Downsizers driving luxury unit demand in blue-chip suburbs

Soaring demand for high quality, large, luxury apartments has driven confidence in developers to offer less dense, premium products to the market.

IN DEMAND: The new Infinity apartments on Gympie Tce, Noosaville, are the latest in luxury, large scale apartment offerings on the Coast. Picture: Contributed

SOARING demand for high quality, large, luxury apartments has driven confidence in developers to offer less dense, premium products to the market.

The latest is Infinity, on Gympie Terrace in Noosaville, which is offering three penthouse-style, house-sized riverfront units in the blue-chip suburbs.

Starting from $4.5 million, the Chris Clout-designed development by Hunter Hopkins is set to spark interest from high-end buyers.

REIQ Sunshine Coast zone chair and Century 21 on Duporth owner Damien Said said the demand for premium units had driven confidence to create more smaller-scale, finely-finished developments.

"There's definitely a strong demand, especially in key locations," he said.

He said a certain demographic on the Coast was relocating from luxury homes, downsizing into the premium apartments.

They still wanted space, hence the demand for house-sized units, but the lower maintenance and increased facilities, like gyms, pontoons, pools, saunas and more, were driving them into the penthouse-style market.

Mr Said said recent sales included two for more than $5 million in Mooloolaba, a penthouse in Mosaic's Avalon complex which was snapped up for $6 million and a sub-penthouse for $5.6 million.

Mr Said said Minyama and Buddina were two of the strongest performing markets in the region at present.

The flow-on effect of those downsizers moving from their elite homes into luxury apartments was that others were snapping up the opportunity to move into the elite homes, often waterfront, being vacated.

Mr Said said many of those were Coast locals making the move from traditional homes into more upmarket houses.

Tom Offermann Real Estate marketing agent for Infinity, Nic Hunter, said investors had already been making inquiries about the new development, which was due for completion in late-2020.

The three-level development consists of one three-bedroom luxury apartment per level, each with their own infinity-edge pool.

The complex comes with a lift, gym, sauna and secure basement parking.

Level one was made up of 227sq m of internal space and 218m of outdoor space, while levels two and three each had 231sq m of internal and 137sq m of external floor space.

"The floor plan was designed to direct the eye north to the spectacular views of the Noosa River and beyond," Noosa resident and award-winning designer of Infinity, Chris Clout said.

The development, at 217-219 Gympie Terrace, fronts the Noosa River foreshore.