Where you can buy a holiday home for almost the same price as five years ago

Back to the office for one day and already dreaming of your next holiday escape?

Property prices have skyrocketed in coastal towns over the last two years as remote workers fled cities for lifestyle locations, but there are still a handful of markets where median prices are barely higher now than five years ago.

This one-bedroom unit in Palm Cove sold for $295,000 in September.Credit: REMAX Cairns

Potential buyers might need to be quick, with local agents warning areas that recorded little price momentum for years have already started to take off.

Cairns has been drawing interest from southern buyers and offers relatively affordable prices for both entry-level and higher-end properties.

Apartments in Cairns City have a median price of $392,000, just 3.2 per cent higher than five years ago, Domain data shows. In neighbouring Cairns North, unit prices rose 3.5 per cent to a median $250,500 in five years.

The city is a short drive to the nearest beaches, but keep driving a little further to Palm Cove and the median unit price is just $312,500, up 9.6 per cent in five years.

Belle Property Cairns principal Nicholas Slatyer said the Cairns area market is the strongest it has been since the global financial crisis, with hot demand for beachside lifestyle homes.

Select high-end homes have gained as much as 30 per cent since they last traded three or four years ago, he said.

“Our market had been very stable or flat for the last 10 years,” he said. “We’re at the beginning of what could be a four or five year upward trajectory.”

A buyer with a $500,000 budget could easily find a beachfront apartment in Palm Cove, while houses within a kilometre of a beach are available for well under $1 million and waterfront properties range from $1.5 million to $3.5 million, he said.

In nearby Port Douglas, the median unit price is $260,000, up 10.6 per cent from five years earlier – more modest than the 42.9 per cent growth in house prices there over the same time frame.

Raine & Horne director David Cotton has seen strong demand for holiday homes from buyers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and even the Gold Coast since the pandemic began.

“We’re coming to a point where we’re running out of stock,” he said.

“It’s just a good area to live in … compared to your Byrons and your Noosas, it’s probably a lot more relaxed,” he added, noting the beaches, rainforest, Great Barrier Reef and restaurants on offer.

Basic one-bedroom apartments start from about $230,000, two-bedrooms from about $280,000, while luxury apartments with a view could fetch $1.5 million, he said.

A standard four-bedroom house in the suburbs of Port Douglas would cost about $600,000 to $800,000, while prestige homes on the hillside start from $5 million.

Further south in the Whitsundays, Airlie Beach apartments have a median price of $335,000, up just 7.2 per cent in five years.

Ray White Whitsunday principal Mark Beale said the town has changed since the international border closed two years ago, with fewer backpackers and more families visiting.

“It’s a different feeling – more sophisticated, but not snobby,” he said.

He recommended holiday home buyers who plan to let out their property while they are not using it to choose something with an ocean view and a pool, to maximise their potential short-term tenant interest.

He has seen strong price growth on some recent sales, but said the market is recovering from its downturn after the GFC.

“There’s been some very good price growth but those figures are still less than what they were 10, 15 years ago,” he said. “All of those apartments were that price, and now they’re back.”

With the WA border set to open this week, taking a holiday outside Perth could be a possibility.

Down the coast from the WA capital, houses in West Busselton are 2.2 per cent higher than five years ago, at a median $470,000, although there has been some fluctuation, with 11.1 per cent growth over the past year. Nearby, Broadwater house prices are 10.2 per cent higher than five years ago, at a median $515,000.

Busselton First National Real Estate principal Anthony Copeland said houses are now selling within days of being listed to buyers from Perth and the eastern states.

“Prices have escalated considerably in the last 18 months and we’ve got a very low supply of stock,” he said.