Squeeze on rental market
COVID rush on properties
SOUTHERNERS who made a dash to the Gold Coast amid the COVID crisis are renting houses for up to $4000 a week, contributing to a severe tightening of the rental market.
Latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) show the Gold Coast rental market has made a dramatic recovery in the months since COVID, with the median vacancy rate having dropped from a peak of 10 per cent in May to 1.6 per cent in September.
Andrew Bell, CEO of Ray White Surfers Paradise Group, whose agency has 3500 tenants on its books, said interstate migration was adding to an acute shortage of houses for rent.
“A lot of people who came up from Victoria have decided that they’re staying,” he said.
“A good proportion of them are moving out of apartments and into housing.
“We’ve been letting quite a few properties in the $2000-4000-a-week bracket, which is almost unheard of on the Gold Coast.
“These are higher wealth people from southern states who are coming up here on a test run to see if they will buy and relocate here.”
From July to September, southern Gold Coast suburbs recorded some of the lowest vacancy rates in the state, led by Coolangatta (0.2 per cent), Miami (0.4 per cent), Burleigh Heads (0.4 per cent), Currumbin (0.6 per cent) and Palm Beach (0.1 per cent).
Rental vacancy rates in Surfers Paradise fell from 5 per cent to 2.1 per cent in the three months to September – the tightest conditions in more than two years.
REIQ Gold Coast zone chair Andrew Henderson said the figures reflected a return to relative normality in the city following the early impacts of the COVID outbreak.
“The exodus of hospitality workers and internationals who took government advice to return home probably had the biggest impact,” he said.
“With fewer visitors, we also saw an influx of Airbnb accommodation into our long-term rental market.
“The JobKeeper stimulus and flexibility in the workforce have since contributed to the turnaround in vacancy rates here on the Gold Coast.”
Vacancy rates have also dropped in suburbs to the west where a mean of 2.2 per cent fell to 1 per cent by September. The tightest conditions were recorded in Oxenford (0.3 per cent), Mudgeeraba (0.4 per cent) and Nerang (0.5 per cent).
On the northern end, a median vacancy of 1.3 per cent (down from 3.2 per cent) saw rental markets tighten in Coomera (0.7 per cent), Helensvale (1.6 per cent), Hope Island (1.6 per cent), Southport (1.5 per cent), Pimpama (0.4 per cent) and Upper Coomera (0.7 per cent).