The real estate market has reached crazy heights with any old house around Nelligen and up and down the cost now selling for at least $800,000 - and the majority around or just above one million - and nothing under half a million for home units.
The most ordinary houses on no more than 600 square metres of land - the new quarter-acre block - now sell for a million dollars; for example, here is 4 Bagarin Avenue, Tomakin, on 600m², selling for $1,200,000.
Add to the same 600-something m² a bit of an ocean view, and the price goes up to over $2,600,000 to $2,800,000 - click here - of course, you should've bought it six years ago when it last sold for $1,250,000.
Also just in 2010, this property at 33 Cors Parade, North Batemans Bay sold for $800,000. Now they're asking $2,500,000 to 2,750,000 for it!
Even more recently, in August 2019, 17 Barrakee Drive, Long Beach, sold for $989,000. It's back on the market at $1,950,000 to $2,145,000!
And what about forty acres with ocean and mountain views, both of which are many, many miles away? This one at 574 Bingie Road, Bingie has a very nice house on it, but is it worth $3,300,000 to $3,600,000?
Of course, many sellers are not even advertising a price but go to auction as no-one seems to know what buyers are prepared to pay.
What will "Riverbend" be worth - old owner, old house, seven acres, absolute river frontage - when I finally trade it in for a walking frame?
In parenthesis, if you're happy to be within spitting distance of your (hopefully lovely) neighbours, with 3x3m-bedrooms (and no built-ins), and your eaves almost overhanging your boundaries, you could just scrape in on $949,000 by settling for this charmer at Sunshine Bay.
But bring a measuring tape for the inspection! An agent once confided to me that these display homes are sometimes furnished with slightly smaller furniture pieces to make the rooms appear more spacious.
