Forget expensive Sydney and Melbourne: the Australian city is auctioning 16 properties for just $5,000
- Auction to recover unpaid municipal fees
- Blocks of land and houses in varying conditions
- The outback town is famous for its opal mines
A town in Australia’s outback is going to auction more than a dozen properties in a desperate bid to recoup unpaid council fees.
Sixteen properties in various states of state will go under the hammer next month in Coober Pedy, 850km north of Adelaide, two years after another 33 were auctioned for the same reason.
Prices start from $5,000 for an 800 sq. ft. piece of land, while a three-bedroom house can set you back as low as $30,000, depending on the state.
Andrews Property will auction the properties on May 3 in the city world famous for its opal mines.
Sixteen properties are being auctioned in the outback town of Cooper Pedy. Pictured is an above-ground residence described as ‘needs work’
“By order of the Coober Pedy County Council, we are selling the properties by public auction,” the property description reads.
Properties range from plots of land and “dug” underground dwellings in need of renovation to three-bedroom “rustic” homes with a high-end commercial office on the main street, expected to sell for $800,000.
Andrews Real estate director Warren Andrews expects the auction to attract a lot of interest.
‘I expect many buyers to come from outside. Coober Pedy is attracting a lot of interest from NSW and Victoria. It’s very cheap real estate,” he said 7news.com.au.
“Almost every second question I get from our entire group has to do with Coober Pedy auctions.”
‘I like my job in Coober Pedy because we see buyers from all over Australia.’
Potential bidders must register before 5 p.m. on May 2, the day before the auction.
The council reserves the right to withdraw properties until the ‘fall of the agent’s hammer’ and a deposit of 10 per cent of the purchase price must be paid on auction day.
Blocks of land are expected to go for as little as $5,000, including this 897 sq ft residential lot
The council in Coober Pedy (photo of the town) is auctioning the properties in a desperate attempt to recoup unpaid rents
The Local Government Act allows the council to hold an auction for the sale of land for a property that is three years in arrears.
The municipality will proceed with the auction of the house once all collection steps have been completed.
It comes just days after the agent sold a three-bedroom fixer-upper in town for $38,000.
The owner-occupied home comes without walls or windows, has exposed electrical cords dangling from the ceiling, while the barn was in poor condition.
Considered the opal capital of the world, Coober Pedy has a population of 2,000 and is located midway between Adelaide and Alice Springs.
The city’s famous underground dwellings, called dugouts (pictured), are among those that will go under the hammer
Average temperatures are 30C-plus for five months of the year, while nighttime temperatures drop to 5C in winter.
In 2021, 33 Cooper Pedy properties sold for less than $43,000 each in a raging bidding war.
The best-selling dugout sold for $36,000, while the cheapest vacant lot sold for just $1,300.
The most expensive above-ground house was bought up for $43,000.
The homes were put up for auction after their owners fell drastically behind on their rates – some as long as 10 years – and the properties were repossessed.
Many of the properties to be auctioned need a lot of work. Pictured is a dugout that was auctioned earlier in 2021