Buyer nabs five-bedroom property that's cheaper than a four-wheel drive

It’s hard to imagine that a five-bedroom home in Australia could sell for less than a four-wheel drive.

However, that’s the case with a property in Coober Pedy in South Australia, changing hands for $45,000 on April 19, the Domain listing shows.

Lot 348 Big Johns Road had price hopes of $50,000, with the property campaign handled by Misty Mance of Andrews Property Regional SA.

SOLD - $45,000

Lot 348 Big Johns Rd, Coober Pedy SA 5723

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The location is one of the most iconic in Australia and suited to a particular type of buyer.

Coober Pedy is an outback mining town that has been described as the closest Earth landscape to living on the moon, and where many reside underground due to the heat.

Aspects of the property – which consists of a three-bedroom house and two external bedrooms – needs renovating, including the flooring, plumbing and the bathroom.

The home is “dated”, the listing outlines, but for a buyer who wants to seek their fortune in the opal capital of the world, it is ripe to be customised.

“This home provides the next owner an opportunity to add their character, modifications and upgrades to one’s desired comfort level,” the listing says.

The corner parcel – a freehold title, which is what most standalone houses in Australia are classed under – was available for private viewings.

Coober Pedy had the cheapest houses of 2022, in Australia’s equivalent of the wild west.

Coober Pedy’s median house price then was $69,000, the lowest of any postcode in Australia, Domain’s figures showed. Now, the median is $80,000, which represents a more than 4.6 per cent increase over 12 months (Domain’s House Price Report for the March 2024 quarter).

The South Australian town, 846km north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway, was the dusty red set of the iconic 1985 movie Mad Max Thunderdome, starring Mel Gibson and Tina Turner.

As an opal mining town in the Great Victoria Desert, many properties in Coober Pedy are nestled underground, or in a dugout style, to combat the high temperature.