Which Sunshine Coast and Noosa suburbs’ homes are being bought with cash
Amid a cost of living crisis new research has revealed the Sunshine Coast and Noosa suburbs where cashed-up baby boomers are buying high-value properties without a mortgage.
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Suburbs in the Noosa and Sunshine Coast regions are home to some of the highest-value properties being paid for in cash rather than a mortgage loan, new figures have revealed.
A report from PEXA released in June stated eight suburbs across the two regions made up the top 20 Queensland postcodes with the highest value cash purchases during the 2022 calendar year.
This was second only to the Gold Coast, which had nine suburbs listed.
The report states Noosa Heads, with a median cash settlement price of $2m. Noosaville ranked nineteenth.
Veteran Noosa real estate agent Tom Offermann said cash buyers were not new for the Noosa region, which has the largest elderly population in Queensland.
He said the majority of cash buyers in the region were retirees, but it was an even mix between holiday home purchases and full time residential properties.
Mr Offermann said approximately 60 per cent of his sales were full time residences, with those buying investment properties or holiday homes typically from Brisbane.
Contracts subject to finance were becoming rare in the Noosa Shire, he said, but buyers were financing properties in other ways – sometimes with interstate buyers using their other properties as security.
“Buyers have realised a cash contract is more favourable,” he said.
Auctions had also taken over as the most popular strategy of securing a property in the region, he said.
The PEXA report stated Sunshine Coast suburbs Nirimba, Birtinya, Coolum Beach and Buderim ranked fifth, 10th, 12th and 20th, respectively.
Yianni Mooney Property director Yianni J Mooney said he was surprised to see Nirimba, a first home buyers market, on the list.
He said there has been an increase in cash purchases on the Coast, with a majority of contracts from cash buyers.
His most common age bracket for these buyers was the over 50s, he said.
“My standard buyer, if it’s a holiday home it’s generally (someone from) southeast Queensland … and they’re going to use it as a halfway home. They’re going to purchase it with cash and not live in it,” he said.
“That’s a big buy at the moment.”
The cost of living crisis did little to deter cash buyers, Mr Mooney said, having seen buyers selling one home for more than they bought it and using that money to snap up another property elsewhere.
“They’re not coming with big sacks of cash and buying, it’s coming from somewhere, generally speaking,” he said.
But it was still common for buyers with money in the bank to use it on a property, he said, though this dropped off when interest rates increased.
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