House-hunting picks up

Australia’s residential property market is heating up, just as thousands of people migrate to the country’s coastal hot spots.

Australia’s residential property market is heating up, just as thousands of people migrate to the country’s coastal hot spots, many of them prepared to mix downtime at the beach with a spot of aspirational holiday house hunting.

Only weeks from the close of 2019, it’s been revealed Australia’s residential market is in full recovery mode with house prices in most cities surging upwards, contributing to a national average increase of 1.7 per cent in November, according to CoreLogic RPData figures.

The outlook, too, remains positive, with analysts forecasting record home prices in Sydney and Melbourne in the coming months as the cumulative effect of interest rate cuts and a loosening of previously stringent lending conditions helps fuel the recovery.

It’s anticipated that premium lifestyle markets along Australia’s populous east coast, which have already enjoyed a buoyant six months, will benefit from the traditional busy summer, particularly given persistently low stock levels and increasing buyer demand.

On the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, buyers have forked out millions on beachfront apartments this year, including a record $11m sale of a unit on the north-facing beachfront glamour strip, Hastings Street at Noosa Heads.

The full-floor unit, one of only six in the prestigious Noosa Court building, was the first in the complex to be listed in more than a decade and was sold by Tom Offermann Real Estate agent Roark Walsh.

“Noosa Main Beach is one of a very few true north-facing beaches on the east coast of Australia,” real estate principal Tom Offermann said. “The investment potential speaks only of enviable financial success for those who are fortunate to acquire their piece of Noosa Heads’ hottest real estate.

“We have had a lot of sales in the $5m to $10m range in the past six months.”

MANSION GLOBAL