Esperance dune-front fibro

This 72 square-metre fibro beach shack in Esperance is a piece of vintage Australian coastal architecture — a low, pale-blue asbestos-cement house from the 1960s, sitting on a big block a short walk from Twilight Beach on Western Australia's south coast. It's unashamedly modest: two bedrooms, a small bathroom, an eat-in kitchen and a simple lounge with jarrah floors under old carpet, most of it original. What it lacks in finish it makes up for in position, land and the fact that Esperance's coastline is genuinely one of the most beautiful on the planet.

Esperance sits about eight hours east of Perth, a working port town of around 14,000 people surrounded by a national-park coastline that rivals anywhere in the Caribbean or the Mediterranean for water colour, but at a fraction of the price. The town itself is friendly and unpretentious, with a good hospital, a solid supermarket scene, a couple of well-loved cafés and a small airport with daily flights to Perth. Because Esperance is remote and hasn't been discovered by the international tree-change market the way Byron Bay or Margaret River have, small entry-level houses are still under AUD 400,000. Foreign purchase of established dwellings is regulated in Australia — a local conveyancer will run you through the FIRB process before you commit — but freehold title and clear surveying make it a straightforward market.

Twilight Beach is a 400 metre walk from the front door. It's a small crescent of the whitest, squeakiest sand imaginable, held between two pale granite headlands, with turquoise water so clear you can see your toes in chest-deep swimming. The Great Ocean Drive links Twilight to a string of similar coves — Blue Haven, Salmon Beach, Nine Mile — most of which are empty most of the year. Cape Le Grand National Park is 45 minutes east and contains Lucky Bay and Hellfire Bay, both regularly at the top of every 'best beach in Australia' list.

The block itself is a productive one: level, north-facing, big enough for a granny flat or a full rebuild once you've had a season in the original shack. Rainwater tanks and solar are common in town. Esperance winters are cool and windy, summers are hot and dry, and swimming is possible from November through to May. If you want your slice of the WA coast for what a used four-wheel-drive costs in Sydney, and you don't mind a bit of paint and a fresh kitchen down the track, this is a rare shot at Twilight Beach on a fibro-shack budget.