Coastal property snapshot - Australia

From The Australian
Interactive Container

Do your own due diligence.
A few years ago I thought, oh, I'd like a house up near Airlie Beach.... Then I checked out the house. It was not like the photos on the ad made it out to be (wide angle lens). And I checked the vacancy rate. It was around 8%. And it would be vacant when I bought it. Decided not to go ahead based on that (plus seeing lots of apartments in the area that did not look complete helped make up my mind)... Now I know so much better. Nice place to visit but not to own.

 

After buying a coastal poor recently, I was hoping it would mention some suburbs but its only country towns

 

Always dreamed of a place in Mission Beach for a winter escape. Bumped into someone the other day who lived there and got sick of the endless rain. I was already suspecting this but saved myself a lot of money and aggro meeting this person. I've managed to slow things down alot this year by pulling back on emotion and trying to think more practically in relation to holiday homes. Just going to rent them and put my cash elsewhere.

 

Bowen was looking pleasant on BHG last night.

 

Haven't been to Airlie for years (I vaguely remember sleeping in my car there one night- unsure why....).
Apparently it's really picked up over last 10 years - seems to have taken the tourists that Mackay used to have.
Demand vs Supply equation wrt land along coastal towns makes it a little harder for me to get interested I guess......

 

We have a friend who invested heavily in Airley , including a 5 acre waterfront subdivision .

He's a highly experienced investor / developer who saw warning signs and wanted to sell , but partners in subdivision were greedy and thought they should get more ......... I don't think he went bankrupt , but was lucky .

Cliff

 

A lot of the cheaper coastal areas (from 30 to 200km to the nearest capital city) have characteristics and demographics that when viewed together form a quite distinctive set. Eg

* Often started off as small ports, fishing or day trip settlements with these industries dying but rapid population growth since the 1960s
* Higher than average numbers of over 65s (particularly on the age pension)
* Higher than average youth unemployment
* Lower than average proportion of the population with degrees
* Schools perform poorly on ratings, also limited tertiary education facilities
* Frequent complaints about transport infrastructure and services
* A limited local labour market (mostly local services and retail jobs) with high incidence of out of area commuting
* Lower than average incomes, rents and house prices (which make some investors consider them a bargain)
* Higher than average proportion of postwar UK immigrants
* Lower than average representation of Asian migrants

Think Frankston, Rockingham, Deception Bay, NSW Central Coast, outer southern suburbs of Adelaide etc. And even further afield places like suburbs of Newcastle or Wollongong, NSW South coast towns (eg Nowra) and the Bunbury area of WA.

As for social and political outlook, I would add:

* A high proportion of frightened or pessimistic residents who say the area was good in the '60s/70s but overpopulation and crime has made the area less good for bringing up children or safety
* Higher than average proportion of people who I call 'left behinds' (#)
* Which is closely related to a higher than average proportion of people voting for Pauline Hanson/One Nation (largely on economic grounds - correlates strongly with 'left-behinds')

The future desirability (and therefore capital growth) of areas like the above depends on the extent to which they can shake off some of the negative traits described above.


(*) 'Left Behinds' include people in blue collar employment in declining industries, casual workers, the underemployed, non-custodial divorced fathers, low income single parents, and those on workers compensation. They are diametrically opposed to the cosmopolitan urban 'opportunity class' that Malcolm Turnbull channels when he says that 'these are exciting times' or 'join the ideas boom'.

 

Historically, yes I'd agree. But I think more recent people moving to Frankston/Central Coast/Illawarra are probably just people looking for a change and could completely function in Sydney/Melbourne like everybody else, but they don't want to pay so much.

Personally that much commuting would completely do my head in and if push came to shove i'd opt to live in a well located unit in a good location rather than live up/down the coast if it was far from my work. Couple I know live in the Illawarra and one of them works in Sydney. My boss lives near Newcastle and works in Parramatta. Drives for 2 hours from 5am to get to work because if he leaves later it would be more like a 3 hour drive. I just could not do that over any length of time.
My opinion only though.

 

I intend moving to a cheap coastal township when we retire. Somewhere like Hervey Bay or Bundaberg

 

We've just bought a new ppor about 600m to the beach. Took this pic last week when we walked to the pub for Sunday morning breakfast. We are within 15km to the city and have a train station 200m away. All this and a beautiful 100yr old character cottage. Love living in Adelaide

 

There are some nice spots in those areas.
Some good buys around now, sure it will pick up again eventually.

 

For as long as I can remember they have been cheaper than Brissie. The first house that came up on the net today when I had a look was two streets back from the beach, 800 m2 land, 3/2/2 sold in August for $355K. Plus a 2 bedroom at Burrum Heads for about $270K if I recall correctly.

 

Without knowing more about it, seems like a good price for somewhere that close to the beach.
You still find some cheapies with plenty of potential (a bit crappy).

 

Bought a house on a large block in Byron 3 years ago 2 mins walk to the beach, has done very well, up 40-50% by the looks. Took advantage of the slump back then to buy somewhere I really wanted (grew up in the area but previous property not ideal). Ignoring the capital gain, as an IP it is a bit of a dud, breaking even at 50% LVR, but I hope to live there eventually.

 

Wow, nice. If there was a coastal town I would be bullish on, it's Byron Bay. So much wealth there....

 

That place at HB I mentioned yesterday was fully renovated too. We would be looking for a run down place.

 

Nice one!
It's always been a good spot, but it's increased quite a lot recently. Good timing.
Which area is it in?

 

I did something similar, bought a house in Hervey Bay about a year ago, 2 blocks from the beach. Yield is only 5%, which is low for HB, but I hope to live there eventually too and I bought a place that I love just in case I didn't get the chance to do it if I left it too long. I just look at the prices there and they seem crazy cheap - they're similar to Ballarat prices, but THE BEACH! I'm happy to bide my time while it recovers from the post-GFC slump.

 

It's a great spot. Only a matter of time before it picks up again.
The gloomy times don't last forever, but they are a great time to buy.
2 blocks from the beach, awesome!

 

Suffolk park beachside, about 150m to the sand, can hear and smell the roar of the Pacific.