Carmen Hall: Seaside dream house is out of reach

Holiday houses near the sandy beach are becoming hot property. Photo Getty / Images

OPINION

Don't get me wrong. I have a lot to be grateful for, I have a job and I own my own home.

Well I don't actually own all of it as I am still paying a mortgage. My house is a five-minute walk to the beach and every time my hubby and I meander along the shoreline I look at those seaside houses with envy.

I can only imagine how it must feel like to live in one of these. It is my dream to escape to a small seaside community. If I won Lotto tomorrow I can picture myself in a bach with ocean vistas as far as my eye can see.

I would enjoy early morning swims and watch ships on the incoming tides. I would collect sea shells, seaweed and driftwood.

I might even start my own business making weird and wonderful wind chimes from washed up storm debris.

But somehow I think this has become out of reach.

I read with dismay and wonder that sales of $1 million-plus properties in small Bay of Plenty seaside towns have doubled and even tripled in some areas as city-dwellers seek the coastal lifestyle and work-life balance.

The number of $1m-plus properties sold in Waihi Beach has more than tripled in a year, climbing to 43 sales in 2020 from 13 sales in 2019, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

In the same period, seven-figure sales in Pukehina doubled from 10 to 20 and further east in Ōhope - recently crowned New Zealand's best beach - the increase was 28 per cent from 14 to 18.

It's no secret the property market in the Bay of Plenty is running red hot and houses at the lakes in Rotorua are also fetching record prices.

Water views are in high demand and that shows no sign of abating.

Once upon a time it was almost every Kiwi's dream to own a house on a quarter acre and those lucky enough had a holiday bach as well.

Now those quarter acres have shrunk as cities intensify and any houses on the beach are considered luxury.

Guess I am lucky that dreams are still free.