This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
NEW Gold Coast apartment prices surged by more than $500,000 in the past six months as interstate investor activity rose and construction costs impacted property values.
The Urbis Apartment Market Essentials report for the March quarter shows new apartment sales on the glitter strip averaged $1.73 million, the highest since Urbis began monitoring the new apartment market a decade ago.
This March figure is up from $1.67 million in the December quarter, and $1.13 million in September quarter.
There were 240 new apartment sales in the three months to the end of March, on par with the 236 sales in the previous quarter.
Urbis director Paul Riga said this highlights the consistency of demand.
“Price growth has been a key feature of the latest data along with a strong resurgence of investor activity.
Interstate investors in the March quarter overtook owner occupiers at a proportion of 38% versus 29% of total sales. Local investors accounted for 20% of sales and overseas buyers 13%.
Riga said this is a significant shift from the trend of recent years when an all-time high of 65% owner-occupier sales was seen in 2020, during the peak of the pandemic when many Australians decided to escape the city lockdowns and make a seachange.
“While the owner occupier market remains strong, the latest quarter possibly signals a return to long-terms trends as prior to 2016 owner occupiers accounted for 30% of sales,” Riga said.
Urbis data shows that 59% of sales comprised two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments, which is typically favoured by investors, while 29% of sales were three-bedroom apartments.
The low level of new supply coming to the market is keeping conditions tight. Only two new projects yielding a total of 112 apartments launched on the Gold Coast during the March quarter. Marquee Development Partners launched its 74-residence La Belle Palm Beach project in April.
The broader Gold Coast market remains undersupplied, with just 1,396 apartments remaining for sale – the lowest level since the end of 2022.
Nearly all of the sales in the March quarter were made in the traditional Surfers Paradise-Broadbeach precinct, with the main contributors being V&A Broadbeach, Crest Broadbeach and MRCB’s $500 million 26 Vista, following on from strong December quarter results.
This was consistent with 92% of remaining supply being located in the Gold Coast central precinct.
Of the 240 total sales recorded during the quarter, 229 were located in Surfers Paradise, Chevron Island, Broadbeach, and Main Beach.
The central precinct is “heading back to its roots”, Riga said, with current and future projects moving to higher density and multiple-tower projects post-pandemic.
“Looking ahead, the majority of apartments in future supply are also located in the precinct so the strong sales rates should continue.”
Among those, private consortium Bastion is planning a $140 million luxury residence tower on Chevron Island with 87 apartments.
Major projects in the Gold Coast pipeline also include prolific developer George Mastrocostas’s $2 billion, four-tower development in Mermaid Beach that will be one of the city’s biggest-ever, and will include 821 residences to go with a luxury hotel and office space.
Some 91% of the apartment sales on the Gold Coast during the quarter were priced at more than $ 1 million, while the remaining 9% were priced from $600,000 to $999,999.
