Demand rises higher

SUPPLY in the Gold Coast new apartment sector has reached its lowest level in a decade with fewer than 1000 units now on the market.

The Gold Coast market appears to be on its way back up. Photo: Supplied

SUPPLY in the Gold Coast new apartment sector has reached its lowest level in a decade with fewer than 1000 units now on the market.

The Colliers International research showed there were 166 apartments sold during the June quarter, putting this year's sales about 49 per cent up on 2012.

Colliers residential director Tony Holland said the Gold Coast market had turned and was on its way back up.

"The first signal that the market was improving was a rise in volumes, which was first evident in the March quarter of last year," he said. "Sales volumes have continued to increase over the course of 2012 and over the first quarter of this year. While this quarter has seen a slight fall, this is due to the lack of availability of stock, rather than a lack of interest from buyers."

Mr Holland said two or three new apartment projects were likely to be launched off-the-plan in the next six months. More were in the planning stages, to follow after mid-2014.

"Based on the current sales rate, the remaining new apartment stock on the market could be absorbed within 17 months," Mr Holland said. "There will be serious undersupply at that time, particularly in the low-rise sector, until these new projects get off the ground. Buyers are identifying that the fundamentals of the Gold Coast market are strong, and this increasing buyer demand, coupled with an undersupply, will lead to growth in prices over time.

"Over the past year projects that had a significant overhang of stock, such as Oracle, Hilton and Soul have sold a significant number of apartments and people are buying into them with confidence.

"They know the future looks good for the Gold Coast, with around 10,000 people moving to the region every year and significant projects such as the 2018 Commonwealth Games set to give the area a huge boost."

The North Shore Precinct was the best performer for the sixth consecutive quarter, with 58 sales across eight projects in the June quarter. Seven projects sold out, leaving just 28 projects remaining.

Of the three apartment sectors, highrise was the most popular with 95 sales across 15 projects followed by medium rise with 59 sales in 12 projects and low-rise recording 12 sales across eight projects.