Even with home values having fallen over the last year many Australians still believe that owning a coastal home is out of their financial reach but there are still some bargains to be found.

Over the past 12 months most regions of the country have recorded a fall in home values. It is interesting to note that regional house values fell by -2.5% over the year to November 2011 compared to a -4.3% fall in house values across the combined capitals. Of course, the vast majority of the regions highlighted within this report are found outside of the capital cities and many coastal lifestyle markets have seen more significant declines in home values.

Although overall house values have fallen both in capital city and regional markets there are examples where house values have shown some growth. Some locations include the Fitzroy region of Queensland where house values have increased by 5.9% and the Gippsland region of Victoria where values are up by 3.3%. On the other hand, some significant value falls have been recorded in coastal regions such as: Far North Queensland (-11.1%), Northern Queensland (-9.3%) and the Gold Coast (-8.8%).

Despite the varied conditions, there remain a number of opportunities to purchase relatively affordable houses within suburbs which adjoin the coast. The catch is, most of these locations are well removed from the capital cities and offer little in the way of employment opportunities compared with more central locations.

The coastal suburb with the cheapest median house value in Australia is Wild Horse Plains in South Australia with a median value of just under $90,000. The suburb is located 71 kilometres north of the Adelaide CBD and has low levels of local amenity, it has also recorded less than 10 sales over the year. At the other end of the spectrum, the most expensive suburb on the coastline is Vaucluse in Sydney with a median house value of slightly more than $3.4 million.

The substantial pricing differential highlights the significant variety amongst coastal housing across the country.

The list included is based on the median ‘value’ of houses in the suburb rather than just looking at the median sale price (RP Data, using patented automated valuation algorithms, value every residential property across Australia each week). Using a median value as opposed to median price gives a better expectation of what the cost of housing is likely to be in the suburb.

New South Wales – the vast majority of the most affordable coastal suburbs are located on the south coast, in particular within the Shoalhaven and Shellharbour council areas.

Victoria – the cheapest coastal suburbs across the state are found almost entirely within the Gippsland and South Gippsland region of the state.

Queensland – the most affordable coastal suburbs are typically found in Central and Northern centres of the state however, two Moreton Bay Islands in Brisbane are listed.

South Australia – the cheapest oceanfront suburbs across the state are found in a variety of regions including: Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula and Outer Adelaide.

Western Australia – three of the 10 most expensive suburbs for coastal houses are found in Perth with the remainder in either the Central region or the South West of the State. Coastal home values are typically higher in Western Australia than in other states.

Tasmania – all of the cheapest coastal suburbs are located outside of Hobart with six suburbs situated within the Mersey-Lyell region.

Northern Territory – there are only nine coastal suburbs across the region which have a statistically valid median house value. Across these suburbs the median value varies between $334,844 up to more than $1.2 million.

Tagged: Affordability, Australia, Coastal, property, Real Estate

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