Confidence could be coming back to the Port Douglas property market after a huge batch of property sales at a St Crispin’s Avenue complex over the weekend. 

Ray White Port Douglas sold eight of nine properties at Pool Port Douglas on St Crispin’s Avenue at an auction on Saturday, including seven apartments and a penthouse. 

The two-bedroom apartments had a price range of about $180-245,000 while the penthouse went for $480,000. 

The properties were in receivership and had been on the market for a standard four-week marketing campaign, with Ray White placing advertisements in national publications including the Financial Review and the Australian. 

Ray White sales manager Mark Flinn said the rate of sale was something he’d never seen in his 13 years experience selling real estate in Port Douglas and that it indicated a measure of confidence returning to the area’s real estate market. 

“It’s not something I’ve seen before in this town, that’s for sure - not just in the sales but also in the attendance at the auction, we had more than 70 people turn up,” he said. 

“I think it shows firstly that if you price properties right there will be a response but I also think that there is more interest now. 

“I think we’ll see an increase in building and construction, which will be a good change of pace considering we’ve had nearly no new construction for about seven years.”

However Douglas Incorporated Chair Gerry Ireland said one batch of successful sales didn’t mean the region was out of the economic doldrums yet. 

“My opinion is that this could be the start of a trend of recovery but we would need to see more examples like this sale consistently over the next six to 12 months,” he said. 

“The thing to remember is that these properties were in receivership and not long ago we would have referred to this sale as a ‘fire sale’.