Already a subscriber?A wave of interstate investors snapping up luxury beachfront units off-the-plan has lifted the average price of a new Gold Coast apartment by $600,000 in just six months, new figures from research house Urbis show.
“This is a significant shift from the trend of recent years when we saw an all-time high of 65 per cent owner-occupier sales in 2020 during the peak of the pandemic,” said Urbis director Paul Riga.“While the owner-occupier market remains strong, the latest quarter possibly signals a return to long-terms trends, as before 2016 owner occupiers accounted for 30 per cent of sales.
Over the past two weeks, Mr Higgins said 75 per cent of enquiries had come from interstate investors seeking larger, more expensive apartments. Antonio Mercuri from local agency GV Property, which specialises in development site sales, said Gold Coast apartments were undervalued compared to prices paid in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs for units with ocean views.
A lack of new supply coupled with strong ongoing demand is likely to keep prices rising. Mr Riga said just two new projects yielding a total of 112 apartments launched during the first quarter of 2024.At the same time, some projects are being pulled from the market due to a blowout in construction costs, even after generating significant pre-sales.