Eyre Peninsula real estate boom | How Coffin Bay agents are juggling demand for coastal property
From 70 properties on the market pre-pandemic to now just five, sea-change hunters and investors alike are snapping up the few homes left in a tiny coastal town.
Port Lincoln
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It’s a case of demand outstripping supply for South Australia’s coastal real estate as a Covid-19 induced property boom shows no signs of cooling down.
Eyre Peninsula real estate agents can barely keep up as interstate buyers looking a for sea-change or an investment head for the coast with one tiny town proving even more popular than most.
In his 40 years as an agent, Steve Kemp, principal of Kemp Real Estate Port Lincoln, has never seen the market so strong.
“I can’t recall ever seeing the demand being this high for this long – it’s certainly one of the longer booms I’ve seen,” Mr Kemp said.
“We’re selling to interstate buyers that aren’t even inspecting the properties, who obviously identify value in our market base.”
The 18 per cent price increase hasn’t scared off prospective buyers according to Mr Kemp who is receiving “multiple offers” on properties from buyers across the country, with “exceptional demand” in Coffin Bay.
Rental properties also remain scarce with only four out of his 500 Eyre Peninsula rentals currently available.
Mr Kemp said the region remains in “high demand and low supply” with land sales almost non-existent in Port Lincoln, while in Coffin Bay, land is about all that’s available.
Mike Bowyer from Raine & Horne Coffin Bay is also selling homes to buyers seeking a sea-change or looking to invest from across Australia.
“We had roughly 70 properties on the market two years ago, now we’re down to four or five, basically,” Mr Bowyer said.
Mr Bowyer said listings are barely being advertised before selling and says surge is a result of Covid, lockdowns and pent up funds from “lack of overseas travel”.
An Adelaide couple managed to snap up one of the few remaining houses for sale in Coffin Bay earlier this year.
Damon Hunt and his wife Ceinwen Ahern fell in love with the coastal paradise and just two months after their first visit, purchased a double-storey, corner property on the Esplanade.
“It was a bit of a compulsive purchase,” Mr Hunt said.
Realising the significant demand for property in the area, the couple got renovating transformed the 1980s beach shack into a modern, mid-century, holiday home.
“We tried to find a balance between keeping the soul of the house, keeping its interesting features but updating the bathrooms, kitchen and balcony,” Mr Hunt said.
The house maintains its original World War II hardwood timber, South African slate fireplace and displays the first homeowner’s collection of early edition encyclopedias.
Mr Hunt and Ms Ahern saw an unmissable opportunity to create a holiday rental for future families in the bustling, beach side town and consider themselves “lucky” to have entered the market when they did.
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