Luxury that we can’t afford

PROPERTY sector leaders warn the Gold Coast needs to build fewer luxury towers and aim more developments at the non-wealthy.

The sector, which underwent a multi-billion dollar boom between 2020 and 2022, has a pipeline of about 40 towers under construction.

However, the bulk are boutique projects with small numbers of units and high asking prices.

With more than 15,000 people moving to the city annually and both rental and housing vacancies remaining stubbornly low, developers are being urged to diversify their proposals.

CBRE Gold Coast boss Mark Witheriff said more build-torent projects and affordable living units were needed to take pressure off the city’s housing shortage.

“Market forces will dictate it eventually but right now it doesn’t matter what either the council or state government wants to see built on the Gold Coast in the short term – it cannot be built right now because there are not enough companies able to,” he said.

“Nobody wants a population cap but we have to ensure that we have the infrastructure in place to make sure people can move around the city, and council’s approach so far has been quite reasonable – that people are coming here and they need somewhere to live, while balancing this with infrastructure.

“Short-term, the only things being built right now are higher-ended developments but what we need are more investment properties or build-torent around the working nodes of Robina and Southport, as well as in the city’s north.”

Several developers, including Ron Bakir’s Homecorp, are currently working on build-torent projects, with the first expected to open later this year.

Kirsty Chessher-Brown, the chief executive of the Queensland branch of the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA), said a range of different housing products were needed to suit the city’s growing population.

“It is very clear the Gold Coast population is growing and as we have seen in the past few years, there has been massive internal migration into Queensland,” she said.

“We are still seeing strong growth and demand, and according to the Regional Plan we need to build an extra 5600 dwellings annually.

“There is no doubt we are growing and that what we need is housing ... Getting this right is critically important, not just for the development industry but for the community so they have a pipeline of reliable supply of housing and protection from unexpected shocks.”

The council last year revealed it had identified Highland Park and Gaven North for potential development which would allow hundreds of new homes to be built.

However, these sites are largely already serviced by existing infrastructure.