Where can you buy a cheap beach house in NSW

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PHOTO: The Australian dream is to have a property by the beach. FILE

House prices in the highest-profile beach towns have long ago soared past the $1.5 million mark, but it’s possible to buy on the NSW coast for less.

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Buyers seeking a sea change or a holiday home can also find options on a budget of $1 million or even $600,000 – not on the waterfront, but close enough to the sand.

**Tuross Head offers homes for sale under seven figures.CREDIT:HALLMARK REAL ESTATE ADVISORS**

Property prices in coastal hotspots boomed during the lockdown years as city dwellers fled. Rising interest rates have brought the breakneck growth to an end, but prices are still well above levels of a year ago, and in some cases have doubled in five years.

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On a budget of $1.5 million, buyers might look outside the Byron shire. Further north, Pottsville has a median house price of $1.33 million on Domain data for the year to September, 26.7 per cent higher than the previous year and double five years ago. South of Byron, East Ballina’s median is $1.3 million.

Raine & Horne Pottsville/Cabarita Beach’s Jamie Wilmen said the beachfront market in his area is solid, but for under $1.5 million buyers could find a home set back from the beach.

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They could likely expect four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a pool, a three-to-four-minute drive from the waterfront.

He said many buyers now are from the area or from the Gold Coast looking for somewhere quieter, adding he noticed a resurgence in enquiry before Christmas. Brisbane and Sydney enquiry is quieter than during lockdown, but there are still trickles.

“I think we will always be in demand, even in the tough times,” he said.

His clients Philip and Janette Wells are selling their Pottsville home of six years and hoping to stay within 20 minutes of the area.

They sea-changed out of Sydney and love the welcoming community they found, warm weather, proximity to shopping centres and the Gold Coast airport.

**Philip and Janette Wells are selling their home in Pottsville.CREDIT:NATALIE GRONO**

“You walk down the beach – if someone doesn’t say hello to you, you know they are not a local,” Philip said.

“In Sydney the kids would be walking down the streets on their iPhones, here they are riding down the street with their surfboard or boogieboard under their arm ready to catch the next wave.”

Other coastal towns where the median house price is under $1.5 million include Mollymook Beach or Narrawallee on the south coast, or Umina Beach or Bateau Bay on the Central Coast.

Someone planning to spend less than $1 million might look south of Sydney to Ulladulla, where the median house price is $845,000, Tuross Head ($803,000) or as far south as Merimbula ($900,000).

Merimbula Realty sales agent Lance Musgrave said on a million-dollar budget, buyers could likely find a three-bedroom home walking distance to the lake or beach with “a bit of an outlook”.

He said prices have eased since the boom, but buyers are still coming from Sydney, Canberra and Victoria as well as locally.

“There has been a reasonable level of enquiry this summer holidays,” he said, although the most serious buyers would likely return after holidays end.

“Property is still turning over quite well, sales are still transacting and the upper end of the market has held surprisingly well.”