Spending half a million dollars on a house makes sense. So does dropping that on a condo or an investment property. But what if it’s used for a ‘beach key’? On Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the south coast of Massachusetts, people are laying down $650,000, but not for the love of the vineyard. Not for land they can build on. Not even for a home to live in, but for ‘access’. In this strangest real estate market, the commodity isn’t square footage or ocean views, but access itself. On this island, half a million can buy you a physical key that opens a gate to a private beach! Those keys separate the island’s most private shores from the crush of summer tourists. These tiny beach lots, often passed down through families for decades, are now up for sale! Regardless of how strange this commodity is, there has been a steep climb in prices and demand. For most, the purchase is less about the beach and more about what money can buy: exclusive access. This access can cost $400,000 or more.
What owning a private beach means
Representative image
Tyler Smith, a retired architect, told Realtor.com what owning a beach key really means. He recalls bringing his now-adult kids when they were young. During the summers, it was a place for them to have some quality time. “We used to spend all day here, swimming and riding the surf,” he recalled. Now, at 84, he and his brother are listing their 46-acre property for $16 million. Interestingly, his beach key alone is likely worth between $450,000 and $475,000. His brother, on the other hand, is keeping his own key for now, a detail that speaks volumes about what these little rectangles of metal mean on an island where oceanfront land is no longer a luxury but an heirloom.
Beach keys come at a cost
‘Beach keys’ have become the ultimate status symbol for the ultra-rich. Getting access to secluded stretches of sand that are off-limits to the masses is the kind of investment they seek. The keys come with ownership of a sliver of non-buildable beachfront. This access is often passed down through the generations, but each year, a handful of them are on sale. The prices for these keys have surged over the years, thanks to wealthy buyers who crave privacy, even though the popularity of the island is building.The mathematics of Martha’s Vineyard beach keys can make your head spin. In 2003, entry to Quansoo Beach cost $200,000, according to Abby Rabinovitz of Tea Lane Associates. Last year, a key to the same beach sold for $475,000. A nearby option at Hancock Beach? $650,000. Well, this upward climb says a lot. “There’s more demand than supply. Prices reflect that,” Tea Lane’s Alexis Holden told the outlet. According to Holden, two clients even waited for ‘well over a year’ for the opportunity to buy a Chilmark beach key.Most of these exclusive beach keys come with their own rules, etiquette and policing mechanisms. Some associations issue new keys each summer to limit circulation. Others rely on keyholders to self-police, though locals all seem to have stories about overbearing owners who’ve confronted trespassers with unnecessary aggression. Black Point maintains a warden and a handyman to enforce order.There is, of course, more demand than supply, and prices have shot up as wealthy buyers realise that privacy comes with a price tag. One that helps them get past the crowded public beaches and clogged parking lots. At a time when homes on the island sell for $20 million routinely, a beach key worth $600,000 is really a small expense for elite buyers.But for locals, it’s a different story. Property value on the island is rising. For instance, a Herring Creek Farm home was recently sold for $43 million. This means beach keys are out of reach for locals, and it has irked some: wealthy keyholders keeping the island’s best beaches to themselves isn’t exactly their vision.Mike Peters, a retired National Grid worker from Albany, N.Y., has been renting a place on Martha’s Vineyard since the 1990s. Every summer, he rents it out, and has never been able to afford to buy a place or beach key. “For the common people, you just visit and go home. You can’t own a piece of it.”The exclusivity of these keys has bred resentment. Residents and those who rent the property for the summer cannot afford them, yet watch wealthy second-home owners purchase a piece of Martha’s Vineyard’s most precious resource and wall it off. But this emotion is not only exclusive to the locals. In fact, some beach keyholders, too, feel the same. Filmmaker David Heilbrower, who inherited access to Hancock Beach, acknowledged that he thought it was unfair.
