Hi,
Well been in our new house (viewtopic.php?f=31&t=54014&start=80) now for almost 3 years and after the last winter in Melbourne we (70% wife 30% me) have decided that we want to retire in about 4 years in warmer weather. As my wife is originally from Towoomba and my sister lives in Bunderburg we started looking in Queensland. Looking at towns not too small, temperature range and narrowed it down to Bunderburg, Macay, Marybough, Hervey Bay, Townsville and Cains. Checked out land not too far out from amenities and pricing, flood zones, cyclone areas etc. This narrowed it down to Macay, Mayrbough and Hervey Bay.
We weren't thinking of buying at this stage but had to at least start looking, but in the last 3 months a small new area in Hervey Bay was opened up, good size blocks for a reasonable price ie. $180,000 for 800m2 fairly level blocks only 10 mins walk to large shopping center. As we are not retiring for 4 years we debated should be buy, build, rent. Then developer informed us some builders where looking for investors to build display homes.
David Reid Homes was one that wanted to build a display home in Hervey Bay. After talking to them its basically you choose one of their designs, modify it to your specifications and they lease it off you for 2-3 years. After end of lease they fix it up and all warranty start then including appliances. Also as its a display home, none of the appliances are used and you only get people doing walk throughs.
... More to follow...