Katie Keam has transformed the derelict “Nunnery on Ackers” — covered in graffiti and left to decay for decades — into her dream home.

“This whole main room was just completely mouldy and disgusting … we didn’t even have a front door, it was boarded up with wood,” Mrs Keam said.

The 32-year-old purchased the 1920s home with her husband Zac Keam just five kilometres from the Townsville CBD two years ago for less than $200,000.

After a renovation that the couple estimated was less than $100,000 — with help from Mrs Keam’s cabinet maker dad — the property more than doubled in value to $480,000 in 2022.

“The bones of it were so perfect and so beautiful,” Mrs Keam said.

“Our electrician knew the place, [he said] it was called the ‘love shack’ in the 90s, it was apparently a bit of a party house.”

Renovation revival

Real Estate Institute of Australia president Hayden Groves said more home owners were undertaking renovations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Australians poured a record of more than $12.3 billion into home renovations, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Between January and August this year, home owners have already spent $8 billion on renovations nationally.

Mr Groves said “properties that need work” were appealing to buyers because they were unable to find anything else suitable.

“During the peak of the pandemic, the cost and access to materials and specialist trades and labour became very difficult,” Mr Groves said.

Property listings ‘extremely low’

But even fixer-uppers are becoming harder to find.

Property data firm CoreLogic found that in regional Queensland, property listings were 43 per cent lower than usual at this time of year.

“We’re not seeing listings kind of keep up with the demand for housing,” CoreLogic head of research, Eliza Owen, said.

Townsville real estate agent Giovanni Spinella said buyers could not afford to be picky.

“Because of the low stock levels, people are compromising — do they need that extra bathroom? Do they need that extra bedroom,” he said.

“The market is more relaxed around having to have that shiny new feeling, buyers are being a lot more flexible.”

He said some buyers were being pushed outside the city centre as listing numbers continued to drop.

“Prices have increased in certain suburbs; it is pricing some buyers out of the market and pushing those buyers into other suburbs that they may not have been considering 12 months ago,” he said.

He said the combination of low listings and higher prices meant some houses weren’t even making it onto the market.

“If we get them to auction, they’re selling under the hammer… some are selling prior, just based on exceptional offers, and the owners are taking them,” Mr Spinella said.

New builds vs renovating costs

The Real Estate Institute of Australia said a boost in older homes being renovated could help mitigate Queensland’s housing crisis and rejuvenate regional areas.