s and ’ 80s it was the premier Latitude 19 resort, hosting tourists from around the world coming to see the Great Barrier Reef.
“It has a very interesting history,” Mr Castorina said.
“When the timeshare arrangements came in, that resort was one of the first ones to go into it.”
Later, it was strata titled and the units sold off to investors. In the late 1990s huge boulders crashed into the resort when a landslip occurred in the adjoining national park.
Also, unit owners have told the Bulletin they are still fighting with insurers to pay for damages caused to the resort from Cyclone Yasi in 2011.
But on Tripadvisor it gets a score of 4 out of 5 and mostly glowing reviews.
Mr Castorina said one owner from Melbourne had 12 units which he told him he had bought for prices between $ 10,000 and $ 43,000. “There’s an upside on it. “You can make money on it,” he said after explaining that body corporate fees and rates and charges generally amounted to about $ 9000 a year.
Units rent on the holiday market for between $ 90 and $ 130 a night depending on the size.
Mr Castorina said comments from potential buyers when the five units were put to auction was that they “needed work done”.
“I would think that might be reflective of all the units given the age of the resort,” Mr Castorina said.
“They are 40sq m units so you wouldn’t be spending much more than $ 10,000 or $ 15,000 upgrading them and you would have a pretty lavish place.”
THE TWO REMAINING UNITS ARE FOR SALE FOR $ 20,000. ANGELO CASTORINA