Property boon for the Tweed

The Gold Coast's loss is the Tweed's gain when it comes to home approvals.

THE Gold Coast's loss is the Tweed's gain when it comes to home approvals. Picture: Scott Powick

THE Gold Coast's loss is the Tweed's gain when it comes to home approvals.

According to recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, new home approvals on the Gold Coast have fallen by about 25 per cent in the past two years while the Tweed has gone up by about 27.6 per cent.

According to data supplied by the ABS, 2416 homes were approved on the Gold Coast in the 11 months to May 2018, a rate of about 220 a month.

In the previous financial year there were 3553 homes approved, or 296 a month, representing a drop of about 25 per cent.

By contrast the Tweed had 250 homes approved in 2016-2017, a figure that leapt to 319 for the following year.

Prominent Tweed real estate agent David Stringer said it was a trend he couldn't see ending soon.

"There's plenty of land being developed at Terranora, Casuarina and Kingscliff and that's without the big projects planned at Cobaki Lakes and Kings Forest," he said.

"One of the beautiful things about the Tweed is that you can still buy a reasonable house and land package close to the beach and facilities while on the Gold Coast you need to go west or north to find something. In fact, the while demographics of the area have changed. It used to be a place for the Grey Nomads but now it's more of an adjunct to the southern Gold Coast. People are happy to buy over the border and travel for work to Bundall or even Brisbane."

REIQ Gold Coast chair Andrew Henderson said a lack of land supply in growth areas was contributing to the problem.

"We have heard that builders are even finding it hard to get land to build display homes on and show off their product," he said.

Originally published as Property boon for the Tweed