This tiny Hamptons cottage is asking $17 million, but there's a catch

A “Hamptons’ chic” 1940s oceanfront cabana sounds like the perfect place to spend a summer, but with the one bedder’s USD $11.9 million (AUD $17 million) price tag, it may seem far less than ideal.

But before you write off the beachfront cottage as another post-pandemic money grab, there is more going on with this listing than first impressions give.

Sure, the one-bed, 1.5-bath cottage at 85 Dune Road lacks internal floor space – but it’s actually sitting on a sizeable almost two-acre lot.

The kicker? There’s 50 metres of direct ocean frontage, a rarity in the coveted Hamptons market.

Broker Enzo Morabito of Douglas Elliman tells NY Post that the frontage is what it’s all about. Usually, lots with a more common 30 metres of frontage would be forced to build perpendicular to the sand, not parallel.

“The broadness of a house, the width of the house, on the ocean is extremely important,” he tells the Post.

“It’s the last big lot in Westhampton of this dimension that you can do that in a prime spot … you can make it wide so you have bedrooms that are looking out at the ocean, extra bedrooms upstairs looking out at the ocean.”

While the land is acreage, the existing cabana will need to be demolished to make way for a more liveable structure.

A shame really, as it offers that quintessential Hamptons style beloved the world over.

But not all opportunity to enjoy the cabana would be lost. The listing suggests “spend[ing] a summer in this cottage while getting permits to build your oceanfront dream home.”

If $17 million still seems steep for land on the beach, just north of Westhampton, ritzy east-of-the-canal homes in Southampton and Sag Harbor sell for many millions more.

According to the Post, in Water Mill, a comparable oceanfront listing with more than two acres of vacant land complete with 182 feet of frontage now asks USD $24 million (AUD $34.5 million), more than twice the price.