I live in Cairns and work in the industry. I grew up in Townsville and although it is my home town and I love it, it has no beauty whatsoever except for the Strand, which is mainly mud.  People in FNQ often refer to it as "Brownsville".  Although it does have the army base there and a good university and the town is always expanding.  If you want to buy in FNQ so that you can also use it as a holiday home, I would recommend you look at Port Douglas.  It is a very tricky area with extremely high body corporate fees so it is very hard to get an average sales price per complex but like previously mentioned, look for smaller complexes or ones with low body corporate fees (which are tax deductible).  Port is a boom bust cycle, buying now should see great capital growth and holidays in the years to come but not necessarily ROI depending on what you buy. Otherwise, vacancy rates are very tight at the moment and investing in Cairns should see capital growth, the market has hit the bottom and has been stable for quite a few months, which is a great sign. Only the most skilled investors seem to be buying at the moment and are snapping up absolute bargains. Watch the market closely though before investing in Cairns, buying in the wrong street (even in the top suburbs) can mean $10,000's difference in price.