Kiama Downs real estate

Kiama Downs sits on the coast north of Kiama and Bombo, with Jones Beach along its eastern side and the Minnamurra River on its north-western edge. It was farmland owned by the Boyd and Jones families until it was subdivided from about 1960, which is why the beach goes by both names: Jones Beach, also known as Boyd or Boyds Beach.

Most of the suburb is houses on suburban blocks, built from the 1960s onwards and renovated or rebuilt over the years. The western side, beyond Riverside Drive, is still called Gainsborough after the estate developed there later. After Kiama itself, it is the largest residential area in the 2533 postcode, home to young families and to people who have lived in the same house for decades.

Council

Kiama Municipal Council

From our Shell Cove office

About 6 km

Population (2021 Census)

5,087

Median age

43

Jones Beach is the centre of things: about a kilometre of sand between the headland at Minnamurra Point and the basalt columns of Cathedral Rocks, patrolled in season by the Kiama Downs Surf Life Saving Club, which has been on the northern half of the beach since 1982. The reserve behind the sand has a shaded playground and picnic tables, there is a basketball court opposite the surf club, and the local boardriders have run contests here since 1983.

Everyday shopping is on Johnson Street, with a supermarket, bakery, cafe, pharmacy and a GP, and there is a small shopping centre on the Gainsborough side. The suburb has no school or station of its own: Minnamurra Public School is next door in Minnamurra, Minnamurra and Bombo are the nearest stations on the South Coast Line, and Kiama's town centre is to the south.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021 Census of Population and Housing, Kiama Downs (SAL12125). © Commonwealth of Australia, CC BY 4.0. Tenure shares are of occupied private dwellings and don't add to 100% where some households didn't say.

Kiama Downs was built over a few decades on blocks of similar size, so buyers compare homes here closely. Distance to Jones Beach, the size and slope of the block, any ocean or river outlook and how much an older house has been updated make most of the difference in price. We look at recent sales on the same side of Riverside Drive, and our office is a short drive north at Shell Cove.

Renting it out instead? We manage rental homes in Kiama Downs too, where houses in the postcode lease for around $830 a week.