Bargains await near beach

the construction,” Mr Argyros said.

The house is one of the many “beach buys” on the market for under $ 300,000 along the Cassowary Coast.

A three- bedroom Buccaneer St property, also in South Mission Beach, sits two streets back from the beach and is listed at $290,000.

Mission Beach agent Tania Steele said houses were selling but prices were yet to rise.

“I think the market down here has been the best that it has been since cyclone Yasi,” she said.

“More properties are moving but I wouldn’t say prices have increased – we are always spoiled with choice down here.”

Ms Steele said interstate travellers were often drawn to buying in the seaside villages.

“I researched the land for sale in the whole of Queensland all the way to the Gold Coast, including Port Douglas and Cardwell and all the coastal areas and we have the cheapest land,” she said.

“A lot of people who look at the market here have sold up down south and they want to move to the Far North.

“We always get the comment about it being more affordable and a nice beach.”

Further development in Mission Beach and the possible reopening of the Dunk Island Resort would ultimately lift prices, Ms Steele added.

According to CoreLogic RP Data, 18 houses in East Innisfail have changed hands in the past 12 months and the median sale price is $165,000.

A two- bedroom worker’s cottage in the Innisfail suburb recently went under contract, with a $119,000 asking price.

In Innisfail, which edges the Johnstone River, plenty of cheap properties are also up for grabs with a median house price of $190,000.

Wongaling Beach – south of Mission Beach – has proven to be the most popular with buyers after 24 house sales in the area in the past year.

Blocks of land for sale in the suburb range from $73,000 to a beachfront parcel priced at $795,000, with houses starting at $257,000.

Another Mission Beach agent, Melissa Thurgood, said the area represented a buyer’s market and land values had dropped since the 2007 peak.

“The bulk of it (the market) is very affordable blocks of land or existing homes that can be tenanted and give quite a good yield,” she said.

A three-bedroom near-new house had recently been listed at $299,000, a property which was within walking distance to the beachfront and the Mission Beach village.