Waterfront Buyers Hit The Panic Button - 26/11/02

Perhaps no other race on earth has such an obsession with living by the sea as Australians. But in the wake of skyrocketing home prices, the Carr Government’s new legislation prohibiting future canal-style developments and a whole raft of anti-waterfront legislation up and down the Australian coast, that dream is becoming increasingly remote.

Something akin to panic is setting in as more and more city dwellers realize they may never wake to the smell of salt air and a cool ocean breeze. And Queensland is not immune to the panic factor, as soaring prices in key lifestyle destinations demonstrate, with some coastal areas experiencing a doubling of land prices every 3.5 years over the past six years. As Ray White research shows, certain waterfront developments on the Sunshine Coast have witnessed price rises of up to 50% in the last year alone.

Accordingly, a growing number of emerald citysiders are following in the footsteps of the generation which launched Byron Bay and Noosa, but setting their sights further north. This new wave of “early adopters” are now discovering such exotic tropical getaways as Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays, where waterfront land is still available for less than the price of a rundown terrace in inner-city Redfern. Ray White Whitsunday principal Christie Leet reports the first evidence of this influx with development sites currently changing hands at double the price paid two years ago.

Now ex-Sydney advertising gurus, Janet and Ralph Hogan, have released the only absolute waterfront land currently available in the cosmopolitan and rapidly growing township of Airlie Beach, with much of the interest coming from the southern states.

“We used to regard places like the Whitsundays as last frontier towns but daily flights (just over two hours) into the region make this place closer to the Sydney CBD than Palm Beach. In fact, there is a growing number of expat Sydneysiders who are either commuting once a week from Airlie Beach or simply setting up virtual offices and working from up here just as they would from their home office in Sydney.”

After a mammoth development approval process, the Hogan’s Botanica Waterfront estate has just come on the market and is unique in the Whitsundays, comprising 11 half acre waterfront lots, with minimal 5 metre esplanade and ample room for a sprawling tropical home, swimming pool and landscaped gardens. And 9 hillside lots with spectacular seaviews of the Coral Sea and Whitsunday islands.

The Hogans have been careful to ensure that aesthetic and lifestyle standards are maintained forever, with building covenants in place to preserve views and by-laws outlawing unsightly brick veneer or project home type dwellings.

Janet Hogan recalls her instant love affair with Botanica. “To this day I still remember sitting by the aquamarine water, watching turtles surfacing in front and sea eagles circling above and thinking, it doesn’t get any better than this. We’re just eight minutes from the heart of Airlie Beach yet we might as well be a million miles away.

What makes this land so special is that it isn’t encumbered with a public esplanade the size of a football field out front.

Also, unlike some island properties, this is not leasehold land but freehold community title, meaning you not only own your own lot outright, but also have a share in the remaining 80 acres which has been set aside as forest and can never be touched.”

Marketing agent for Botanica Waterfront is Mark Beale, Ray White 308 Shute Harbour Rd, Airlie Beach QLD 4802. Ph (07) 4946 2026 or 07 4948 8507 , email mark.beale@raywhite.com

Further media information from

Janet Hogan Botanica Waterfront 07 4946 1146

Or

David Gibbs dgmedia 07 4946 4094, 0411 671 627