Gold Coast house prices: Locals priced out of market as house and unit prices surge

Locals are being priced out of the Gold Coast’s booming housing market by interstate buyers, with properties selling for hundreds of thousands more than six months ago. Here’s how much more money buyers need.

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THE Gold Coast’s booming housing sector – fuelled by interstate buyers – is pricing residents out of the market with properties selling for hundreds of thousands more than six months ago.

In 12 months the median house price has gone up 7.5 per cent to $715,000 while it rose 7.4 per cent for units to $444,500, realestate.com.au data shows.

Broadbeach resident Simon McDermott sold his three-bedroom unit in Burleigh late last year and is struggling to get back into the market.

The sale included a three-month settlement clause but by the time February rolled around his family, including his wife and two children, was still without a home.

After living in an apartment he wanted a house for 20 years.

“There was one house we really wanted and we were close to getting in Palm Beach,” he said.

“A Sydney buyer came in at the last minute and bought it sight unseen and paid cash.

House and unit prices have surged higher in the past 12 months.

“It was more than I had offered.”

Mr McDermott turned his attention to another house for auction in Burleigh, this time an old brick home built in the 1970s with a swimming pool.

“The price went to $1.41m. I was one of three bidders who went to the end and I dropped out.

“It was a crazy amount for what the property is worth. When I’m looking on RP Data … the maximum estimate was $1.15m.”

Mr McDermott, whose family rents in Broadbeach, said he believed southern Gold Coast houses had risen in value $300,000 to $400,000 above what they were worth five or six months ago.

“I’ve never seen a trajectory like this. The biggest thing is it’s massively down to people realising they can work remotely and Sydney and Melbourne buyers coming in cashed up and raising the prices.”

LJ Hooker Ormeau’s Nicole Hintz.

LJ Hooker Ormeau director Nicole Hintz said housing stock in the northern suburbs was 12 to 15 per cent below what it was 12 months ago, creating a highly competitive market for buyers.

Ms Hintz said a third of buyers came from interstate. “They quite often come with cash so they do not have finance. It just means these three in 10 sets the bar (for the rest of the market).”

It made it even more challenging for first-home buyers to get into the market, she said.

“They are there but competing against a lot of people. They have to go back and see what their borrowing capacity is. If they were looking at $500,000, they are now looking at $550,000 or $600,000.”

James Hasselle, who runs four Mortgage Choice offices in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, said it was vital buyers chose their lender carefully for quick turnaround on applications.

James Hasselle of Mortgage Choice.

“There’s a lot of pressure from agents on buyers to not seek things like finance extensions,” he said. “Previously, if the client needed one because their lender was taking too long that was not a problem.”

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