Escaping the city in more ways than one

Greta Andrews-TaylorThe West Australian
Camera IconMarina Quays, Exmouth. Credit: Photon-Photos/Getty Images/iStockphoto

With travel restrictions meaning we cannot see what the rest of the world has to offer, considering the opportunity to visit the gems that our state is host to will provide many benefits.

Perhaps you will find your forever home, with it offering a change of scenery, or you will seek out a home that will serve as a getaway from the big city.

Ray White Exmouth Selling Principal Mark Lucas said there had been strong interest in properties in the northern regions of the state, with almost pre-global financial crisis volumes.

“People are genuinely rediscovering Western Australia, their own backyard,” he said. “We manage a lot of holiday homes here and we’ve noticed a shift in the demographic of people coming. People who would normally go overseas are coming to Exmouth, the town has been at full capacity for the past four weeks and looks to be that way for several months.”

According to Mr Lucas, in regards to Exmouth, there has been a definite renewed interest in holiday homes.

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“The town has been so booked out and we’ve had so much extra demand that we couldn’t meet and people are noticing and starting to think that having a holiday home in Exmouth could offer a reasonable return,” he said.

“A holiday home is probably more suitable for the type of tourists we’re getting because they’ve got surfboards, fishing gear, snorkelling gear and they want the all-round experience.

“They’re coming for seven days or more, so to be able to come up and stay at a holiday home and spread out a bit, or to come up and share a property with multiple families – it really does become quite an affordable holiday.”

Nutrien Real Estate Bunbury Branch Manager Steve Lloyd-Smith said he had also noted an increase in the number of people looking to purchase a property in the southern regions, for a variety of reasons.

Mr Lloyd-Smith said there used to be more enquiries for holiday homes, but this had shifted into an owner-occupier market.

“The biggest growth area is certainly the area of the lifestyle properties, so somewhere between five acres and say 40 acres,” he said. “People are looking for that move away, with all that’s going on in our world at the moment.

“It’s the concept of being able to grow their own vegetables or maybe run your own chickens that people used to do on a quarter-acre block and bigger.”

The demographic that Mr Lloyd-Smith said was the most interested in the lifestyle change was between the ages of about 35-55.

“They’re not going to be first homebuyers, they’re going to be people coming in and looking for that green or tree change, and therefore they’re going to be second or third property owners,” he said.

“The biggest increase we’ve seen is not the coastal stretch, it’s very much the tree change in those lifestyle farm sectors.”

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