HUMBLE holiday homes near the beach or in the country are set to grow in popularity and style as a generation of baby boomers look to split their time between functional apartments and lifestyle locations.
According to MacQuarie Bank head of property research Rod Cornish, baby boomers, especially those with older children, will soon be looking to downsize their family homes in the suburbs in favour of smaller townhouses close to the city.
But rather than spend all of their time in modern inner-city residences, a large portion of the boomers will be looking for an alternative location to spend their weekends.
“The second location will be a lifestyle location, not more than a few hours’ drive from the city,” Mr Cornish said.
“It will be a place where the owners eventually see themselves spending up to half of their time.”
And though these new holiday homes may be many kilometres away from the city and workplace, buyers will still expect all the facilities associated with both.
“The houses will not necessarily be big but they will be quite modern and stylish and they will most definitely have a separate, defined area where people can work,” Mr Cornish said.
“That also means facilities such as Internet access will be in demand.
“These houses will be a place where people can pack up and drive to at lunchtime on a Thursday, work in their little own office on Friday and spend the weekend relaxing until they drive back on Sunday night.”
The trend had already started in New South Wales, where baby boomers were buying holiday homes en masse in areas such as Byron Bay and Mr Cornish expected the trend to pick up in WA over the next few years.
Coastal towns just north or south of Perth and the South West wine region were likely to become the focus of the trend, he said.
