Incoming: Suburbs that top Gold Coast’s new housing supply

Prospective buyers have less chance of finding affordable new builds on the Gold Coast than they do in Sydney and Melbourne, but the city still beats Brisbane’s incoming housing supply.

Prospective buyers have less chance of finding affordable new builds on the Gold Coast than they do in Sydney and Melbourne, but the city still beats Brisbane’s incoming housing supply.

The findings by PRD research show there are only five affordable suburbs among the Gold Coast’s top 15 areas for ready-to-sell unit stock, compared to 12 in Melbourne and 14 in Sydney.

The data, which looks at the top 15 suburbs with ready-to-sell housing stock going into construction this year found over 7,000 homes, almost all (6,812) were units, along with 220 townhouses.

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Units in affordable suburbs are expected to be the hope for future homeowners.

But the issue isn’t just confined to the Gold Coast, with PRD finding only nine Brisbane suburbs with affordable unit stock set for sale this year, only two suburbs in Cairns and none in Townsville.

The affordability was based on the suburb’s unit price relative to the relevant city’s median.

The Gold Coast’s top suburb for ready-to-sell housing was Broadbeach – set to be one of the busiest areas for construction of new supply this year with 1813 units planned. Surfers Paradise was a close second with 1784 in the pipeline for 2024 construction followed by 1018 at Mermaid Beach.

Only one of the top three – Surfers Paradise – was below the Gold Coast median price (-7 per cent) with the other two median priced between 16 and 20 per cent higher.

The other four priced below the LGA median were Southport (-18.2 per cent lower), Labrador (-16.1 per cent), Biggera Waters (-15.4 per cent) and Pimpama (-11.9 per cent).

Pimpama also has the highest number of townhouses set to begin construction this year at 143, followed by 20 at Paradise Point and 18 at Biggera Waters.

PRD chief economist Dr Asti Mardiasmo said “what we found is if you do want to go to areas that have the most ready-to-sell stock planned, you have to be prepared to pay a premium.”

She said the Gold Coast was already a place where the only affordable homes are units – not houses – with only two suburbs with ready-to-sell house stock priced below the capital’s median level.

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Jon Raven, the mayor of Queensland’s fastest growing city – Logan, has 7,000 dwellings in the development pipeline and says it’s important to not just provide the “classic Australian dream of the quarter acre block” but also ensure “people who want a more affordable option get to have it near our already built-up areas around public transport”.

“During a housing crisis, the temptation is just to build houses as far as the eye can see, but houses require jobs, and places you can go shopping and have a high quality of life. You can’t just have a dormitory city. We know that doesn’t work any more, people don’t want to drive 30 minutes to a restaurant, they want 10 minutes. So we want to make sure that we’re actually providing quality of life.”

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Originally published as Incoming: Suburbs that top Gold Coast’s new housing supply