FROM SEACHANGERS TO TWIN STATERS - 22/02/03

An increasing number of city dwellers are wanting to have their tropical cake and eat it too. Not satisfied with their annual 10 days holiday in a palm-fringed exotic paradise, more and more lifestyle investors are seeking a tropical pied-a-terre where they can spend a serious chunk of their year while still retaining their city address.

Perhaps this trend is driven by a desire to secure a foothold somewhere safe from terrorist targets or simply an increasing need to temper the stimulation and excitement of urban life with a northerly retreat where they can wind down and warm up in the chilly winter months.

“We’re seeing an unprecedented number of city dwellers wanting to invest in coastal property up here,” says Christie Leet, whose real estate office, Ray White in Airlie Beach is now the current number one Ray White office in Australia based on turnover.

Trends in world population are reflected in the pressures on the North Queensland coast. In 2001, the global population was 6.1 billion and this is expected to grow to 9.3 billion in 2050, at which time there will be three times more people over 60 and five times more people over 80. Growing numbers are expected to locate closer to the coast, with 50% of world population within 150 km of coast in 2001 growing by 2025 to 75% (6.3 billion.) [Intercoast, 2002.]

This trend is set to become particularly apparent in Australia, where a lifestyle by the coast has replaced a quarter acre in the ‘burbs as the great Australian dream.

The beach today represents escape, freedom, self-fulfilment, the Right Path. It represents the way our lives should be. [McGregor, 2000]

Ironically, legislation currently in the mill at all levels of government will soon radically curtail availability of waterfront land.

Noted KPMG demographer and economist Bernart Salt sums up the trend to coastal dwelling with his catchy one liner that “the beach is best” for close to 3 million Austalians who now live in provincial coastal based towns.

The Salt Report’s Big Shift [Salt,2001] points to a significant change in Australian population distribution from the characteristic split between bush and ’burbs in the 1950s to the bush, the ‘burbs and the beach in the 1990s. Currently, one in five (or 3.6 million) Australians is a provincial coastal town dweller. Over the 20 years to 2021, the number living in non-metropolitan coastal Australia will rise to 4.3 million [Salt, 2001:59]. All up it is estimated that the population of the NSW coast will increase by more than 60% over the next 25 years. This makes the Whitsundays’ growth rate of 3.5% even more remarkable.

“The Whitsundays is Queensland’s fastest growing tourist region and little wonder”, says Janet Hogan, one of the developers at Botanica Waterfront, a 20 lot waterfront subdivision fringing the Coral Sea just 8 minutes from Airlie Beach. “ People are drawn here because of the incredible natural beauty, the spectacular waterways and the refreshingly easygoing, friendly character of small community living.”

Growth is being generated from both a demand for leisure, lifestyle and retirement coupled with increased visitor numbers. Travel and tourism is the world’s largest industry and generator of quality jobs, estimated to have generated US $3.5 trillion and almost 200 million jobs worldwide in 1999 [WTTC, 1999:3] Coastal-based tourism is the fastest growing area of contemporary tourism.

“All this points to the fact that areas such as our beautiful Whitsundays will come under increasing pressure. But that’s not to say that if you haven’t bought in already, you’ve missed the boat. In fact, at Botanica Estate, you can still buy 25 metre wide absolute waterfront blocks from $395,000 with virtually no esplanade and over ½ acre of gently sloping usable land, with stunning views of Airlie Beach all the way out to Hayman and the islands. That’s ridiculously cheap when you think a 10 metre artificial canal frontage down south can now cost in excess of $1 million.”

Based on current trends, waterfront land will continue to appreciate at a much greater rate than the overall property market. With recent changes to capital gains tax legislation decreasing by 50% the amount of tax sellers pay when taking advantage of a capital profit on the sale of vacant land, many more investors are entering the market.

“You could do worse than simply buy a waterfront block today, sit on it and do nothing, then sell it at twice the price in the not too distant future,”says Christie Leet as he gazes out onto the azure expanse of the Coral Sea from his brand new Mustang cruiser “…and I can certainly think of harder ways to make a buck.”