“We’re selling a lot of properties at the moment, in fact we’re going better than ever,” said Anna Marie Salis of Elders Huskisson.

She is marketing a waterfront property in St Georges Basin and said while many people had looked through the property, none had raised the issue of climate change or rising sea levels.

“The economy and interest rates seem to be more on the minds of potential purchasers than all the talk about climate change,” Ms Salis said.

It was a similar story at Shoalhaven Heads where Penni Wildi of Raine and Horne Shoalhaven Heads said there had been plenty of interest in a waterfront property being auctioned tomorrow.

“There are so many people interested in this property,” Ms Wildi said.

“None of them have even mentioned climate change, so it doesn’t seem to be an issue.”

However while interest in waterfront property throughout the Shoalhaven remains strong, Mollymook residents facing the prospect of not being able to build or redevelop their coastal land this week met with South Coast MP Shelley Hancock to voice their distress at what was happening.

Mrs Hancock said the residents, whose properties had been identified as being at risk from climate change, provided an agonised human face to the whole climate change debate.

“Some of these people have saved all their lives to buy these waterfront properties, which are now virtually worthless,” Mrs Hancock said.

“Their whole lives are now on hold.

“It’s easy to make these decisions, but we never think about the impacts on individuals.”

Mrs Hancock questioned whether the issues of climate change and rising sea levels impacting on development could be dealt with through regulation, similar to homes having to be built to withstand one-in-100-year floods.

In addition the United States was working around legal liability issues by placing responsibilities back on people wanting to build or redevelop on coastal land.