Sydney morning herald reports

THIS weatherboard box could be Victoria’s most expensive real estate. A pair of young families yesterday paid $455,000 (£251,214) for the 22-square-metre boat shed at auction because they wanted a place to store their beach gear.

Photo: Rebecca Hallas

Auctioneer Warwick Anderson said the sale of Boat Shed 21 on Shelley Beach in Portsea eclipsed the previous record of $362,000 two years ago.

”The new buyers both have houses off the cliff, out the back of Portsea,” he said. ”They were sick of lugging all their stuff up and down the beach.”

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ananova reports

More than 20 people braved sub-zero temperatures to queue overnight in Dorset to try and secure a beach hut for the summer.

The group camped outside in temperatures as low as -8C for the huts, which are let on a first-come-first-serve basis at Avon Beach in Christchurch.

At the front of the queue was Kim Abbott who had spent the last six nights sleeping in a camper van to make sure she secured the only hut available on a long-term let.

The remainder joined her in the queue from noon on Thursday to snap up the 16 other 6ft by 4ft huts that were only available to hire for six weeks of the summer, costing £400.

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Former shed judge and all round beach hut nuttess Kathryn Ferry gets some good coverage for her excellent beach hut  books over at Eadt

Kathryn Ferry is billed as our ‘national beach hut expert’ – and just happens to love East Anglia. She tells Steven Russell why she does like to be beside the seaside and why Felixstowe is a favourite

KATHRYN Ferry’s a girl who just loves to be beside the seaside – so much so that she writes and talks about it for a living. She’s also obsessed with beach huts – spending two months travelling around the coast to look at more than 20,000 of these quaint waterfront havens.

So she’ll naturally have one of her own, then, won’t she? “Noooooo,” comes the plaintiff reply – more an anguished wail, really. “It’s dreadful. I hate admitting that, because when I started out” – writing a book about beach huts – “my intention was to make enough to be able to buy one. I was a poor student when I started and there was no way I could afford one. But of course the price has been going up over the past decade. It’s going to have to be a best-seller – and there’s not much chance of that!”

In any case, there are huge waiting lists for huts around the country.

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Norfolk News reports

photo credit: Rev Stan

Beach hut owners on north Norfolk’s coast were left angry yesterday after councillors agreed a 10pc hike in rent for their seaside hideaways.

The 132 chalets and 230 hut sites in Cromer, Sheringham, Overstrand and Mundesley, managed by the district council, are costing the authority thousands of pounds to maintain each year.

At a cabinet meeting, councillors approve an increase in rent, along with a number of other changes, to help cover the deficit and fund a programme of improvements.

It means, beach-hut owners in Sheringham, Cromer and Overstrand face a £15 increase in the annual charge, taking it from £160 to £175, Mundesley sites will cost £165 instead of £155, while yearly rents for chalet owners will rise by between £55 and £62 pounds.

Mundesley’s beach hut owners will also have to pay their National Non-Domestic Rate separately, which was previously incorporated into their rents.

At this week’s meetings, where public speaking was allowed for the first time, villagers shouted their annoyance as they left the room.

They said hut owners, who fund their own repairs and maintenance, were being made to pay for a deficit created solely by chalets – although council figures show the hut sites cost the council £3,000 in 2008/09 – and that Mundesley people were being penalised twice.

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Suggs from Madness talks in the telegraph about his love for a beach hut in Whitstable

My wife’s family are from Whitstable and I’ve been going there for 30 years. As I’m a Londoner, the seaside has always had a special allure, and as it’s only about an hour-and-a-half’s drive from where I live, it’s a perfect weekend destination.

Not Suggs Wife’s Shed : credit: fast eddie 42

My wife’s family have a beach hut – in reality, a glorified woostoke by naylandden shed, but it has all the requirements: a little Calor gas stove for rustling up a sausage sandwich, and a standpipe down the road so you can make a cup of tea. There’s something about being able to look out at the sea that I find so relaxing. Perhaps it’s because I was born in Hastings – or the fact that living in London means you never really get to see the horizon?

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