Where to look for beach holiday bargains

“These areas have come off, just like prices in the cities,” says Robert Millar, a property consultant for more than 35 years. “There are no longer the ‘refugees’ who fled the cities during COVID-19 for rural and coastal addresses. We are waiting to see where it will plateau.”

Buyers will pay a good price

Andrew Wilson, chief economist for property consultancy My Housing Market, says: “Flat equity markets have also resulted in lower price energy and not much lift in discretionary sales.”

But records continue to be broken in select areas as cashed-up buyers unconcerned about rising interest rates make the most of less competition to snap up top beach properties in city and remote postcodes.

In Tasmania’s Binalong Bay, about 200 kilometres east of Launceston, a four-bedroom, beachfront house on 16 hectares of land recently sold for about $6 million, which is about three times the former local record.

“Buyers can’t get enough of really premium seaside property. It’s rare but when the right property is available buyers will pay a very good price,” says Heidi Howe, a director of Harcourts Real Estate in nearby St Helens.

There have recently been three unconditional sales of more than $10 million in Noosa and Byron Bay, says Offerman.

“Buyers might be waiting for something that has unique views, or only comes around once in a generation, but the overall market has slumped,” says Millar.

Seaside property produced spectacular returns when interest rates were at record lows, buyers emigrated from major cities in the pandemic (particularly to Queensland) and government grants encouraged first home buyers and renovators.

Prices of popular seaside postcodes on the NSW Central Coast and Victoria’s coastline rose nearly 40 per cent, Queensland by more than 50 per cent, South Australia and Western Australian by more than 40 per cent, says CoreLogic, which monitors property prices.

Slowing discretionary buyer demand

Months of rate rises since May have reversed the trend with postcodes posting single, or low double-digit, falls, generally higher than in capital cities, says CoreLogic.

The value of borrowing by investors has slumped by about 25 per cent, having peaked at a record high of nearly $12 billion two months earlier, it adds.

Weaker equity markets and reduced dividend payments have slowed demand from discretionary buyers seeking prestige seafront holiday homes, particularly along the eastern seaboard north of Sydney.

The accompanying tables show the biggest winners and losers in the past three years.

“There have been some big falls since this time last year,” says Brooke Flint, a Sydney buyers’ agent who specialises in the northern beaches. “It’s now a buyers’ market.”