Luxury homes on Hamilton Island being snapped up

Prestige real estate is setting new benchmarks in the Greater Whitsundays, while demand for luxury homes on Hamilton Island is outstripping supply. DETAILS

Prestige real estate is setting new benchmarks in the Greater Whitsundays, while demand for luxury homes on Hamilton Island is outstripping supply as the region’s property market ramps up post pandemic.

The latest Herron Todd White month in review revealed development in and around Port of Airlie had attracted premium prices up to the $4m for house sites, houses and apartments in the past six months.

“These sales have set new benchmarks in each of these markets and demonstrate definite market growth in the past 12 to 18 months,” Valuer Britt Atkin said.

Hamilton Island has been labelled “the most actively traded market” with prices trending at about the $2m mark.

“Recent sales of unique luxury townhouses and penthouse apartments have achieved prices in the range of $4m to $8m,” Ms Atkin said.

“There have been definite price increases over the past 12 months in these markets, however the market for large prestigious homes above $5m remains thinly traded and sale prices are yet to confirm similar growth.”

4/18 Whitsunday Boulevard, Hamilton Island, sold for $2.365m on August 24, 2022. Picture: Contributed

The historical sale price benchmark on the popular island was set more than five years ago at $9m.

“While there have been large prestigious homes marketed at expected prices well in excess of this, we are not aware of any transactions with a sale price above this mark,” Ms Atkin said.

She added the Whitsundays mainland prestige real estate market had strengthened “since the Covid-19-led local population growth”.

“This growth has contributed to a deeper buyer pool primarily consisting of interstate purchasers attracted to relative value for money that prime waterfront and ocean view property in this region offers compared to southern markets,” Ms Atkin said.

An aerial shot of Airlie Beach, Whitsundays.

There have been several recent sales of elevated homes with prime ocean and offshore island views outside the Port of Airlie development, while surrounding coastal pockets have established a price point around or above $2m, she said.

“Larger luxury homes priced above this point tend to remain on the market for extended periods,” she said.

“While there is a very limited supply of this product that comes to market, there remains very few buyers prepared to meet sellers’ expectations.

“Much like Hamilton Island, record sale prices achieved some five years ago at around $13 to $14 million for unique waterfront homes have yet to be exceeded.

‘Insufficient transactions’

Herron Todd White director Gregory Williams said in Mackay the market for tenanted investment properties was thinly traded over 2023 because of “a lack of listings rather than an absence of demand”.

“There are insufficient transactions to provide objective guidance on yield trends,” he said.

“Our general view is that yields remain unchanged from 2022 levels.”

Mr Williams said industrial vacancies decreased throughout the year, while rental rates steadily increased.

“Rising building costs are a major constraint to new supply,” he said.

Major industrial sales for 2023 list four Paget properties including 30-34 John Vella Drive, which sold in April for $6.9m; 9 Michelmore Street, which sold in June for $3.85m; 42-44 John Vella Drive, which sold in July for $3.65m; and 39 Crichtons Rd, which sold in July for $2.2m after being on the market for about two years.

Herron Todd White experts labelled both the housing and unit residential market for Mackay and Whitsundays as approaching its peak moving the two regions into a higher risk-rating category.