EXTINCT
Gold Coast houses under $400k going the same way as dodo and Tasmanian tiger and about to become ...
HOUSES listed for under $400,000 on the Gold Coast are a dying breed with less than 20 properties on realestate.com.au. Nearly a third of all houses sold across Australia are basement buys but real estate buffs say the $400,000 mark will be dead on the Coast within three years. Such is demand to enter the market, first-home buyer specialist Sarah Zawadzki said: “There is a new estate at Maudsland (where) we are selling even before the trees have been cleared”.
BLINK and the $400,000 house price on the Gold Coast could be as extinct as the dodo bird or the Tasmanian tiger.
Less than 20 houses are listed for that price on realestate.com.au and property experts say it will be dead within three years.
Across the nation 31 per cent of houses and 37 per cent of units sold for less than $400,000 in the year to June 2017. Ten years ago, 62 per cent of all house sales and 68 per cent of unit sales were below $400,000.
CoreLogic data shows the average number of houses on the Gold Coast market two years ago between $300,000-499,999 was 1273 compared to an average of 911 houses now. The average price for a house on the Gold Coast is $620,000.
First-home buyer specialist Sarah Zawadzki, from Collins House Property Group, said she had 1000 people on her books wanting to enter the market.
“This week I have had a 21year-old and a 22-year-old each searching for a home in the $400,000 price bracket.
“We have more buyers than we have properties and Pimpama has some of the most affordable properties on the Gold Coast.
“There is a new estate at Maudsland called Huntington Rise (where) we are selling even before the trees have been cleared,” she said. “There are 55 blocks but we already have 40 buyers.”
In Pimpama, a 26-block estate, Town Centre North, has five blocks left two weeks after launching to the market.
“Most of these buyers are renting two streets away and see more value in buying a property rather than spending money on rent, and they know houses won’t be cheap forever with the amount of land left.”
Ms Zawadzki said the most in-demand suburbs were Oxenford and Maudsland, with up to 10 home buyers inquiring per property.
“It started to pick up towards the end of April and now I am getting so many calls and emails from firsthome buyers wanting to get into the market that it is taking days to respond.”
REIQ Gold Coast zone chairman John Newlands said: “The whole coastal strip is going to be well over the $400,000 price range before we know it but there are still plenty of opportunities to live centrally in townhouses, and units, for that price.
“In the next three years I don’t think Gold Coast buyers will see a house for that price anywhere, but that is expected when you have a city that is growing and moving in the right direction.”
Mr Newlands said the fade out of the $400,000 price tag was due to the lack of land available.
“There is a shortage of land so buyers are having to go out further north and west to get it. The great thing about the Gold Coast is that we are affordable compared to big city markets and when the Commonwealth Games is gone we still have our booming construction, tourism and education industries.”
RP Data’s senior research analyst Cameron Kushler said the increases in dwelling values led to a significant reduction of sales occurring below $400,000.
“The Federal Government attempted to address housing affordability in the Budget. It is clear that in order to improve housing affordability there is much more work to be done on both supply and demand drivers of the market.
“A greater supply of stock which could potentially reduce prices would at the very least be a good start but the supply needs to be supported by sufficient infrastructure and employment opportunities.”
Ray White Surfers Paradise Group CEO Andrew Bell said the shortage of properties on the Gold Coast was due to a strong sales activity.
“This shortage of lowerend product has driven prices higher across the board,” he said.