A MODEST fisherman's-style cottage listed for sale with expectations of more than $2 million shows just how far property values have climbed in Lake Macquarie.
The renovated two-bedroom weatherboard home and boat shed on 1022 square metres at 145 Coal Point Road is one of the last remaining cottages on the Coal Point Road waterfront strip and is surrounded by substantial luxury homes.
The suburb's median dwelling value sits at $1,077,976.
"We are guiding in the early $2 million vicinity and I've already had 30 enquiries in the first 48 hours," Avery Property Professionals listing agent Craig Avery said.
"It is a rare opportunity to own 23 metres of water frontage and there are big possibilities to build a dwelling behind it."
It was last sold in 2018 for $1.2 million and while the owners have completed an extensive renovation of the cottage, the potential $1 million gains the property could earn show how high housing values in Lake Macquarie have sky-rocketed.
According to CoreLogic, suburbs on the lake recorded the largest 12-month rise in house and unit values in the Hunter region, with dwelling values jumping 7.5 per cent in Lake Macquarie East and 7.3 per cent in Lake Macquarie West.
"The annual gain in dwelling values puts Lake Macquarie East and Lake Macquarie West as the fifth and sixth strongest housing markets across the SA3 sub-regions of regional NSW over the past 12 months," CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said.
Lake Macquarie placed behind Tweed Valley (up 9.2 per cent), Wagga Wagga (8.1 per cent), Dubbo (7.8 per cent) and Tumut-Tumbarumba (7.7 per cent).
Mr Lawless said values across the two sub-regions of the Hunter region recorded more than double the annual growth rate across the combined regional areas of where values posted a 3.5 per cent annual capital gain.
By comparison, dwelling values across the Newcastle SA3 region were up 5.5 per cent over the past 12 months.
The suburbs with the largest gains in dwelling values were Murray's Beach (up 14.9 per cent), Swansea (14.5 per cent) and Rathmines (14 per cent).
Mr Avery said lifestyle and value for money was a driving factor behind the growing demand for property in Lake Macquarie.
"The lifestyle that it offers and the fact you can still get a decent parcel of land without being on 300 square metres, that's a big part of it," Mr Avery said.
"Yet we are still within 30 or 40 minutes of everything Newcastle has to offer while also being that bit closer to Sydney."
He said locals were the dominant buyers on the west side of Lake Macquarie, followed by Sydneysiders.
Waterfront homes attracted the highest level of enquiry at his Toronto-based agency and demand, combined with low stock levels, was pushing prices up.
"Buyers don't have a lot to choose from because those waterfront homes are so tightly held," he said.
Ray White East Lake Macquarie selling agent Troy McLennan agreed that lifestyle was a key driver of the lake's popularity.
"The lifestyle the lake offers is in huge demand," Mr McLennan said.
"Lake Macquarie East is a strip of land surrounded by water, with the ocean on one side and the lake on the other, and there are very few places in the country that offer that.
"Unlike Newcastle, we're not flooded with apartment buildings so we really do have significantly less on offer, so supply and demand is always out of balance."
Mr McLennan said demand was not limited to any one suburb.
"There was a time where I would have said Warners Bay, Valentine, Caves Beach and Catherine Hill Bay but everywhere is very much the same," he said.
"It's the whole strip where everyone is looking and they're moving to a different pockets, depending on what their budget is."
Buyers are moving to the lake from Sydney, the Central Coast, Orange, Dubbo and, more recently, Newcastle, Mr McLennan said.
Recent big sales include 49 Stollard Street in Catherine Hill Bay which sold for $2.3 million to an out-of-area buyer who had holidayed in the suburb.
"People want to live where they holiday," he said.
The rise in dwelling values follows the latest regional movers index report released in February that ranked Lake Macquarie among the most sought-after locations in regional NSW for people looking to move out of Sydney.
Lake Macquarie had a 5.4 per cent share of the net capital-regional migration in the last quarter of 2023.
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