Basically the gist of the following is that long term you cannot go wrong buying coastal. I prefer inner city coastal.
Article from Australia, 21/4/03
Seafront property price tide rising
By Teresa Ooi
April 21, 2003
KERRY Packer has one. So does his son, James. Movie producer George Miller picked one up last year. But you don't have to be a tycoon or movie producer to realise that owning beachfront in Australia means you are sitting on an investment goldmine.
Dio Wong earned the nickname "Wicked Sorcerer of the East" for his skill in managing investment funds. So when it comes to managing his own funds, it will come as no surprise that Mr Wong has chosen to sink his money into Sydney beachfront property.
Mr Wong recently paid $4.8million, $700,000 above the reserve price, for a seafront house at Whale Beach on Sydney's northern beaches.
Despite warnings of a property crash, beachside properties just keep going up in value.
Mr Wong bought from Jim Robson-Scott, who says he paid $3400 for the 900sq m block in 1957 and built the three-level brick house 24 years later.
The beachside boom has seen prices rise as much as 60 per cent in the past two years in Sydney's coastal enclaves around Bondi, Coogee and Collaroy, while at Queensland's Mermaid Beach and Palm Beach, seafront prices have soared by about 80 per cent in the same period.
In Melbourne's St Kilda and Port Melbourne, prices have risen by about 30 per cent. In Adelaide's Glenelg beach suburb they are up more than 45 per cent and by about 24 per cent in the Perth suburbs of Cottesloe and Trigg.
According to Bernard Salt, author of The Big Shift, which chronicles the lure of the beach in Australia, if you live close to the city and the surf, you've got it made.
"It's the city and surf culture that is attracting baby boomers to live by the beach," he said. "The latest population growth figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show coastal suburbs across the country are among the fastest-growing areas. This includes suburbs stretching from Port Macquarie and Tweed in NSW, Surf Coast and Bellarine in Victoria, Victor Harbor in South Australia, Mandurah and Busselton in WA, and Noosa and Ballina in Queensland.
"What's driving this growth is the love for coastal living. Australians see lifestyle in terms of the coast compared to Americans who make lifestyle choices in terms of climate."
Across the country, seaside property prices were surging because of the limited supply of land, said the Real Estate Institute of Australia.
"Beachfront property outperforms by about 15 per cent compared to the median house prices in Sydney," said Chris Fitzpatrick, president of the Real Estate Institute of NSW."Most of the seafront properties have been driven by buyers making a lifestyle change and by baby-boomers who want to go fishing, surfing and canoeing at weekends.
"We are also seeing an increasing number of buyers who are either bailing out of the stock market or putting their superannuation funds into choice coastal property."
The property boom of the last two years has also pushed up median house prices in capital cities but not as much as beachfront houses with Sydney recording a 47.5 per cent rise, Melbourne 24.1 per cent, Adelaide 39.1 per cent, Brisbane 54.2 per cent and Perth 23 per cent.
In Queensland, the limited supply of beachfront houses close to the city have seen prices double in the past year.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland president Mark Brimble says: "Prices for absolute beachfront have more than tripled over the last 3 1/2 years. They now outstrip prices in the more renowned Surfers Paradise."
"Most buyers purchase beachfront land to rebuild larger homes. There's one home under construction that will cost some $20 million, with the land itself worth around $8 million."
Melbourne and Adelaide's beachside suburbs tell a similar story as, to a lesser extent, does Perth. To most buyers of beachside properties money does not seem to be an issue. As Bill Bridges of Cassim Real Estate in Double Bay says: "These are cashed-up buyers. If they can find a beachfront property, they are only too willing to part with their money. And we are talking serious money here - anything from $5 million to $15million."
Adman John Singleton is a recent addition to the clifftop crew - understood to have paid $8.5 million for a glass, concrete and steel abode at Sydney's Coogee Beach.
The Australian
Article from Australia, 21/4/03
Seafront property price tide rising
By Teresa Ooi
April 21, 2003
KERRY Packer has one. So does his son, James. Movie producer George Miller picked one up last year. But you don't have to be a tycoon or movie producer to realise that owning beachfront in Australia means you are sitting on an investment goldmine.
Dio Wong earned the nickname "Wicked Sorcerer of the East" for his skill in managing investment funds. So when it comes to managing his own funds, it will come as no surprise that Mr Wong has chosen to sink his money into Sydney beachfront property.
Mr Wong recently paid $4.8million, $700,000 above the reserve price, for a seafront house at Whale Beach on Sydney's northern beaches.
Despite warnings of a property crash, beachside properties just keep going up in value.
Mr Wong bought from Jim Robson-Scott, who says he paid $3400 for the 900sq m block in 1957 and built the three-level brick house 24 years later.
The beachside boom has seen prices rise as much as 60 per cent in the past two years in Sydney's coastal enclaves around Bondi, Coogee and Collaroy, while at Queensland's Mermaid Beach and Palm Beach, seafront prices have soared by about 80 per cent in the same period.
In Melbourne's St Kilda and Port Melbourne, prices have risen by about 30 per cent. In Adelaide's Glenelg beach suburb they are up more than 45 per cent and by about 24 per cent in the Perth suburbs of Cottesloe and Trigg.
According to Bernard Salt, author of The Big Shift, which chronicles the lure of the beach in Australia, if you live close to the city and the surf, you've got it made.
"It's the city and surf culture that is attracting baby boomers to live by the beach," he said. "The latest population growth figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show coastal suburbs across the country are among the fastest-growing areas. This includes suburbs stretching from Port Macquarie and Tweed in NSW, Surf Coast and Bellarine in Victoria, Victor Harbor in South Australia, Mandurah and Busselton in WA, and Noosa and Ballina in Queensland.
"What's driving this growth is the love for coastal living. Australians see lifestyle in terms of the coast compared to Americans who make lifestyle choices in terms of climate."
Across the country, seaside property prices were surging because of the limited supply of land, said the Real Estate Institute of Australia.
"Beachfront property outperforms by about 15 per cent compared to the median house prices in Sydney," said Chris Fitzpatrick, president of the Real Estate Institute of NSW."Most of the seafront properties have been driven by buyers making a lifestyle change and by baby-boomers who want to go fishing, surfing and canoeing at weekends.
"We are also seeing an increasing number of buyers who are either bailing out of the stock market or putting their superannuation funds into choice coastal property."
The property boom of the last two years has also pushed up median house prices in capital cities but not as much as beachfront houses with Sydney recording a 47.5 per cent rise, Melbourne 24.1 per cent, Adelaide 39.1 per cent, Brisbane 54.2 per cent and Perth 23 per cent.
In Queensland, the limited supply of beachfront houses close to the city have seen prices double in the past year.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland president Mark Brimble says: "Prices for absolute beachfront have more than tripled over the last 3 1/2 years. They now outstrip prices in the more renowned Surfers Paradise."
"Most buyers purchase beachfront land to rebuild larger homes. There's one home under construction that will cost some $20 million, with the land itself worth around $8 million."
Melbourne and Adelaide's beachside suburbs tell a similar story as, to a lesser extent, does Perth. To most buyers of beachside properties money does not seem to be an issue. As Bill Bridges of Cassim Real Estate in Double Bay says: "These are cashed-up buyers. If they can find a beachfront property, they are only too willing to part with their money. And we are talking serious money here - anything from $5 million to $15million."
Adman John Singleton is a recent addition to the clifftop crew - understood to have paid $8.5 million for a glass, concrete and steel abode at Sydney's Coogee Beach.
The Australian
