Wednesday 16 September

Bargain property boom rises from property crash

About 500 apartments and houses from new building projects that have got caught up in the global economic crisis are expected to be sold before December, mostly in Queensland.  In the past 12 weeks, more than 72 apartments and houses in new Gold Coast projects have been offloaded after the property developers hit problems.

However, it's interesting to note that much of the stock that fell onto the market from CEC and Tom Hedleys Group in Port Douglas sold very quickly through July to lucky punters who enjoyed heavily discounted prices.

James Keeran, director of national real estate advisory for insolvency firm PPB, said "Some developers are doing dramatic discounts just to clear their books".

Tony Holland from CB Richard Ellis on the Gold Coast said some developers, mainly large listed companies that were not his clients, had decided to sacrifice the price of new apartment stock to get out of projects by the December 31 and June 30 balance dates.

The collapse of Cairns-based developer Tom Hedley, one of north Queensland's largest developers, saw about 400 dwellings come on the market with about 25% still to sell.  Units in one of Hedley's Port Douglas complexes were being offered in July at $377,000, down by $100,000 from the original asking price.

It has been stated that mortgagee auctions would be the last chance for buyers who could not afford to get into the market between 2004 and 2007 to secure bargains, as the market was now on the way to recovery.

"There is a window here. It's probably the best six months of buying most of us will experience in our lifetime," said a Cairns based agent.