How to sell a beachside property in winter
THEY refuse to abide by the rules of putting beach properties to market.
SYDNEYSIDER Barbara Pelling is doing the unthinkable: trying to sell her Palm Beach home in winter.
While coastal property markets often boom in the summer months, the cold weather lures far fewer buyers in the southern states during winter and agents in NSW and Victoria typically advise sellers to hold off selling until the spring.
Some agents say selling a beachside property in the winter can reduce its price by as much as 10 per cent.
Palm Beach, a secluded and affluent part of Sydney’s northern beaches, thrives in the summer as the wealthy holiday at their weekenders and tourists flock to its golden sand and glistening coast.
But it is a different beast in the winter. Backpackers in boardies and bikinis are nowhere in sight and many of the Palm Beach homes sit vacant.
“It’s quiet and a lot of it is locked up,” Pelling says about Palm Beach during the winter. “But for locals it can still be pretty special.”
Pelling is selling her five-bedroom and four-bathroom house, at 24 Norma Road, with hopes of about $4.2 million. The house has a northern outlook on to the ocean and includes a pool and a private courtyard.
Pelling, who has lived in Palm Beach for 35 years, loves renovating and says she is selling so she can renovate elsewhere.
She is adamant that the cold weather will not affect the price. “We get the beautiful winter’s sun because the home faces the north,” she says.
“Historically the market is always suppressed in winter but a house that attracts beautiful winter sunshine inspires people. And I won’t sell unless I get the right price; it needs to have a four in front of it.”
LJ Hooker Palm Beach agent Peter Robinson says those who choose to put their house up for sale outside spring and summer usually have a particular reason to sell, so most of the homes do change hands.
“There’s less competition in these months,’’ he says. “Palm Beach is a lifestyle area and there’s more people out looking for homes when it’s sunny and when you’re thinking of the beach.
“Therefore it is quieter, there’s less people at open (house) inspections and the auctions we are running will have fewer buyers around.”
On the plus side for buyers, any vendor selling in the winter months is highly motivated.
Winter sales statistics from key coastal regions reveal apartments in coastal locations such as Palm Beach sell for less in winter than summer.
The RP Data figures also show houses in some areas, such as Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, achieved better median prices in the summer of 2012 compared with the winter. And in summer 2011 Palm Beach houses sold for a median of $2.69m compared with $1.675m in the winter.
But there are anomalies, according to RP Data. Houses in Palm Beach sold for higher prices in winter in 2013, while in Noosa Heads they did better in the winter of 2012 than the summer.
Century 21 Australia and New Zealand chairman Charles Tarbey insists buyers will not pay as much for a beach house in the winter as they do in the summer because it is a purchase based on an emotional connection.
“If you go away to a beach house in the winter you can sit (inside) and enjoy the waves but you can’t really enjoy the environment to the same extent,” he says.
“But if you go in the summer time your emotions are much higher because it feels fantastic.
“I’m not sure that people would take a lower offer during winter but I think they’ve got a chance of a higher offer over summer.”
Ballard Property’s Bill Bridges says that the winter period can reduce the sale price of a beach home by between 7 and 10 per cent “depending on where they are and how bitterly cold it gets”.
“The better buys are during the very cold winter months,” he says.
But it is not the same in the warmer states of Queensland and Western Australia.
Tom Offermann Real Estate, based in the Sunshine Coast’s Noosa Heads, has sold more prestige holiday homes in winter over the past four years than in any other season.
Since 2010 the agency has sold 22 houses worth more than $3m in winter, 15 houses in spring and eight in summer and autumn.
“Noosa winters are mild in comparison to southern states so there is less loss in enthusiasm from buyers. There is also less competing properties on the market,” says Tom Offermann.
One Noosa Heads home, at 7 Witta Circle, will go under the hammer on July 26 with hopes of getting $7.2m.
Its seller, Brisbane-based dentist Kathryn Perry, put it on the market in winter because it was the best time to attract buyers.
Noosa offers those from NSW and Victoria a getaway during the winter that still has a summery feel, with the chance to hit the beach and enjoy warm weather.
“The water today is 24 degrees; even the Victorians get in the water.
“Normally it’s blue skies and beautiful weather so you can walk along the beach for hours on end. It’s not too hot in the winter. (But) in summer it can get terribly hot here.”
The house, which is part of a waterfront community on Noosa River, has four large bedrooms and four bathrooms. It has a gourmet kitchen, private jetty and views of the beach and water.
In Western Australia, winter is the busy period for Broome, according to First National Real Estate Broome sales manager Raymond Kuceli.
Winter is the dry season for Broome, and when tourists flock to the town to enjoy temperatures in the high 20s and swimming in the sea.
“It is the busiest time of the year for us. It’s when our population probably doubles because we get people coming up for just that period,” he says.
There are up to 15 per cent more homes on the market during this period.
Kuceli is marketing a waterfront property, at 59 Williams Road, Coconut Wells, which is expected to sell for $4.6m.
Winter is also the high point of the year in Cairns.
Ray White Cairns Beaches principal Paul Stirling says there are more inquiries during the winter because there are more visitors in the area.
“It’s our high season up here. Summer is humid and winter is the popular time for tourists,” Stirling says.
Unlike the Sunshine Coast, Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, which is about an hour from Melbourne, is not a winter beach destination, with the average maximum temperature in July at 13.6C.
Sotheby’s director of sales in Sorrento, Robert Curtain normally talks Mornington Peninsula sellers out of putting their houses on the market in the winter.
“It’s a lot quieter in the winter,” he says.
“I would much prefer to market the property from September onwards, when a lot more people are starting to think about summer holidays and their holiday house.
“My advice would be: you are not going to be financially worse off selling in the winter but there is more competition in the summer.”
Linda Slobom, and her husband, David, have gone against the norm and just put their home on St Andrew’s Beach, on the Bass Strait side of the southern Mornington Peninsula, on the market with an asking price of more than $2.5m.
The house at 67 Constantine Avenue overlooks the largely untamed coast of St Andrew’s and has four bedrooms, two bathrooms and an outdoor entertaining area. It is on 5000sq m of land and has a spotted gum exterior, helping it fit into the natural landscape.
The Slobom family built the house 17 years ago and are now looking for another “project”.
The first open day was last weekend and there has already been an offer.
Linda Slobom says the place is unique, which will help it sell in the coming months.
“We fell in love with the place in winter. You get the south-westerly (winds) come in and it's a sight to behold the ocean when it is blowing a gale,” she says.
“You won’t find another one of (these homes). It’s not like you’re looking in January and there’s 30 houses for sale in Sorrento and you can take your pick.”
So while the experts say that beach properties are most sellable while the sun is out, there will still be chances to get the perfect coastal home this winter, and in NSW and Victoria there will be fewer buyers to contend with.