Exclusive | Wealthy Hamptons homebuyers set their sights away from oceanfront mansions but not because they cant afford them

In the Hamptons, $20 million no longer necessarily buys you the Atlantic Ocean.For decades, the rule of thumb in Hamptons real estate was simple.If you wanted to spend big, you bought on the beach.

But that math is starting to change.A rarefied group of deep-pocketed buyers is increasingly shelling out oceanfront-level money for estates farther inland, trading direct access to the surf for something even harder to find on the East End these days: space.The emerging shift is showing up north of the highway, on bays and across sprawling interior parcels where buyers can get the privacy, acreage and elaborate amenities that have become increasingly difficult to create along the heavily regulated coastline.“We’re seeing numbers in the $20 million range north of the highway,” Douglas Elliman broker Kyle Rosko told The Post. Exhibit A is 29 Wills Point Road in Montauk.The brand-new seven-bedroom bayfront spec mansion is roughly 10,000 square feet.

It sold this month for its full $23 million asking price after landing a buyer just three days after hitting the market in July.Public listing records show the deal closed Sept.

7.The sale set a new high-water mark for a non-oceanfront Montauk home, according to Rosko, who represented the listing.“The demand for that is higher than ever … people want that space,” he added.“And if they can accomplish that space, they’re willing to go away from the ocean and away from south of the highway.”And he would know.

Rosko said he also handled the previous $17 million record last year at 18 Maple St., after earlier setting the benchmark at $14 million.The jump is especially striking because $23 million was oceanfront territory in Montauk as recently as last year.For perspective, Rosko said he closed three Montauk oceanfront deals over the past year, and every one of them went for less.But 29 Wills Point isn’t exactly a consolation prize for someone who couldn’t land a house on the ocean.Set on 1.6 acres overlooki...