80 PAGES OF HOMES
BUMPER REAL ESTATE GUIDE
FAR Northern buyers are snapping up their own slices of paradise as the region’s housing approvals build on healthy growth.
A housing community at Bentley Park is ramping up construction due to an enthusiastic response.
First-home buyer Felicity Cudmore said she used to walk her dog past the picturesque housing block at Cherrybrook, Bentley Park, dreaming she hoped to live there one day.
Last Friday, she finalised a settlement for a lot.
“At the moment it’s just a paddock, but the surrounding valley made it such a beautiful spot,” she said.
“It ended up being a solid price at $187,000 for the size of the lot, which is 605sq.
“We looked at some places at the northern beaches and would’ve been spending an- other $100,000 for that size plot.”
Mrs Cudmore did most of the paperwork herself, as her husband Ben, who works for the navy, is away at sea.
He will be back by Monday for the couple’s first meeting with builders to go over fittings and interior design.
“I’ve already been going through magazines, looking at plumbing, colours, tiles, all that,” she said.
“We’re looking at four beds. Our next big saving goal is going to be a pool.”
Developer Fortress Group will soon commence construction on the next stage, which will feature open green spaces and parkland.
The housing construction industry in Cairns has been moving slow and steady for the past few years.
Herron Todd White research consultant Rick Carr said he expected to see growth in the housing sector pick up as population growth returned to pre-global financial crisis levels.
“The rest of Queensland has been going through a cycle of approvals growing substantially and then tapering off, which is what we’ve started to see in the southeast,” Mr Carr said.
“Cairns has been mostly flat, picking up slowly in proportion to our population growth, which hovered around 3-4 per cent before GFC and hit bottom in 2015 at 1 per cent.
“Our prediction for the 2018 growth is 1.5 per cent, growing to 2.0 in 2019, which is predicated on continued improvement in the economy.”