Gold Coast real estate: Property auctions reach near 100 per cent clearance rate as boom continues

For every 100 homes that went to auction on the Gold Coast during the lockdown, only three failed to find a buyer. And it’s not getting any easier.

FOR every 100 homes that went to auction on the Gold Coast during the lockdown, only three failed to find a buyer.

Some of the Coast’s biggest real estate agents are struggling to keep up with the interest, with 60 per cent of properties set for auction by Ray White Surfers Paradise selling before they are actually listed.

Of the 79 properties put to action by the agency in July, 97 per cent were sold. Prices ranged from $82,500 to $3.9m.

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The Gold Coast’s property market remains red-hot Picture: Brendan Radke

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Other real estate figures say they saw another significant boost in sales during the lockdown of the past week.

Harcourts Coastal Properties principal Dane Atherton said buyers continued to flood auctions and buy whatever was available.

“We have sold 53 properties during the lockdown and nine at auction,” he said.

“We did an online auction last weekend which had a 100 per cent clearance rate, which our auctioneer did while sitting at his dinner table, with every property going above their reserve.

“Lockdown has done nothing whatsoever to slow the market.”

Sydney, which is in the midst of its sixth week in lockdown, had a clearance rate of 92 per cent during the same period.

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Dane Atherton. Picture: Jerad Williams

Property figures say they are surprised by the continued strength of the sales, more than a year after the number of inquiries from interstate in the aftermath of the first wave of Covid lockdowns began.

“I have never seen anything like it in my 40 years in the industry, and it’s results like these that underpin just how strong the Gold Coast market is,” Ray White Surfers Paradise boss Andrew Bell said.

“Interstate buyers have long recognised how undervalued the Gold Coast market is, given that we are now the sixth-largest city in the country.

“Now we are beginning to see locals cotton on to how valuable the Coast is, which they had underestimated in the past, and they are well aware of the strong demand from interstate markets who see the Gold Coast as excellent value.

Andrew Bell. Picture: Jerad Williams

“Given the trajectory of the Gold Coast market, buyers are realising that it’s in their best interest to allow market forces to determine the value of their property which often greatly surpasses their expectations.”

Mr Bell said soaring property sales were being driven by an increasingly competitive marketplace bolstered by locals who are beginning to realise the value on their doorstep.

A report by real estate firm Knight Frank showed 91 per cent of Gold Coast property marketed in the first three months of 2021 was sold.

It distanced the clearance rates in Sydney (58 per cent), Brisbane (54 per cent) and Melbourne (24 per cent). Perth was closest to the Gold Coast with 85 per cent of homes put up for sale in the first quarter changing hands.

The total number of luxury properties sold throughout Australia between January and March equalled nearly half of all high-end homes offloaded in all of 2020.

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