Opinions sought – Cairns Northern Beaches

Greetings,
I have lived in Cairns for five years and own two properties here. By most accounts Cairns is one of the most promising cities on the East coast for property investment, with a large growth predicted for the next 20 years. It is certainly a great place to live, work and play, if you can handle the heat and wet season. A lot of locals steer a bit clear of the Northern beaches, but this is the favoured area for tourists and out of town investors.
I will cover the negatives first. The best beaches are a fair way north of the city, which means longer commutes (eg 15-25 minutes) into town. Believe it or not that is considered a long way here! Also you can’t swim in the ocean for 1/2 the year due to stingers in the water (unless you swim in the nets) : The water in summer is so warm it sort of defeats the purpose to a degree, anyway. Many of the beaches, esp beachfront have serious problems with inundation in heavy weather, high tides etc. Some beaches (esp those close to the city eg: machans, , Holloways, Yorkeys, even Trinity) can have access cut during a cyclone or very heavy rain with a high tide).
One downside generally with Cairns is it is a fairly small economy dependant on tourism: it took a hiding during Ansett and SARS a few years ago. While other industries are growing, it lacks the stability of Brisbane or even Townsville for example.
Having said that, the tourists want to come for a reason: its a great spot
There have been some very nice and very expensive units and townhouses built recently. It always strikes me that they are so retail. Personally, if I had 1.5 million, I would want to own a block of land with my dream house, not an apartment in a big complex with 30 other units sharing your beach frontage! And you could do this, but developers have already grabbed a lot of them and cut them up.
Having said that, Beach frontage is likely a stupid idea in Cairns, between us being overdue for some big cyclones and global warming, you might not own much in 20-50 years!

I think a townhouse would be a good idea rather than a unit, to get around the unit oversupply issue.
Be aware that construction costs are high here due to cyclone proof requirements and material and labour costs and scarcity.
In terms of “average cost” it depends completely on build quality and location. Cheap near the beach would be outrageously expensive anywhere else. New, prestige, beachfront could cost well over a million, whereas an older 3br townhouse back from the beach would start in low to mid 200s. I reckon you’d be better spending a bit more and getting a house on a decent block for development down the track, but thats me.[evo]