Overview
Real estate in Australia is a complex and pricey market, with prices in most cities steadily rising year on year. The median house price in Australia is now $883,000, and in capital cities, things are getting dire — dire enough that Sydney buyers are paying seven-figure sums for driveways, let alone houses. But hard as it may be to believe, some property is still cheap in Australia, as long as it's rural and small, according to a report from Realestate.com.au.
In NSW, January's cheapest sale was a fraction of that media price at a mere $80,000 — the property in question being a sandstone Anglican church on 2000 square metres of land in Wilcannia, a town outside of Broken Hill with 735 permanent residents. According to Realestate.com.au, the property was put on the market because its Sydney-based owner failed to anticipate the logistical challenges of the renovation.
Realestate.com.au
In Victoria, a low record for the month was set by a fixer-upper weatherboard cottage in Walpeup, which sold with an acre of land for $115,000. The decades-old, three-bedroom cottage had been abandoned for the last eight years but reportedly still attracted a lot of interest from cash buyers before it sold.
Up in Queensland, Mt Isa saw the cheapest sale in the state, $105,000 for a three-bedroom home pitched as a 'renovator's delight'. With a plywood-covered exterior setting the scene for a bare, linoleum-floored interior.
Realestate.com.au
It's not much of a step from Tasmania, where the cheapest deal was $110,000 for a two-bedroom lake shack set in a township of just 11 residents in the Central Highlands. Size didn't matter in South Australia either, where a partial ocean-view studio apartment sold for $165,000 in Victor Harbor.
Prices were higher in the ACT and Northern Territory. In the former, the cheapest sale was a studio apartment for $235,000, while in the latter, an Alice Springs ground-floor apartment with 51 square metres of living space, a pool, a basketball court, and a barbecue area sold for $190,000. But the cheapest sale in the country occurred in Western Australia, where a rundown three-bedroom home with almost no images listed sold for just $60,000.
Images: Realestate.com.au/sold