Investment injection means Gold Coast here to stay

An unprecedented flow of interstate wealth and investment is making permanent changes the Gold Coast’s property market, agents say.

The view from 15 Jefferson Lane, Palm Beach.

Interstate migration to the Gold Coast has placed a floor under the boom-and-bust market, with bullish conditions likely to lead to stable price rises for some time.

The flight of Sydneysiders and Melburnians to Queensland hit a 15-year high in the latter half of 2020, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released this week. A net total of 7200 people made the permanent shift to the Sunshine State since June, many of whom have settled along the southeast coastline that became increasingly popular last year despite the hard border closures imposed by the Queensland government.

The regional shift has created a formula for growth on the Gold Coast by pushing higher demand for the limited available housing, frustrating buyers. On the flip side, sellers are holding off over concerns about their capacity to buy back into the market and their limited options to rent knowing vacancy rates have shrunk below 1 per cent.

Ray White Surfers Paradise chief executive Andrew Bell has never seen a market like it. He said the regional shift was “the most amazing injection into the Gold Coast that we’ve ever seen”.

3517 Main Beach Parade, Main Beach

“We’ve always been an area that ­people retired to or young couples would move to. But we now have seen an injection of investment that we have never seen before,” Mr Bell said.

“The demand we are seeing, the wealth people moving here are bringing with them, it has put a whole platform under a real estate market.

“The Gold Coast used to be a bit of a boom-and-bust bubble. But we’re moving rapidly out of that. This is a good, strong-based real estate market and I think that’s great for a region.”

The strength of this demand was put on display at the Ray White agency’s annual January auction event, which was split over two days. Almost 6900 inquiries came in across the 130 properties on offer, with more than 3730 physical property inspections. Agents sold 14 per cent of properties prior to auction, while 71 per cent were sold under the hammer.

The biggest success story was one of the last three original beach shacks with absolute ocean views along Main Beach Parade. After 50 years of ownership by one family, it sold for $7.236m at the fall of the hammer last month.

My Housing Market chief economist Andrew Wilson said the image of the Gold Coast as a lifestyle retreat and health haven was a marketable one.

“I think the Gold Coast is here to stay,” Dr Wilson said.

“This time of year is when it is known to shine and that would only exacerbate the current conditions.”

While the inner-city apartment markets in the southern capital cities continue to hurt from the disappearance of overseas demand, buyers on the Coast are pouncing on any large unit with a significant view, and are willing to pay a premium. Adam Young, the principal of Burleigh Heads’ Black and Young Real Estate, said downsizers where specifically looking to buy into beachfront apartments without sacrificing space.

An artist’s impression of Spyre Group's $77 million Natura Project at Burleigh Heads. Picture: Supplied

“There are just no three-bedroom apartments on the market along a very finite stretch of beach and if there are, they are snapped up quickly,” Mr Young said.

In recent weeks, several three-bedroom apartments sold in Burleigh Heads in both on-market and off-market deals, including an unrenovated apartment that sold for more than $1.5m off-market. Further up the coast has also been active. Buyers paid more than $4m for luxury apartments within 15 Jefferson Lane, Palm Beach, while the S&S Project’s latest build, Flow Residences, sold out at an average price of $3.5m. More than $90m of stock within KTQ Group’s Miles Residences at Kirra recently sold in less than three weeks.

“You only have to look at what happened with Spyre Group’s Natura project under construction at Burleigh Heads to see the demand, as they sold 25 apartments out of 33 in one weekend last year,” Mr Young said.