Chapter 1: What makes Yamba a desirable coastal property location?
It's the Real Estate Podcast brought to you by Ray White, the largest real estate and property group in Australasia. And welcome to another episode of the Real Estate Podcast. And we're talking to Daniel Kelly from Ray White, Yamber and McLean. Welcome to the Real Estate Podcast. Thanks, Craig. Pleasure to be with you. Boy, it's a nice part of the world that you're in.
We're extremely fortunate, Craig, to live where we do here on the north coast of New South Wales. It's a very beautiful part of the world. We've been made very obvious to us during the course of COVID especially. We've managed to keep the majority of our freedoms and enjoy this beautiful coastal town that we have here.
Now, the thing is, not only you have noticed how beautiful it is and the locals have noticed how beautiful it is, but people outside of the area have noticed as well. So there is a bit of a increased demand for coastal properties at the moment in your area. Tell me a little bit about what's going on there. Yeah, it's exactly right. It's probably not necessarily so popular in the eyes of locals.
They've had to compete a little bit harder for property than what they might have been used to in years gone by. But the secret of what's so great about our area is certainly out for those buyers from the likes of Sydney and Melbourne. We've seen more interest from those two areas in the last 12 months than we've ever seen before.
It has created a change of environment, I suppose, for our local market, posed a couple of challenges for locals along the way in terms of having an understanding of how the market is now performing, the strength of it, and that's been a fairly sudden shift. So for us locals, we tend to have a bit of a habit, I guess, of looking at the market today
referring to what it was 12 months, two years ago, and obviously things have changed. Whereas buyers from outside of the area tend to come into our area with a fresh set of eyes and look at it and understand that for a coastal area, our marketplace still offers very good value for money relative to other places. You know, Yamba and McLean, like a lot of other coastal areas,
What has happened with COVID, I think, has made people living in the cities, the metro areas, I think they've re-evaluated their lives totally, you know, and they've thought, let's get out of the rat race. And suddenly you're looking at these coastal areas and And the price point is completely different.
And even if they're paying sort of top dollar in your area, it's a lot more value for money than what they would be paying where they are. So that's a bit of an adjustment, isn't it? That's like that's a mental adjustment for locals, particularly wanting to buy in perhaps first time homeowners. it makes it a little bit more difficult.
But there is a sort of realignment, if you will, in terms of the mindset, because you're going to have to catch up with that to be competitive. Very much so. I think you've pretty well hit the nail on the head there.
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Chapter 2: How has COVID-19 impacted demand for coastal properties?
But with that said, yeah, secrets out. Nowadays, our marketplace is far better known than what it was 10 years ago or 15 years ago when I started in real estate. Now, dare I say it, locals of Yamba and McLean, dare I say this, but for anybody listening to the podcast outside of the area, what's going on in terms of the infrastructure?
Infrastructure, there's been a few key things changed for us in the last few years. Pacific Highway enjoyed a fairly substantial upgrade right up and down the coast for that matter. But the advantage for us here locally has been travel times to the likes of Brisbane have been substantially reduced.
Even driving now to Sydney, you know, buyers and people in general are doing that sort of seven hours or thereabouts. You know, that was a eight, nine hour trip not long ago. So our accessibility through to the metropolitan areas is far better now. Our nearest regional airport in Ballina is only an hour's drive away, and that gives you very easy access to the likes of Sydney and Melbourne.
So we're all of a sudden that the trip to Yamba from other areas and metropolitan areas especially is now much less. That in itself has played a key role. But off the back of those things, we've seen a few other bits and pieces as well in terms of hospitality has always been a big thing for Yamba. It's a holiday town, always has been, probably always will be.
COVID has knocked that around a little bit, but It's probably proven to us locals especially that we are still a popular part of this state.
When travel was less restricted than it is now, holidaymakers were able to travel from down south and we were one of the few towns sort of as far north in the state as you could go before having to try and cross the Queensland border, which has been impossible. So we've had our ups and downs during COVID, but it's proven to us that as a little town, we're actually quite self-sufficient.
So I'm quite curious because I used to live on the Gold Coast. I also used to live in Sydney, but Yamba drive time from the Gold Coast and from Brisbane, what sort of time are we looking at now? From Yamba to the Gold Coast now is just over two hours. You can actually do Yamba to Brisbane in just under three. So it's quite an easy trip. Wow. It's not bad, is it? That's pretty good. Yeah.
All right.
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Chapter 3: What challenges are locals facing in the current real estate market?
Well, look, great to chat and catch up and talk about Yamber and McLean. That's certainly, I think, informed a lot of our audience listening into the podcast. And thanks for coming on to The Real Estate Podcast. Absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me, Craig. We connect you to the best real estate information across Australia. The Real Estate Podcast.