{"id":669736,"date":"2026-05-14T05:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T05:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/669736\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T05:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T05:19:17","slug":"rockhampton-regional-council-sells-six-properties-at-unpaid-rates-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/669736\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockhampton Regional Council sells six properties at unpaid rates auction"},"content":{"rendered":"

A central Queensland council has made back more than $1 million in overdue rates and charges after selling off six properties at a public auction.<\/p>\n

The Rockhampton Regional Council sold the properties at auction on Thursday after initially issuing 30 property owners with final notices.<\/p>\n

The mixture of land, residential and commercial properties sold for a combined $1.128 million.<\/p>\n

\"Large<\/p>\n

Rockhampton man Nathan Casey bought a Depot Hill property for $200,000 at the auction. (ABC Capricornia: Vanessa Jarrett)<\/p>\n

About 40 people attended the City Hall event, including Rockhampton buyer Nathan Casey, who snatched up a three-bedroom highset home in the suburb of Depot Hill for $200,000.<\/p>\n

He said the prices on the traditional real estate market in the region were “ridiculous”.<\/p>\n

“I just sold one recently and then just heard about the auction, so I thought I’d have a look,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There were a couple of others on the list, but they disappeared before the auction started, so I thought I’d just have a punt on a couple of others.”<\/p>\n

\"Whiteboard<\/p>\n

Five residential properties and one commercial property were offered in the auction. (ABC Capricornia: Vanessa Jarrett)<\/p>\n

Under Queensland’s Local Government Act 2012, councils can sell residential properties once rates and charges are overdue for three years or more, and one year for commercial properties.<\/p>\n

Under the Act, the reserve price must be at least the market value of the land or the higher of the overdue rates or value.<\/p>\n

Councils must use the sale proceeds to pay any outstanding fees, including the rates, taxes, body corporate fees, and the remainder goes to the owner.<\/p>\n

\"Hotel<\/p>\n

The Central Hotel on Lakes Creek Road, Koongal in north Rockhampton, has been boarded up. (ABC Capricornia: Vanessa Jarrett)<\/p>\n

Commercial property Central Hotel on Lakes Creek Road in Koongal was again up for auction after an unsuccessful attempt to sell it in 2023, when bids reached $140,000.<\/p>\n

The two-storey hotel, which includes 10 boarding rooms, was last reported to be open in 2016 and is in a rundown condition as it has been destroyed by vandals.<\/p>\n

Bids opened at $50,000 and eventually the hammer sounded on $218,000 to interstate buyers who had not yet seen the property.<\/p>\n

Rates a majority of the council budget<\/p>\n

Rates income makes up a main share of councils’ income and revenue.<\/p>\n

For Rockhampton Regional Council, rates account for 69 per cent of its budget.<\/p>\n

As of March 2026, 4.32 per cent of the rates were unpaid.<\/p>\n

This year’s list was the largest Rockhampton Regional Council had held in recent years, with a combined six properties sold across auctions in the previous three financial years.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in central Queensland, the Isaac Regional Council sold five of 10 properties with unpaid rates for a combined $511,147 in February, with another selling post-auction.<\/p>\n

The Central Highlands Regional Council reported in February that it had issued notices to 32 property owners for unpaid rates and charges totalling almost $1.6 million, with an auction to be held in July.<\/p>\n

Matt Burnett is the president of the Local Government Association of Queensland and the mayor of the Gladstone Regional Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Matt Burnett says, “at the end of the day, the services have been used, and the rates need to be paid”. (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n

He said auctions were used as a last resort, and in most cases, the outstanding amounts were paid before the auction took place.<\/p>\n

“No council anywhere in Australia wants to sell anyone’s home or anyone’s property, but at the end of the day, the services have been used, and the rates need to be paid,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A central Queensland council has made back more than $1 million in overdue rates and charges after selling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,2728,63,99,323376,323381,323380,323375,101158,323382,323378,323377,138223,323379],"class_list":["post-669736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-auction","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-central-highlands-regional-council","tag-central-hotel","tag-central-hotel-rockhampton","tag-isaac-region","tag-isaac-regional-council","tag-local-government-association-of-queensland","tag-overdue-rates","tag-rates-and-charges","tag-rockhampton-regional-council","tag-unpaid-rates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}