Best Coastal Towns to Buy Property in Australia in 2025
Since, for many people, living by the ocean is the dream, and beach houses are a good investment, beach properties in coastal towns are always in demand. In this blog post, you'll find a list of the best coastal towns to buy property in Australia.
Updated Mar'25
Australia is well-known for its beautiful coastline and gorgeous beaches. And since, for many people, living by the ocean is the dream, and beach houses are a good investment, beach properties in coastal towns are always in demand. So, if you are considering buying an Airbnb property on the waterfront, where should you look for it?
In this blog post, you’ll find a list of the best coastal towns to buy property in Australia. It is based on the data provided by Airbtics, a company that offers an accurate Airbnb analyzer to provide short-term rental investors and Airbnb hosts with data-driven insights and empower them to make smarter decisions.
You may also want to check out our blog article to find tips on how to start Airbnb in Australia and become a successful host.
Choosing Where to Buy a Beach House in Australia: Things to Consider
Beachfront homes are popular for travelers, so a beach house in a popular tourist destination can be a good source of real estate passive income if you rent it out to holiday-goers using platforms like Airbnb. But if you want to build a successful vacation rental business, you must ensure an outstanding customer experience to make your guests happy and encourage them to leave you 5-star reviews.
Airbnb hosting involves many responsibilities, and one of the most important is communication with guests during the entire customer journey. Guests may have many questions, and answering them can be challenging and time-consuming if you manually type each message.
A smarter approach is to automate sending messages to Airbnb guests using vacation rental software like Hospitable. Our tool will allow you to create an automated personalized message flow for each guest and take advantage of ChatGPT integration that can help you quickly create answers to unusual questions.
One of the first rules to investing wisely in a beach house is to avoid making an emotional decision. It’s important to research the location carefully, learn about local laws and regulations, and study local real estate market trends.
So, how can you define top locations when deciding where to buy a beach house in Australia? Here are some important metrics that can help you choose profitable cities and the best neighborhoods to find properties that will give you high returns.
Median property price—this metric can serve as a rough guide about the locations you can afford.
Monthly rental income—you can only make money if your rental income exceeds operating expenses and you have a positive cash flow.
Average daily rate can tell you about your earnings potential. Your daily rates should be comparable to the market to ensure you stay competitive.
Occupancy rate is expressed as a percentage and shows how often a STR property is booked compared to when it is available for rent. It’s one of the key metrics to evaluate the performance of an Airbnb property.
Gross rental yield (GRY) looks at the amount of rental income you can get over a year, measured against the market value of the property. It’s expressed as a percentage and can be useful for determining a property’s general investment potential—the higher percentage means greater cash flow and higher ROI.
15 Best Coastal Towns to Buy Property in Australia
If you are considering investing in a coastal holiday home and leasing it as a short-term rental on Airbnb and its alternatives in Australia, the most important factor to consider is the occupancy rate of your target area. If you get more bookings, you’ll be able to earn more money. That’s why the most profitable Airbnb locations have high occupancy rates.
Here is a list of Australia’s best places to buy beach houses. We created it using data from Airbtics based on the metrics we discussed above.
Location | Average Daily Rate (A$) | Occupancy Rate | Annual Revenue (A$) |
|---|---|---|---|
Port Douglas QLD | 374 | 60% | 82 811 |
Airlie Beach QLD | 332 | 72% | 88 481 |
Mission Beach QLD | 317 | 63% | 74 337 |
Maroochydore QLD | 267 | 75% | 74 959 |
Tweed Heads NSW | 384 | 72% | 102 422 |
Margaret River WA | 288 | 81% | 86 917 |
Geraldton WA | 193 | 88% | 63 024 |
Albany WA | 258 | 75% | 71 932 |
Coffs Harbour NSW | 293 | 62% | 67 588 |
Warrnambool VIC | 255 | 65% | 61 957 |
Busselton WA | 304 | 71% | 80 774 |
Port Macquarie NSW | 230 | 66% | 56 687 |
Bicheno TAS | 276 | 72% | 73 954 |
Kingscote SA | 220 | 68% | 55 798 |
Port Elliot SA | 281 | 59% | 62 555 |
These seaside towns could be great investment options if you’re looking to buy a holiday home in Australia and turn it into an Airbnb. Airbtics also offers the best Airbnb calculator that can help you discover the earnings potential of a STR property anywhere in the world if you enter its address.
Is Owning a Beach House in Australia a Good Investment?
Owning a beach house in a popular vacation destination can be a good investment since beachfront properties often appreciate value over time. Besides, you can make money from your beach house by renting it out as a vacation rental when you’re not using it.
The amount of rental income you can earn will depend on the location and demand, your property’s size, the amenities you offer, and the number of channels you use to market it. It’s also important to be cost-efficient and streamline routine tasks related to managing your Airbnb business.
That means you can benefit from using vacation rental software like Hospitable, which offers advanced tools to help you automate different aspects of vacation rental management and maximize your revenue.
One of the coastal towns included in our list is Maroochydore in Queensland. So we asked Ethan, the Sunshine Coast-based host who is also a Hospitable user, some questions about how he started his hosting journey.
How did you assess the property when buying?
– My wife and I have two STRs here on the Sunshine Coast. For both, we looked for family-friendly properties with lifestyle amenities that are popular in the area, such as short distance to the beach, cafes, restaurants, etc.
What was your biggest challenge when starting the business?
– Getting the financing for the first property was the most difficult hurdle! After that, the constant challenge is staying ahead of the local competition, and we manage to do so by providing a top-notch guest experience.
Do you have any plans for scaling your business?
– We’re going to continue purchasing more houses in the local area, and we’ll likely look to acquire some acreage in the area next, with the aim to STR multiple dwellings on the site.
How do you use automation to streamline your business operations?
– We’re avid users of automation through Hospitable, such as AI in the Inbox. I can’t remember the last time I typed out a manual message! We’re using tools integrated with Hospitable, such as Pricelabs and Turno, to automate our pricing and payments of cleaners, and we also have a direct booking website powered by Hospitable.
