Gold Coast real estate: Ray White Surfers Paradise boss Andrew Bell’s warning about market’s future

Leading real estate boss Andrew Bell has warned the Gold Coast’s housing crisis will get worse before it gets better, revealing why things are going to stay tough. FULL STORY

Leading real estate boss Andrew Bell has warned the Gold Coast’s housing crisis will get worse before it gets better.

Pressure is growing on the city’s housing sector, with the population growing by 15,000 annually while development is failing to keep up.

Colliers International’s April Gold Coast Market Overview report, released last week, shows the median sale prices has remained stubbornly high at $1m in the face of a “severe” shortage of available
land.

Andrew Bell. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Just 3299 building approvals were issued between July 2023 and January 2024, compared to 5941 in the 2022-23 financial year.

Most approvals were granted in Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach-Burleigh, Ormeau-Oxenford, Robina, and Coolangatta.

Mr Bell, Queensland spokesman for the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) said the “unprecedented” demand was unlikely to easy.

“Every day this housing crisis is getting worse and we are almost 100 per cent dependent on private enterprise to step up. We simply have to make the process more attractive than it has been,” he said.

The property industry faces a tough future Picture by Richard Gosling

“During the pandemic there was an increase in divorces, downsizing and simply relocation. We are also seeing a lot of high wealth people, with the capacity to pay higher prices, moving to Queensland. In Surfer’s Paradise and Broadbeach 24 per cent of sales have been cash purchases.

“One significant way to affect supply positively would be build-to-rent developments that can never be sold and take the pressure off the rental section of the market.

“But developers need incentives that could include local councils making sure approvals are processed rapidly, ­infrastructure charges are slashed dramatically and ­council rates and fees are reduced for a three to five year period.”