'Incredibly valuable': The best homes for sale across the country with jetties and moorings
What on earth could be better than a waterfront home? That’s easy. It’s one where you can step directly from the house onto the harbour, ocean, river or canal without even getting your feet wet.
A jetty or pontoon attached to a home can these days add as much as $1 million to its value by providing the huge convenience of a boat mooring, effortless boarding, great fishing and countless hours of diving fun for kids.
“It’s an asset, just like having a great view,” says James Baker of McGrath Pittwater, who’s currently auctioning a five-bedroom house at Avalon Beach, on Sydney’s northern beaches, with the prize trifecta of a private jetty, boathouse and boat ramp.
“When you’ve got a deep waterfront setting on a beach like Clareville, a jetty is incredibly valuable.
Many people might also have a swing mooring, but they need the jetty for picking up people and equipment and dropping them all back again. It could certainly add $1 million to the price.”
The architect-designed house, with a price guide of $11.5 million, covers three levels encased in sliding glass with a home theatre and games room, decks surrounding a 10-metre pool and level lawns.
Also in Sydney, but a completely different style, is another jetty with a house attached, this time on the harbourfront at Darling Point and priced at around $80 million.
This house has six bedrooms as well as two separate self-contained guest or staff quarters. It has a lift, wine cellar and pool, along with the jetty, slipway and boatshed.
“The most amazing thing is its 54-metre frontage, which spans the width of three normal blocks,” says the agent, Alison Coopes. “It makes the property one of the rarest in Sydney at the moment.
“And the jetty is a lovely accoutrement to an unbelievably beautiful house. It’s perfect for dropping visitors off.
“The house itself, being absolute waterfront, feels like you’re in a massive cruise liner,” she adds.
“Because there’s so much floor-to-ceiling glass, it feels as though you’re floating.”
Shaun Thomas, director of prestige residential in Sydney for valuers Herron Todd White, says people who buy a waterfront home want all the waterfront facilities that go along with the lifestyle.
In most cases, jetties and pontoons can add enormous value to a home, depending on location, the depth of water and the slope of the land.
“They can certainly add hundreds of thousands of dollars extra value, especially if they enable a bigger boat to be brought into the area,” Thomas says. “The water might be shallow where it meets the land, but if you go out five or 10 metres there’s a deeper channel, so then you can have a bigger boat, which is important to that high-end market.
“What we’re seeing a lot of now, too, is the area by the jetty or pontoon used as an entertainment space or with boathouses converted to add additional living space or with kitchens and bathrooms.”
In Melbourne, there’s another fabulous home on the market with a private jetty, this time onto the river in Toorak. This one is a 1930s masterpiece of deco style, on a 2000-square-metre estate on a scenic bend of the Yarra River.
“Getting absolute waterfront in Victoria is a bit of an anomaly as there really aren’t many around,” says Jock Langley of Abercromby’s Real Estate. “And to have one where you can actually park your boat in front of the house … that’s an extremely rare commodity.
“It’s a floating pontoon and you have that ability to be able to step out onto the water, which is a really great thing to have and undoubtedly has significant value attached to it. It’s the key drawcard for this site.”
For sale for between $14.5 million and $15.95 million, the five-bedroom house, Tarcoola, also has the distinction of having either given its name to, or being named after (no one’s quite sure), a Melbourne Cup winner.
In coastal Queensland, with a lifestyle so based on water, jetties are perhaps even more sought after.
Mick Maguire, of Mick’s Marine Maintenance at the Gold Coast’s Runaway Bay, says they’re a fantastic asset, not only in terms of financial value but also for enjoyment – docking boats and jet skis, fishing or simply enjoying a sunset drink.
One home now on the market in Surfers Paradise sits right on the riverfront, with a deep-water pontoon and jetty providing the finishing touches to its Chevron Island location.
“There’s been a huge amount of interest in this four-bedroom property, being right on the Nerang River with a nice big jetty,” says agent Martin Kovac of Harcourts Coastal.
“A lot of people like having a jetty with a pontoon for fishing, jet skis and for a big boat, and such easy access out to the ocean.
“There’s simply nothing like this around at the moment and, as well as interest locally, we’ve also got a lot of inquiry from Sydney and Melbourne. Everyone wants to be on the water!”
There are more affordable options around for those dreaming of a home with a jetty but without the finances to pay those prices.
Currently being offered for sale is the crown lease of a Derwent River jetty in Derwent Park, six kilometres north-west of Hobart – with a 48-foot boat docked alongside – for $100,000 to $150,000.
“The boat has four beds, so you could easily live there,” says PMM Real Estate agent Stefanie Szycman. “That could be the cheapest alternative there is.”
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