Abstract It can be argued that there is presently a disparity between the theory of coastal climate change adaptation and the large-scale or mass implementation with respect to adaptation to sea level rise. From a theoretical perspective, rising sea levels will effectively move the coastline landward and hence the most seaward parts of the built environment, which often feature the highest physical asset value and intensity and hence economic density, will become inundated more often and therefore perhaps need to be relocated landward under the guidance of planned retreat policies. By contrast, evidence of active large-scale planned retreat policies being developed and implemented is sparse, and often being rejected in favour of coastal protection strategies. It is argued here that this lack of uptake of coastal retreat strategies is partially a result of a phenomena coined here as ‘asset anchoring’ where major community infrastructure acts to anchor seaside communities in place and inhibit the implementation of coastal retreat strategies.