Kirra Beach Hotel development latest to transform Gold Coast
A new wave of development is transforming the Gold Coast in a way few expected, writes Keith Woods.
Gold Coast
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Last Friday, drinks were called for the final time at the Kirra Beach Hotel.
Like so much of the “old” Gold Coast, the 65-year-old hotel has been swept away by the wave of development in beachside suburbs.
In its place will come a high-rise with luxury apartments, hotel rooms and a retail precinct.
It is more evidence of the change that agitates so many in the southern Gold Coast. Typically, light rail gets the blame. It’s suggested darkly that anti-social elements ride the rails.
But could it be that it’s another group that’s really changing the character of coastal suburbs? That the real invasion comes not from the underprivileged riffraff supposedly crowding onto trams, but a very different demographic, the super-rich?
It’s notable that most of the towers being built along the coastline are not designed to help fix the growing housing crisis affecting the Gold Coast. Many have surprisingly few units, with very high price tags. They are being built as luxury pads, the ultimate lifestyle escape for those who have everything.
Places like the 17-storey tower planned by developer Allure for the corner of Second Ave and The Esplanade at Burleigh Heads. Despite its size, it will feature just 27 units, all of which will have three bedrooms and be 200sq m or more.
Or the high-end tower planned by Bottega Property Group for a site on Broadbeach’s Old Burleigh Road.
There will be just 17 units in the 17-storey development – one in each floor.
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It’s easy to see why developers are designing their buildings this way. They’re meeting the market.
A report this week from property agents Knight Frank showed massive demand for luxury property on the Gold Coast, the sort only the “ultra rich” can afford. Prices are shooting up as a result.
Other businesses on the Gold Coast catering for the very wealthy – notably yacht-builders and luxury car dealers – are also reporting record demand. It’s why Tesla has opened on the Gold Coast, why Ferrari has enjoyed record sales.
Luxury goods of all kinds are selling well. Today the Bulletin reports that somebody paid almost $10,000 at a Dan Murphy’s in Mermaid Waters for a single bottle of whisky.
All this will no doubt help boost the city’s economy. But it will also change its character.
Sometimes it’s suggested that the Gold Coast is becoming a “Gotham by the sea”. Actually it’s morphing into something a little different – the antipodean answer to Monte Carlo.
It makes council’s decision to sink so much ratepayer money into the HOTA art gallery seem quite prescient. It fits the spirit of the times. The new Gold Coasters are much more likely to be comfortable swanning around the latest Banksy with champagne flute in hand than downing schooners at the local bowlo.
The obvious downside is that children of long-term locals in places like Palm Beach, Burleigh and Currumbin risk seeing their kids pushed out to the ’burbs, unable to afford a place to live in the suburbs they grew up in.
The city could decide that this is not what we want. Council could insist that residential projects contain a certain percentage of affordable housing, but that kind of tinkering with free markets is just not in the Gold Coast’s DNA. Imagine the howls of protest from the development industry if they tried it.
When the redevelopment is complete, a new venue is expected to open bearing the venerable Kirra Beach Hotel name. The pub will be rebuilt on the ground floor as a two-storey venue with a rooftop bar and dining facility. But it quite obviously won’t be the same.
Expect it to be flash. To be shiny. No doubt, there’ll be a lengthy cocktail list and an impressive menu. DJs instead of quiz nights. Moets instead of meat raffles.
A big change, and not all bad – as long as you can pay for it.
REASON IT’S SO HARD TO RENT ON THE GOLD COAST
A friend of mine lives in Oxenford with his family. At least he does for now.
A couple of weeks ago he got a message that every renter dreads: his landlord wishes to sell up. He has three months to find somewhere new.
His search for a new home since has not been a happy one. Listings are few and far between. The handful of houses he has seen so far have been in a rotten condition, the rent demanded, borderline outrageous. They still got let out quickly anyway.
No wonder. In the leafy suburb for Oxenford, rental vacancies are at an incredibly low 0.1 per cent.
As reported at goldcoastbulletin.com.au, it is a similar situation no matter where you look on the Gold Coast. In Currumbin the vacancy rate is 0.3 per cent. In Surfers Paradise it’s 0.7 per cent.
If present trends continue, the Gold Coast will find itself plunged into a housing crisis, with families caught between house prices stretching beyond their reach and a lack of available rentals.
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It’s a scenario we should wish to avoid, one that, at its extreme, can lead to working people sleeping in their cars.
There are a number of policy failures that are leading us to this point.
First up are the heavy expenses faced on landlords – many imposed by government – which put people off investing.
In any normal market, supply would rise to meet demand. One would expect that if there is a severe shortage of rental properties, more investors would be encouraged to enter the market. But that’s not proving to be the case.
“I purchased an investment property (a house) on the Gold Coast recently and rented it out together with my principal place of residence to go to Sydney to look after elderly parent,” one investor told the Bulletin.
“The add on costs are huge — such as investor rate for stamp duty at time of purchase, rates, repairs and maintenance, land tax payable on land value of both properties, management fees, swimming pool repairs and maintenance, lawn mowing maintenance, regular cleaning of gutters by contractor, smoke alarm checks with new rules requiring additional installations and annual checking soon, water rates, accounting fees, income tax on rent receipts, then capital gains tax on any profit at time of re-sale — and of course interest payments on the mortgages.
“I certainly won’t be buying any more investment properties to rent out and rather, will be looking at divesting the investment property in the near future.
“The Gold Coast will continue to have this problem with rental vacancies — for houses, not units — if all the government grabs on all the various levels remain in place.”
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Then there is the issue of too few new homes being built.
The state government estimated the Gold Coast would need an extra 158,000 dwellings to meet demand by 2041. Council developed a plan for “targeted growth areas” to ensure that demand could be met.
But after protests by residents, growth targets in Biggera Waters, Southport West and Labrador were slashed by 41 per cent.
It was a short-sighted, NIMBY-ist move, which could hurt long-term locals as much as new arrivals.
Many interstate migrants are coming from Sydney and Melbourne with the money to outbid locals in the property market, leaving them to the tender mercies of the rental scene.
They’re the people who can ultimately find themselves struggling to find somewhere decent to live.
We need to change our mindset and change our policies if we are to avoid a deepening housing crisis. Slash the red tape and costs deterring investment, and face up to the reality that higher housing densities are an unavoidable necessity.
Yes, it means more traffic and more high-rises, and that’s far from ideal.
But neither is having nowhere to live.
Originally published as Kirra Beach Hotel development latest to transform Gold Coast
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