Where you can buy a coastal home for under $1 million in Queensland

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Key points

• Magnetic Island, near Townsville, offers great value, but few homes are for sale. 
• Remote work has given some buyers a better reason to purchase in regional Queensland.
• Upcoming tourism projects could improve the appeal of some areas, in time. 

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Dreaming of buying a home along Queensland’s sun drenched coastline, but worried you’ve missed the boat by a decade or two? You can still snag a beachfront home for well under $1 million in a handful of tropical towns – but there’s a catch: you’d better like humidity, and you’d better get in soon.

While the sea-change wave almost doubled house prices across some beachfront suburbs over the past five years, such as popular Noosa Heads and Surfers Paradise, Far North Queensland pockets are still plating up houses for less, with some hidden spots offering homes by the beach for under $400,000.

Magnetic Island offers great value when compared to some other tourism hotspots. Credit: TEQ

This includes one palm-fringed island where homes can cost less than $360,000 – and while your neighbours might be a collective of kangaroos, you can still get daily deliveries from Coles and Woolworths.

Magnetic Island, a 40-minute ferry ride from Townsville, remains one of the cheapest pockets. But as remote workers ditch pricey capital cities in their droves for affordable postcodes by the beach, that could change, said Best of Magnetic Sales Manager Alex Strens.

“Prices here have already gone up a lot over the past 10 years,” she said.

“A lot of people discovered the island during COVID … and year on year we just get busier.

“Now, to buy a home close to the water in a popular spot will cost you between $700,000 and $900,000 for a three- or four-bedroom home. And that same house used to be $200,000.

“But it’s still undervalued … and if you compare Magnetic Island to anywhere else it’s so cheap.

The island has a population of about 2,500 and a handful of restaurants, pubs, schools and shops dotted throughout its four hamlets. The cheapest is the ferry port of Nelly Bay, where the latest Domain House Price report revealed the median house price is just $358,750. While only 76 properties are currently on the market across the island, Ms Strens anticipates stock levels to rise during spring, alongside an influx of buyers.

“It used to just be retirees who moved here but now it’s people who work from home. They are more invested in the lifestyle … the island is extremely accessible to Townsville where you’ve got an airport,” Ms Strens said. “Coles and Woolies deliver every day here too so you can get everything you need.“

Ms Strens is marketing 19 Corica Crescent in the popular suburb of Horseshoe Bay for $895,000 and said the four-bedroom home, perched by the beach on a 608-square-metre block, was a prime example of the bang for buck on offer.

Just 40 kilometres north of Townsville a handful of cheap hamlets are catching the eye of savvy buyers on a budget, including the relaxed village of Balgal Beach where you can swap the car for a golf cart. It comes with a top community too, said Ray White Townsville agent Allison Gough.

“I’ve had a few Western Australian buyers recently and one bought a three-bedroom two-bathroom beachfront home for $455,000. They thought it was the biggest bargain in the world,” she said.

Ms Gough said the rise of remote working had dramatically increased demand in the area.

“You can get the big supermarkets to deliver here and you’ve got nearby farms that do fruit and vegetable drops,” she said.

“You also get really old school living here … but there are schools too and a golf course which has mountain views.”

Ms Gough is marketing a five-bedroom, two-storey home on an 817-square-metre block at 32 Madelaine Drive, Balgal Beach for offers over $599,000 and said just a strip of bush lay between the house and the dunes.

Further north, but less than a couple of hours drive from Cairns, lies Mission Beach – a patch of Queensland paradise that was once a hidden gem but is getting attention from Sydney and Melbourne buyers.

Ray White Mission Beach agent Dick Williams said while houses by the beach were priced at about $600,000, that same home would have sold for $400,000 just three years ago.

“We are getting a lot of southern interest from the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne,” he said.

“We’ve had a lot of growth too … and it’s all driven by COVID and by the fact that people are becoming more aware of benefits of living in coastal, regional Queensland.”

Mr Williams said a family home within a few minutes’ walk of the beach there would set you back about $400,000-$500,000.

“I’ve just become fonder of Mission Beach as time rolls on. That’s because of its natural beauty, the beaches are just superb – you’ve got 12 islands offshore, and they are just classic tropical islands that look like Fiji,” he said.

With one of those Fijian-esque islands – Dunk Island – set to undergo a multi-million-dollar reboot after Cyclone Yasi wiped it out in 2011, Mr Williams expects even more eyes to turn to Mission Beach and with it, more price growth.

Mr Williams is selling a three-bedroom home at 15 Mitchell Street in South Mission Beach and said while it’s being marketed as “expressions of interest” they’re expecting to fetch $800,000 for the home.

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