Mollymook keeps its fingers crossed for a taste of the 'Rick Stein effect' on property prices

There was more than a frisson of excitement when British chef – and global television celebrity – Rick Stein announced in 2009 that he would be opening a seafood restaurant in Mollymook.

Local real estate agents and savvy investors in the laid-back coastal settlement were well aware of the celebrity chef’s track record in the UK where he’d transformed a Cornish fishing village into a magnet for wealthy Brits looking for that idyllic holiday home.

His colonisation of Padstow is so complete that locals have renamed the village “Padstein”, but the success of the Seafood Restaurant and his other ventures also boosted real estate prices. Every well-heeled Londoner wanted a cottage in Padstow.

Although he arrived on the NSW south coast with similar fanfare, promising to revive Mollymook’s gastronomic fortunes, opinion is divided about whether the urbane English chef has done anything to pep up the appetite for residential property on the coast.

Carmel Timmins from Bella Coast Property says that Stein’s arrival may have improved bookings at Bannisters, the boutique hotel with which the restaurant is associated, but has done nothing to bolster real estate prices in Mollymook.

“It would be great for Rick Stein to have worked his little magic down here and see the price of property go through the roof but it hasn’t happened,” she says.

“Everybody had impression that Rick Stein was going to change the world. They thought ‘Oh, Rick Stein is here so I’m going to get big money for my property’. But a good feed isn’t necessarily going to entice someone to spend a $1 million on a holiday house.”

Other agents strongly disagree, arguing that the “Stein effect” has turned Mollymook into an international gourmet destination. They say the fact that Stein and his Australian wife, Sarah, have bought a number of properties in Mollymook has definitely attracted other wealthy buyers, often from overseas.

Ben Pryde from Raine & Horne Ulladulla says it is now a common sight to see people arriving from Sydney by private helicopter – something that would inconceivable a few years ago.

“A lot of wealthier people have been coming here since Rick Stein became involved,” he says. “Their helicopters fly into Milton and there’s a courtesy car waiting to pick them up. They’re either here just for the day or staying overnight at Bannisters and then flying back next day. That happens regularly.”

Pryde says that the launch of Bannisters with Stein’s much-publicised involvement has certainly given Mollymook an international profile, but that the impact on local real estate prices has, for a number of obvious reasons, been far less spectacular than Padstow in the 1980s and 1990s.

“I think it will take a longer than it did in the UK. I know prices skyrocketed over there [in Padstow]. It will take place but in Mollymook we’re still battling the state of the economy at the moment and people are a little more cautious,” he says.

“But the market is still bubbling along down here. There’s so much doom and gloom in Sydney, but we’re not experiencing that to the same degree. We’re getting quite a lot of sales away.”

Kevin Cooper from Ray White Surfside Properties is another Stein supporter, saying that the presence of the celebrity chef has helped bolster the sale of property in the $1 million-plus range by attracting a new wave of international clients.

The agency recently sold a house on Beach Road, Mollymook for just over $1 million. The buyers, from Singapore, were actually staying at Rick Stein’s house while they looked at property in the area – the couple is now looking for second investment property to buy.

“I believe that Rick Stein owning that restaurant has assisted me in selling that particular property,” he says. “Mollymook is a funny place. You’ve only got to get a couple of people of well known stature purchasing on the beach and that sets a bench mark.”

But Cooper concedes that people buying a more modest property in Mollymook or nearby Milton are probably unaffected by the presence of such a foodie celebrity in their midst.

“Let’s face it, the majority of people can’t afford to eat there,” he said. “But I do believe that Rick Stein being here has an impact on the higher end and it certainly hasn’t hurt the area. I certainly think that there’ll be some positives in the future when market trends start to change.”

No amount of stardust can camouflage the fact that real estate prices along the south coast have taken a pasting over the past two years. The median price for a house in Mollymook is now $410,000. Demand for property continues to be weak – severely impacting the re-sale value of glamourous, waterfront properties.

Overall, agents blame the impact of increased land tax and the continuing uncertainty about the state government’s coastal management plan for Shoalhaven for depressing property prices on the south coast, rather than worries about the global economy.

Ben Pryde says that land tax has particularly impacted on retirees and people who have inherited family-owned property in and around Mollymook. This has been compounded by uncertainly about the impact of the coastal management plan.

“For a lot of people entering retirement age the land tax suddenly became too much to bear, so they had to sell,” he says. “As far as the coastal management plan, there was a big fear campaign in the media which didn’t help.”

The coastal management plan seeks to protect coastal communities from storm and flood damage associated with global warming and an associated increase in ocean levels – predicted to be as much as 40 centimetres by 2050.

Many people are naturally concerned that the new regulations will prevent them from redeveloping attractive waterfront sites, but a spokesman for Shoalhaven City Council says these fears are largely unfounded.

“In the main these new design regulations can easily be incorporated into a DA,” he says. “As it stands only a handful of properties will not be eligible for redevelopment.”