John Murray - Whale Coast Realty

John Murray
Principal Owner
Whale Coast Realty

What a Year on the NSW far south coast In Narooma

Whale Coast Realty, Narooma continued to have a very good year and our overall sales match the previous two years, in what is now a turning market. The team is now gearing up for our typically busy 3 months over the Christmas Summer period, with our large portfolio of holidays homes all heavily booked with guests from far and wide.

The large influx of farmers and their families, a welcome site on the coast during this time ,  mixing it with the Canberrans and Sydney folk and the few Victorian that make it all way to town. The fish are on the bite and the Golf course in great order after the springs rains that finally came, to make the whole area beautifully green and inviting for everyone.

In term of sales we sold a fantastic beach side 50acre farm in Central Tilba for a great price for the owners of $2.5m, a record for the area. The beach front properties continued to in high demand and fetching very good prices and a front row beach block of land also sold for record $585,000. 5 acre house and land continues to be well sort after just outside of town.
 
Narooma has shown some nice growth with the new Betta Superstore built and operating and the water park opening at the Big 4 park.  O’Brien’s Pub and Tilba Valley wines changed hands and the construction of the new Woolworths is underway next to existing site.
 
Our market like many others have slowed, with the banking royal commission having a very negative impact on banking loans for prospective buyers. As well as the reduction in prices in the capital cities (from a very high base - we all seem to forget) has followed us down the coast and causing our prices to come off slightly.
 
Overall 2018 has being very good for us on the coast, with more and more people moving into the area, with a steady influx of younger families moving in away from the bigger cities and still a good flow of retirees moving to our beautiful shores. With this we have a large shortage of permanent rentals for good people.

My team had also grown over past year with a stronger holiday and property management team that continue to offer fantastic customer experiences for everyone that comes into contact with us.

2019 awaits us and we believe the market will slightly ease with thoughts of interest rates, banking finance, lack of rain and federal politics all having an effect on a buyer confidence. While we remain quite positive with the knowledge that our market will continue to attract retirees and young families into a beautiful section of the south coast still very much untouched by big developments but with a sense of community that the whole town enjoys,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year