Coppick Property Advisory

20/10/2026

Seven off-market properties crossed my desk this week. Three owners approached me directly, four came from agents' pre-market lists.

Access isn't the hard part. Reading the number is.

Four of them were tenanted investments. On the brochure, each came with the agent's rental appraisal. On one, the yield on the appraisal was almost 0.8 of a point higher than the yield on the lease actually in place.

The appraisal is the seller's agent's number. The lease is what you bank.

Same with price. Off-market doesn't mean cheap. Often it's the opposite: an asking price the market hasn't tested. No competing buyers, no days on market, no price cuts to read.

The selling agent knows the vendor's position, the other offers and the real reason for selling. That's their job, and good ones do it well. Mine is to close that gap for the buyer.

If you're buying in Queensland in the next six months, start with a confidential 15-minute conversation. Budget and structure, where, and what the property has to do. Your brief goes on my register, and when something fits, you hear first.

Buyer's side only. I never take a cent from a seller.

Ryan Coppick | Licensed QLD Buyers Agent #4961592
General information only, not financial advice.

19/10/2026

A few weeks ago I asked you: same money, brand new house and land, or an established home on a leafy street closer to town? Here's my answer.

The case for new is real. Depreciation and tax benefits, no stamp duty for first home buyers on a new home in Queensland, and nothing to fix. It looks easy and it feels good.

But I'll always lean established. Three reasons:

1. Land appreciates, buildings depreciate. The house wears out over time. The land is where the value sits.
2. No new supply next door. In the estates you're competing with brand new houses, and often a whole new land release a few years later.
3. It's all already there. The schools, the businesses, the trees. It's landlocked, built up and proven.

That's my take, not a rule. Every buyer and every budget is different.

Which would you pick, new or established, and why?

Ryan Coppick | Licensed QLD Buyers Agent #4961592
General information only, not financial advice.

18/10/2026

The First Home Owner Grant only applies to new builds. Out here, new builds often don't stack up, and the homes young buyers can actually afford are already standing.

What a lot of people miss: there's still help for established homes. Eligible first home buyers in Queensland pay no stamp duty on an established home up to $700,000, with a partial concession up to $800,000. On a $400,000 house in the bush, that's a real saving most people don't factor in.

That's where I work. I'm based in North Qld and help first home buyers and investors find established homes across regional Queensland: checking the numbers, the condition, the renovation upside, and negotiating the price.

If you're weighing up a first home out here and not sure where to start, send me a message.

www.coppickpropertyadvisory.com

🏡 11 GRANTS. THAT'S IT.

Since the $30,000 First Home Owner Grant was introduced, only 11 have gone to buyers in Outback Queensland, compared with close to 3,800 elsewhere in the state.

That tells you everything you need to know.

The policy might work in the south-east, but it doesn’t reflect the reality of buying a home out here.

A new build in the Outback can cost $700,000 or more, while there are existing homes sitting here that young buyers can actually afford, and improve.

We should be helping people buy those homes, renovate them, settle down and put some life back into our towns.

The Government doesn’t need another housing slogan. It needs to fix a policy that clearly isn’t reaching the people it’s supposed to help.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/robbie-katter-slams-david-crisafullis-30000-firsthome-owner-grant-as-not-fit-for-purpose/news-story/f5b859d0e33d592da11fc03567fe315f

realestate.com.au Katter's Australian Party Queensland Housing Sam O'Connor MP

17/10/2026

The selling agent isn't your enemy. Some of them help me out every week. But they work for the seller, and that's their job.

Full walk-through of all 10 opens is on my YouTube.

If you want to talk any of this through, I do a free 15 minute chat. Link in bio.

17/10/2026

A high-set in Kirwan with a home daycare running underneath. Then a Gulliver house where the rent appraisal made me look twice.

I'm not telling anyone to invest. The numbers have to work for you.

Part 3 is on my page.

17/10/2026

Saturday opens in Townsville, part 1 of 3.

Ten opens all up. Wulguru was steady, about four groups through. Kirwan was a different story. Low price, every man and his dog, 15 groups minimum. Plenty of work in that one, and too much risk for me.

Part 2 is on my page.

16/10/2026

Unemployment ticked up to 4.7% this week. Economists didn't see it coming.

Townsville's been sitting around 5% for a while now, a bit above the rest of Queensland. But a lot of our jobs are hospital, Defence, uni, council. They don't vanish when things slow down.

At the opens last Saturday I was still seeing plenty of owner occupiers and first home buyers coming through. People buying a home to live in, not a spreadsheet.

So here's the first thing I ask anyone who wants to buy. Not "what's your budget". It's "how safe is your job?"

If you're Defence or nursing, that's one conversation. If you're on contract at a mine, or your work depends on one big employer, that's a different one. Same house, same bank approval, different answer on how much you should actually borrow.

The bank will tell you the most you can borrow. Nobody's paid to tell you the most you should.

If you're thinking about buying property and want to talk it through, message me. Happy to have a chat, no pressure.

16/10/2026

13/10/2026

One house, or three?

One $1.5m house, or three $500k houses? Same money. Which would you pick?

Before the maths, Townsville's median house is around $700k. So three $500k houses here sit well under the middle of the market.

Three houses means three of everything. One house means all your eggs in one basket.

I'd pick whichever one I can hold through a couple of bad years without being forced to sell.

It's not one versus three. It's what you're trying to achieve, and how long can you hold?

So which would you pick, and why? I read every comment.

Ryan Coppick, buyers agent, Charters Towers and Townsville. Buyer's side only.
QLD Licence 4961592. General information only, not financial, credit or tax advice.

10/10/2026

People keep telling me Townsville had its run for investors and is going nowhere. So tonight I went looking at who actually lives in 4811.

4811 is the postcode at the foot of Mount Stuart. Wulguru, Idalia, Oonoonba, Stuart, Cluden, Mount Stuart and the area around JCU. About 13,700 people at the last Census.

Here's how it stacks up against Queensland as a whole:

Median age: 36. Queensland is 38.
Family income: $2,192 a week. Queensland is $2,024.
Household income: $1,807 a week. Queensland is $1,675.
Mortgage repayments: $1,517 a month. Queensland is $1,733.
Rent: $340 a week. Queensland is $365.

So people here are a bit younger, earn a bit more, and pay less on their home loans than the state average. That's not what a dying area looks like.

It's not all one story though. More homes are rented in 4811 (37%) than across Queensland (33%), which makes sense with the uni right there. And a postcode isn't a suburb. Idalia, Wulguru and the JCU end are very different places to live. Wulguru on its own is about two thirds owner-occupied.

What this doesn't tell you is what prices will do. Nobody can promise you that. What it does tell you is who your neighbours would be, and whether they're stretched. If you're buying a home to live in, that matters more than most people think.

One more thing. These are the 2021 Census numbers, because they're counted, not estimated. The 2026 Census was in August and the first results come out next year. I'll run this again when they land and we'll see what's moved.

If there's a suburb you're weighing up and you want the same look at it, send me a message.

What would you want to know about your suburb before you bought there?

Ryan Coppick | Coppick Property Advisory | Buyers agent, QLD licence 4961592
General information only, not advice.
Photo: Mount Stuart from Castle Hill by Aidan Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.