Best way to regret property purchase

Can a development be so successful that you regret your purchase? Absolutely. For property investor, Colin Heckenberg, it wasn’t a matter of wishing he hadn’t purchased but wishing he had purchased more at the now sold-out Scenic Ridge Estate, Bilambil.

“I bought four blocks at Scenic Ridge and, in hindsight, I should have bought eight,” he said. “I still own three, including one we are building on, but the fourth one I bought in a partnership and we sold that block for a profit not long after settlement. If I had my time over, I would have held onto that one as well.”

Mr Heckenberg was first introduced to Scenic Ridge by a friend who played a role in selling the land to Sherpa for development.

“You had to have a bit of imagination because it was just bushland back then. But the thing that really stuck me, as we turned onto McAllisters Road, was the view,” he said. “I had lived at Kirra for 11 years and had no idea this place, only a few minutes away with an amazing outlook to Coolangatta and the coastline, even existed.

“There were no roads into the site at that time but we had the opportunity to walk over the land. We had a reasonable idea of where each block of land would be, but we were largely working off the plan on a piece of paper. We always thought it was good value but as time passed, it just got better and better.”