‘The Block Mooloolaba’, Bondoola penthouse sold in Sunshine Coast real estate auction

Hundreds of buyers have taken part in an auction billed as the Sunshine Coast’s largest, with a rare block and luxury penthouse selling for over $4 million.

The 2023 Ray White Coastal Living Auction. Picture: Supplied

Hundreds of buyers have taken part in an auction billed as the Sunshine Coast’s largest, with two properties selling for over $4 million.

About 200 bidders in person, and a host more online, took part in the 2023 Ray White Coastal Living‘Auction event held at the Mercedes-Benz Sunshine Coast dealership at Maroochydore on Sunday.

This year’s event saw 45 properties listed for sale from family homes in the hinterland to beachside mega-penthouses and investment properties, with $27 million in sales recorded on the day and a success rate of 40 per-cent.

The big ticket items at the auction included ‘The Block Mooloolaba,’ a six-apartment block on 685sq m land at 22 Brisbane Rd and the Bondoola penthouse, a three-bedroom penthouse occupying 306sq m on the top floor at 16/82-86 River Esplanade Mooloolaba, with the former going under the hammer for $5.31 million, while the latter went for $4.59 million.

The last residential block on Brisbane Rd was sold to the Sunshine Coast-based Robinson family, which holds several property investment interests across the region.

'The Block Mooloolaba' at 22 Brisbane Road. Picture: Supplied

A Robinson family spokesman described the acquisition as a ‘strong investment’.

“We’re stoked to be a part of the Mooloolaba frontage, with the scenery there,” Mr Robinson said.

“We’ve always been familiar with that property, we had interest back in that building 20 years ago.

“It’s a long time coming.”

Mr Robinson added that while the property has potential, it will become part of the rental market for the foreseeable future.

“It has future development potential, but right now it’s a sound building,” he said.

“We will put it back on the rental market, whether it’s short term or long term, but the potential for the future in that area with the growth happening, that was a reason for our purchase.”

Ray White Maroochydore director and auctioneer Dan Sowden said this year’s auction was well supported.

Auctioneer Dan Sowden at the 2023 Ray White Coastal Living Auction 2023. Picture: Supplied

“It was a great campaign, we had 45 properties go to auction today,” Mr Sowden said.

“We had 200 bidders in the room, with $27 million in sales occurring for the day.

“The room was amazing, you could tell that everyone was really engaged with the bidding.

“The two headline sales go to prove that there’s absolute depth in the upper end market.

“The best is that the auction was supported by over 2500 buyer inspections in the past four weeks.”

Mr Sowden added that the tightness of the market influenced the engagement of the bidding.

“We saw less numbers of properties in this year’s auction, adding to the competitiveness of bidding,” he said.

“In the past years, we’ve been sitting between 55 and 70 properties, today we had 45 and that’s just a signal that the market supply at the moment is relatively tight.

“Owners are still holding on to their real estate, we’re not seeing a lot of distress-based selling and that should give confidence to buyers to visit their buying today.”

Mr Sowden went on to say that the Sunshine Coast is a well-positioned market, with a lot of regional and interstate interest in the auction.

“Around 30 per cent of our contracts today will be from people outside of the area,” he said.

“Those people will be supported by an improving airport, so those people buying out of Sydney and Melbourne may actually still choose to work in those cities, but transit out of the local airport.

“Despite a high interest rate environment, the Sunshine Coast property market is really well placed, because we are one of the most popular regional centres in the country.”