Uninterrupted Views: Real-Estate Advertising and Changing Perspectives on Coastal Property in New Zealand

Abstract

This paper considers the landscape of coastal property in New Zealand through the lens of real-estate advertising. In analyzing a sample of 236 newspaper advertisements, it connects representations of coastal housing to broader concerns about the development of the coastline. Much public anxiety centres on the notion that coastal residential development and escalating property values signal private gain, but public loss. What is lost, it is claimed, is a landscape that is open, physically but also socially: the presence of imposing holiday homes detracts from the experience of going to the beach, and contributes to the unaffordability of staying at the beach. Such notions do not, of course, feature prominently in advertising. We find that views from private property over the coast are often prioritized in advertising, while the coast itself is typically portrayed as devoid of people. This invites viewers to place themselves in the image—as prospective property owners—and appeals to notions of going to the coast to secure privacy and opportunities for passive relaxation. Advertising for coastal real estate, we conclude, promotes a way of seeing the coastal landscape that is consistent with the ideology of enclosure.