I have been a fan of Sydney's Northern Beaches for a long time now. It's just a great part of Australia and I think it has always represented good value compared to nearby city beaches. Now with tele-commuting allowing people to work away from their CBD offices more often, it suggests to me the value gap will narrow in the near future.  After all, the only possible reason anyone could have for not wanting to wake up and go for a swim at Avalon Beach before coffee and heading off to work is the hefty commute into the city.

So it was with great interest last week when I met with a few of my team from our Collaroy and Avalon offices to hear them tell me of the great buying opportunities still available on the Northern Beaches.  They cited several examples of homes that had been sold two years ago for $3M+ that had recently re-sold for about $2.4M. This equates to 20% - 30% discounts on a rough calculation.  I suspect this is driven by the fact the market in the $2M-$4M range is a tad shaky because of the recent share market and that the Northern Beaches has yet to fully recover from the buffeting they took during the GFC.

If you're thinking of a sea change or are cashed up and interested in a stunning weekender, I think you have about three months before the window of opportunity slams shut.  Reasons?  The share market will recover shortly (or so say the smartest guys in the room), the property market is well and truly rolling again in the city and surrounding areas (only a matter of short time before it creeps across the Spit Bridge) and beachside prices generally jump up a few percent when Spring comes around.

So get your swimmers on (albeit, it's a tad cool outside at the moment!) and take a beautiful 30 minutes drive north to see what you can find before it's too late.