QLD: Flooded, gutted, listed and under offer at first open home

This Queensland house was inundated during the February floods, but that didn’t stop an investor swooping on the gutted shell in record time.

This Queensland house was inundated during the February floods, with the insurance company gutting the property and the owners having moved out.

It was then listed for sale on April 20, but was inaccessible until about three weeks ago.

But the first open home attracted three written offers, such is the appetite for affordable properties close to the Brisbane CBD.

Located at Rocklea, one of the hardest hit suburbs whenever the city floods, the property was snapped up for $400,000 by a Gold Coast investor.

It is one of the first known flood-affected properties to hit the market.

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58 Goburra Street, Rocklea, was gutted after the February floods

Jensen Property Yeronga agent Kenneth Mow said even he was surprised by the huge interest in the property.

“The floods, they weren’t that long ago,” he said. “But there was huge interest at that price point and so close to the city.”

The interior has been stripped and sanitised

Mr Mow said the property was under contract after the first open home, and that the investor saw value in the price and the opportunity to renovate the shell.

“What else can you buy at that price so close to the city,” he said.

“I wish there was more like it.”

He said the young couple who owned the house and lived in it, has since moved on, and their insurer had gutted and sanitised the property.

Property records show the house was purchased for $445,000 in 2018.

It has three bedrooms, one bathroom and sits on a 594sq m block. Features include a huge entertaining deck, hardwood flooring, an open plan design, casement windows, fully fenced gardens and a large shed.

58 Goburra Street, Rocklea

It was one of thousands of properties inundated during the three day rain bomb across southeast Queensland in February, which stretched from the Wide Bay-Burnett region to Sydney.

28/2/2022 – Rocklea residential housing, Flooding in Brisbane and Ipswich. Picture: Liam Kidston

In March, John Ruzgani, who had just signed a contract on another Rocklea house when it was damaged by floods, was able to renegotiate the deal and managed to knocked $100,000 off the sales price.

REAL ESTATE: This three-bedroom house at Rocklea sold for a massive discount due to flood damage.

The Insurance Council of Australia declared the widespread weather event an “insurance catastrophe” on March 22, with $3.35 billion worth of claimed lodged.

Earlier this month, the peak body said the weather event was Australia’s costliest flood ever with around 197,000 claims across Queensland and NSW.

“Only four other disasters have cost more, and this is not a record we want to beat,” ICA CEO Andrew Hall said.

Those disasters included the Eastern Sydney Hailstorm (1999, $5.57 billion), Cyclone Tracey (1974, $5.04 billion), Cyclone Dinah (1967, $4.69 billion) and the Newcastle Earthquake (1989, $4.24 billion).