South East Queensland continues to suffer housing shortage as builders buckle

The Gold Coast’s crisis-hit apartment sector has claimed another victim with a partially completed 60-unit eight-level block hitting the market at the behest of receivers.

The the site of Waverley Residences in Southport on the day builder Descon Group Australia went into liquidation.

The crisis-hit apartment sector on the Gold Coast has another victim with a partially completed, 60-unit, eight-level block hitting the market at the behest of receivers after the collapse of its builder, Descon.

The building, known as The Waverley Residences in Southport, is listed for sale through Ray White Ray White Special Projects’ Mark Creevey.

Receivers and managers Adam Colley, Daniel Walley and Derrick Vickers are expecting strong interest in the building that is 90 per cent completed via an expressions of interest campaign which closes November 7 through Ray White Special Projects’ Mark Creevey.

“We are expecting strong interest from those looking to finish the building, strata and sell the apartments, plus those interested in retaining the building as a rental asset,” Mr Creevey said.

Mark Creevey of Ray White, Queensland who is selling The Waverley Residences.

“We have a lot of buyers who are keen to lock in the long term growth of the Gold Coast, but there are very limited buying opportunities of this nature and scale”.

Designed by Rothelowman, the partially completed building comprises 14 one-bedders, 32 two-bedders, and 14 three-bedroom units with no pre-sales in place. It is unclear if the previous apartment buyers have had their deposits refunded.

In a statement Ray White said the lender for the developer of the site, Sydney-based Busikon, had exercised its rights and appointed the receivers which included taking control of the development and selling it.

Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said apartment supply issues in south east Queensland would continue as construction industry insolvencies continued to rise.

While some developers, such as Meriton which is building several towers on the Gold Coast including Iconica and Cypress Palms, have fared well because they have their own construction divisions, others who are reliant on independent contractors, have foundered.

But other developers have been forced to rescind buyers’ contracts because of booming building materials and construction contracts.

They have then told buyers that if they want to proceed they will be forced to pay more for the same unit.

The Waverley Residences when under construction by Descon in Southport.

“Subbies can basically name their price. (This is contributing to) really difficult conditions. There are still so many projects to come out of the ground. I believe subcontractors are asking really inflated prices,” said one Queensland builder located north of the Gold Coast.

He said the region was suffering from a shortage of subcontractors and tradespeople.

Meanwhile Ms Conisbee said Southport recorded the second highest volume of sales of properties under $750,000 in the last year with 973 sales.

“Southport is still one of the most affordable suburbs on the Gold Coast.”

A render of The Waverley Residences before its builder Descon collapsed and the partially completed block was put up for sale

Southport has a vacancy rate of just 1.41 per cent with 289 properties for rent.

The median price for units has risen 31.3 per cent in the past two years compared with 23.5 per cent for houses and 26.5 per cent for townhouses.

Originally published as South East Queensland continues to suffer housing shortage as builders buckle