Up to a third of the 3000 holiday apartments in Port Douglas are for sale, with one unit recently fetching about $177,000 after selling for $366,000 six years ago, according to local agents.

Newly built units are flooding the market, with more than half of the apartments in the town's Lagoons@port development owned by failed property developer and pub baron Tom Hedley to be offered for sale by receiver Ernst & Young in coming weeks.

Phil Holloway, principal licensee of the Port Douglas Century 21 office, said he would put in a submission to receivers to market Hedley's units.

'The last price received for one of the apartments was $345,000 and Hedley wasn't able to go below that because it wasn't economical,' he said.

Similar units in the development would have normally sold for between $390,000 and $420,000, he said.

The Australian