Vernons

Hello

Doing as much research into land sales as possible before we leave so we can get a picture of where we can and can't afford to live. We think $200,000 is going to be our maximum for land and then a budget for the house on top of that. I love the look of Peregian Springs but can't afford it.

Nambour looks within our price range (The Image Nambour) and Cooloola Cove is very cheap. Does anyone know anything about these places of have any other ideas of land within this price range on the Sunshine coast. Ideally we would want to be as close to the coast as possible with a surf club and patrolled beaches.

Thank you
Isn't it cold!

Pollyana

The film "Deliverance" was suggested last time Nambour came up.....

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=378062

cresta57

Plenty of threads about Nambour, cue the duelling banjo's.
Now as for Cooloola Cove it's tucked away, nestled in a hollow, just outside of Tin Can Bay. For the last 2 yrs at least 50% of our work has been down there at the cove. When we lived at Tin Can it was excellent now we're living North of Gympie by 20 mins it's a bastard of a drive. The only sealed bitumen road to Cooloola Cove is from Gympie it's 65K, police patrol it everyday and there are plenty of hiding places for them You just have to obey the limit, difficult on a 65K stretch of fairly straight rd.
Cooloola Cove itself has one small general store that's it, no pub, no club, no supermarket and very little for kids to do. The closest supermarket is the IGA at Tin Can fine if you have bags of spare cash if not it's cheaper to do a big monthly shop in Gympie. Tin Can has a pub it's a bit feral populated mainly by the trawler men and the crab boat guys, it has an excellent country club with a golf course and bowling green it has a very good restaurant, highly recommended. There's also a couple of caravan parks and a few other shops & cafe's there's a nice yacht club as well as another bowling club [O.K if your a pensioner] That said at Cooloola there's only a couple of concrete batching places and a small industrial estate work wise so you may find yourself commuting to Gympie on a daily basis. We do that trip most days in reverse and I'm filling the tank up 3 times a week $200 bucks a week in fuel is scary stuff.
Cooloola Cove is built on Coffee Rock covered with sand the whole area used to be a swamp up until the early 70's. As the coffee rock is a kind of solidified sand, akin to a soft sandstone, the local authorities will not allow any excavation for footings. All house pads are built up to level with fill. Another reason this happens is that the coffee rock filters all of the drinking water for Cooloola Tin Can and Noosa. The locals call the place the "dismal swamp" as every year there's a huge influx of new buyers either house and land or buying existing homes. Most have seen the land advertised on the net and bought as an investment others have bought to be close to the beautiful Sandy Straits, Fraser Island for the excellent fishing. A lot of these folks seem to be retirees most seem to only stay for one year. The reason being the dreaded sand flies, Winter they're almost non existent but in Summer they're in plague proportions. They're almost invisible but if you have a reaction to them and quite a few people do it's a case of staying indoors for most of the summer. Insect repellents for the main are useless against the sand fly, I found that the only decent one was the Bushman's waterproof gel very expensive but one of the best.
Cooloola Cove is the sort of place you'd retire to if you wanted to grow old by the sea and have a quiet life just fishing and birdwatching. I could live there if I didn't need to work and Deb would let me fish all day.

Pollyana

Fascinating read - esp the coffee rock stuff. Might not be qquite the place to bring up kids though?

cresta57

Maybe just maybe I drank too many stubbies in the bath and waffled a little

Pollyana

Should've had a bottle of sparkling Pink like I did

Vernons

Hi
Thanks for the honest advice, it is great to hear from someone who is there and knows the score. I think we will probably cross them off our list after having a little look when we get there, don't like the sound of the sand flies and I am a good 40years off drawing my pension!
How about the Glass House mountains, what do you know about that area?

Where would you say is the 'best' (nice people, nice houses, a few faciliities) places to live on the Sunshine coast and those to avoid.

Thanks loads for your help.
Michelle

PS Have you ever been to Townsville? What did you think?

jad n rich

Glass house mountains is quiet, a few new developments of cheaper housing, little strip of local shops. That is it really.

What you have to remember is anything near good facilities is going to be more expensive. However you are looking at land up to 200,000, a house on top of that will be best part of that again. IGNORE the ads that suggest you can build houses for a lot less than that, its a get you in the door price then it goes up to the real cost of building a home now. So for that 400,000 you would find an older or smaller house in an area with facilites. If you have kids over 8 keep in mind you will constantly be in the car driving them to stuff it you pick a cheap area with no facililtes. Petrol is not cheap, say $1.30 avg that on aussie dollars is just like a 1.30 pound in the UK. You will constantly hear now, people with kids wanting to get back into town, the petrol is breaking them.

Townsville, has had some good press in winter, lovely, now try summer, most aussies find it V hot, think above the 35 and humid and little breeze. It may be for you, it would not be for some.

Most poms find Caloundra, Buderim, Mountain creek, the most suitable, or most mentioned anyway. Mountain creeks y quite unimpressive, just houses near facilities, caloundras got stunning beaches but dead as a dodo at night, buderims stunning, green and 5 - 10 mins to beaches. Alexandra headland is older houses but one place you will truly get a older 400,000 house walk to the beach, and just about every facility under 5 minutes. Start with them, type in surrounding areas and go from there.

As for nice people you get nice and nasty even in pretty beach places in australia