Outback Australian town offers $1 homes for rent

phil_b_2

If ever proof was needed that location is everything, there you go.

nearlynew

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

This reminds me of a long standing idea I've had, to fill a gap in the market.

Take my own situation. Early retired. No kids. Mrs Monkey and I wanting to spend every last ounce of cash before popping clogs. Current plan to downsize and then "Lifetime Mortgage" the smaller house to the hilt.

Now it occurs to me, that around the Great British Coast there are several quite nice houses, structurally sound, except for a minor problem that they are going to fall into the sea in (say) 20 years time. So, OK, sympathies for the owners and all that. Their asset has gone down the pan. No value at all. Tough luck to them!

But for people like us, there is an excellent value in such a house. 20 years rent in advance perhaps? £10K/£15K better than a slap round the face with a wet fish to the owners I would say.

So Mrs Monkey and I can spend our dotage in a nice house, with sea-view, gradually getting closer as our eyesight fades, watching the sun go down over the yardarm, very large gin & tonic in hand on the verandah.....

The only drawback I can see is the timing. A good doctor, and a good structural engineer could, between them, give 'best advice' to match the right property for our age.....

A good idea? Or what....

Great idea if you get the timing right.

Loughton_Monkey

PasturesNew wrote: »

You can never tell WHEN it'll slide though:http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=%22ridgemont+house%22+auction+landslide+oddicombe+%22sue+diamond%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=6e8733203d1b4e27

Keywords: "Sue Diamond" auction Oddicombe landslide

She didn't even get to complete before hers slide away and the remainder was deemed entirely unsafe to ever build on.

Thanks!

Brings a whole new meaning to "Drop in the Ocean"

sabretoothtigger

House worth 1.5m and price paid 150k So if she gets say ten years in the house thats 15k a year rent?

If theres beach huts and her house falls into the sea surely she gets rights to build a beach hut where the house was and beach is then



The aussie deal sounds great except no chance of surfing, what do people do in the outback location is everything but we live in an increasingly mobile world, I'd say its a reasonable offer for anyone who can work online.

Best house I saw was a nice country place in middle of nowhere america, 10k for a six bedroom house, beats a crowded town flat anyday

It is 350km (215 miles) northwest of the state capital, Sydney.

Thats nothing really, cant see the problem

Loughton_Monkey

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

The aussie deal sounds great except no chance of surfing, what do people do in the outback location is everything but we live in an increasingly mobile world, I'd say its a reasonable offer for anyone who can work online.

No surfing of any kind, I expect. Not even Internet.

What to Aussie's do? My understanding is that they do very little other than walk around all day, with corks hanging from their hat, stopping by for a "Tinnie" every now and again.

Whilst in the bar with two or three other customers, they will spend the time rubbishing the Aborigones, and moaning about "Whinging Poms". Occasionally they will sing "Waltzing Matilda" and maybe brush the odd funnel-web spider out of their shoes.

Others may have additional views, but I think they might be guilty of "stereotyping".

chewmylegoff

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

The aussie deal sounds great except no chance of surfing, what do people do in the outback location is everything but we live in an increasingly mobile world, I'd say its a reasonable offer for anyone who can work online.

good luck getting a broadband connection there!! you'd be lucky to get a 56k connection.

Generali

chewmylegoff wrote: »

good luck getting a broadband connection there!! you'd be lucky to get a 56k connection.

I've never been to real outback but my understanding is that they use satellite. No idea how fast it is.

Life can be very tough in some of these places. Having said that, the larger towns in country NSW and Victoria are very pleasant IME. No easy access to the ocean but the cost of living is low and as a skilled worker you can make a good living without having to bust your back.

ninky_2

i've been to real outback in aus. fascinating but wouldn't want to live there. in fact the phrase "you couldn't pay me to live there" springs to mind, not necessarily in nsw but areas around alice springs in the northern territory and coober pedy in south australia....and unlike living in undesirable bits of britain escape is more than a short car ride away.

as for water shortages i'm rather charmed in that respect....worst floods on record when i was in aus. i saw waterfalls off uluru (ayers rock), carpets of wild flowers in the desert and the vehicle i was in got stuck in mud in coober pedy following the heaviest daily rainfall on the day after i arrived. there were also landslides in nsw, sydney was beset by a week of heavy rain / flooding leading to the roof of the house of the friend i was staying with caving in and the metro being shut down. thought i'd escaped the curse on arrival in melbourne, famous for its cafe culture, but there was a massive gas explosion leading to a gas supply shut down to the entire area meaning no one had hot water and the restaurants were all closed or serving sandwiches.

tomterm8

The outback is full of spiders that bite your... when you go to the toilet, snakes that can kill you in 0.01 seconds, Crocodiles, Desert, and not much more than that. Frankly, it is almost as bad as blackburn, but not quite.

chucky

tomterm8 wrote: »

The outback is full of spiders that bite your... when you go to the toilet, snakes that can kill you in 0.01 seconds, Crocodiles, Desert, and not much more than that. Frankly, it is almost as bad as blackburn, but not quite.

what scares me more about the Outback is that you can spend hours and hours driving without seeing human life.

some people may like this but it wasn't for me...

one thing that amused me was that local people get quite excited and are very nice when they see you because they don't get to see 'new faces' very often.