Paradise Point on the Gold Coast has $1.467 billion of property at risk due to its canals,the most of any suburb in Australia. About 20 per cent of the suburb is at high risk,the report said.
Cronulla in Sydney’s south ranked second with $486.4 million of property at risk,followed by Port Melbourne with $483.8 million.
Other at-risk suburbs include Manly and Collaroy on Sydney’s sought-after northern beaches,Melbourne bayside suburbs Brighton and Aspendale,Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast and Caloundra and Golden Beach on the Sunshine Coast.
The report also looked at coastal retreat rates,warning of gradual coastal erosion as well as the immediate risk of storm surges.
In East Mackay in Queensland,the coastline is retreating at an average rate of 7.72 metres a year,the report found.
Victoria’s Queenscliff and Portland are retreating at more than 5 metres each per year,while on the NSW south coast North Batemans Bay is retreating at more than 3 metres a year.
A high tide on Bribie Island,opposite Golden Beach on the Sunshine Coast,in 2020.Credit:Blueys Photography
Australia’s sea levels have been rising faster than the global average,CoreLogic noted,citing the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report.
It follows separate research this month warning one million homes are at risk of flooding across 30 priority local government areas and climate change-fuelled riverine flooding could cause $170 billion in property value losses by 2050.
The risk is already on the minds of potential homebuyers in well-heeled waterfront neighbourhoods.
PK Property managing director and senior buyer’s agent Peter Kelaher said coastal risk was the first question asked by potential buyers in affected areas of Sydney’s northern beaches.
The Collaroy sea wall was hit by a strong swell in January.Credit:Brook Mitchell
“[They ask] ‘is that sea wall going to protect me when we have a storm? With my insurance for flood insurance and storm insurance am I covered in that particular area? If we do have to put a sea wall in,is the council going to pay for it or do we have to pitch in and pay for it?’” he said.
Homes close to the ocean in affected parts of Collaroy and Narrabeen are trading at a discount to nearby beaches with less risk,he said.
“If you’re buying the property now,people on certain parts of those beaches would discount the property 10 to 20 per cent,and other parts of the beaches that don’t flood would hold their value,” he said.
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He advises buyers in these areas to make sure they are paying a low price to cover themselves for resale,find out the costs of any potential new sea wall and check insurance coverage.
In Melbourne,Whitefox Advocacy managing director Nicole Jacobs said coastal risk did come up in conversations with buyers looking for bayside homes,or on the Mornington Peninsula,or for beach boxes that can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars,although she is not regularly asked about it.
“It’s part of the due diligence,” she said. “More and more people are becoming aware of it. It’s something you do need to look into just to get a time frame of what it’s going to look like in years to come.”