The Gold Coast suburb is still hot for off-the-plan unit buyers
Off the plan and off the charts — unit sales along the Gold Coast’s famed Glitter Strip may be down from the highs of 2021, but it remains red-hot with buyers.
It was the traditionally-popular Surfers Paradise strip that saw off 2023 as the busiest off-the-plan apartment sales precinct on the Gold Coast.
It was mostly due to the 46 sales in the $500m Vista residential tower, a 51-storey project by publicly listed construction and property development company Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad. Its $60m quarterly sales tally took pre-sales to the halfway mark in the 280-apartment complex – with an average price of $1.434m – through Matt George at national sales and marketing agency Urban Activation.
The $170m-plus sales since its early 2023 launch, with strong interest from owner-occupier downsizers, will trigger its anticipated mid-year construction start.
Apartments are priced from $1.35m and the building – designed by local architects DBI – features a rooftop garden, sky-high residents’ lounges, a wellness precinct, gymnasium, outdoor yoga space, pool, spa, sauna and steam room.
Marina Point at Hope Island, in the city’s north, was the next best-selling project during the final quarter of 2023, with 26 apartments selling at an average price of $1.4m.
The third most popular project achieved 25 sales in Crest Broadbeach, and also The Isabel by Mosaic at Burleigh Heads, at for which there was a $3.8m average price and where just three remain for sale.
Next on the sales ladder was Harry Triguboff’s Meriton where 23 units sold for a price average of $1.2m in its Iconica beachfront tower, under construction at Surfers Paradise.
The year concluded with 295 remaining for sale in Iconica, a 77-storey, 382-apartment tower at the northern end of The Esplanade.
All up, some 236 apartments were sold across the Gold Coast in the December quarter, which was a significant dip compared to the 470 sold from July to September.
The data, compiled by property consulting firm Urbis, calculated 288 sales in the first quarter of 2023 and 211 in the second quarter.
The sales as a percentage of available Gold Coast stock sat at 14 per cent. The year was down on 2022 when there were 1389 new apartment sales.
The stellar year for the new apartment market was 2021, which recorded 2492 sales including 742 sales during the first quarter and 610 sales during its final quarter. The 2021 sales figure was higher than 2019 and 2020 combined.
Last year, the Gold Coast saw Hirsch & Faigen settle its sellout Palm Beach Hemingway project, while only the penthouse remains unsold in its Emmerson Kirra project.
A two-level penthouse at the Perspective Broadwater boutique building at Biggera Waters, in the Gold Coast’s northern region, settled for $3.6m after being listed through Phillis Real Estate.
The 462sq m, four-bedroom Marine Parade penthouse – in the nine-level complex developed by Sherpa Property Group – boasts indoor and outdoor living space with views of the Broadwater to South Stradbroke Island.
Electronic conveyancing firm PEXA, in its latest Cash Purchases Report, reported that Surfers Paradise recorded the nation’s highest total value of cash purchases in 2023, with more than $1.4bn of properties purchased without a mortgage.
Urbis director Paul Riga said the late 2023 slowdown had been brought about by rising interest rates, despite a solid level of local downsizer buyer interest as well as continued migration from the southern states.
He warns that rising construction costs were impacting the viability of projects and constraining supply.
Selling agents report potential buyers are exercising significant caution when it comes to new developments, with understandable apprehension stemming from uncertainties surrounding the prospect of developer completions.
But developers with the delivery capability are continuing to launch new projects, given the city’s continued dramatic population growth. Off-the-plan Gold Coast prices will increase over the next 12 months, Charter Keck Cramer recently forecast.
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