It’s going up

Density must increase across the Gold Coast, even in the city’s most exclusive enclave

The Gold Coast has an accommodation issue and it will see the city’s skyline reshaped again in coming years as steps are taken to deal with it. More than 15,000 people are moving here annually, available housing is at a premium and the development sector, while incredibly busy and builders having years of work on the books, is not keeping pace.

Political and property industry leaders have long said the Gold Coast must go up, not out.

What this actually means has long been nebulous to many but we are starting to see it take shape.

Not just the number of highrises which are appearing but also the quantity of townhouse projects which are replacing previous onehouse sites.

Suburbs like Southport have changed significantly in the past half decade.

Even Hedges Ave, once the exclusive domain of surf shacks and ostentatious mansions, has increasingly seen duplexes being built in recent years.

Now the Sovereign Islands, perhaps the Gold Coast’s most exclusive suburb, is about to experience this same move. The Gold Coast City Council’s planning committee is on the verge of approving the enclave’s first unit block.

While only four-storeys tall, around the same size as some of the area’s mansions, it is a definitive break with the past and a sure sign of things to come.

The units in this complex will be aimed at the ultra-wealthy, with price tags comfortably in the millions, so it will do little to address the housing crisis.

Low and middle-income people hunting for a house will still face great difficulty and with little in the way of solutions, the situation will broadly remain tough.

But it is clear that the Sovereign Islands is no longer immune to reality and the changing face of development on the Gold Coast.

While mega mansions will always dominate that area, you can expect to see plenty more higher-density developments lodged there in the coming years.

The days of house and land packages being the norm are long over and, while nobody wants us to become Hong Kong, the reality of higher-density development cannot be ignored.

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