Bilinga, Guanaba join the $1m club

THE median house price at Bilinga has more than doubled to $1.3 million since 2017, defying property price trends around the country.

It is one of two suburbs to join the Gold Coast’s milliondollar club while property prices for most of those already in the elite group have slumped during the past year.

CoreLogic data shows Bilinga now has the Coast’s second highest median house price at $1.3 million – up from $620,000 in 2017 – but experts say the remarkable median increase is a product of a few big sales in a small area.

The other suburb to make the list is Guanaba, after its median climbed from $790,000 in 2017 to $1.035 million by November last year.

REIQ director John Newlands said a few big sales had likely pushed the two suburbs into the exclusive price threshold

Median, Nov 2017 to Nov 2018

1. Mermaid Beach, from $1.5m to $1.38m

2. Bilinga, $620,000 to $1.3m.

3. Broadbeach Waters, $1.106m to $1.15m

4. Surfers Paradise, $1.28m to $1.15m.

5. Guanaba, $790,000 to $1.04m.

6. Clear Island Waters, $1.21m to $1.03m

7. Tallebudgera Valley, $1.05m to $1m.

Source: CoreLogic

as their medians were based on 16 and 13 sales respectively during the past year.

“It distorts the figures because the sample size is not big enough,” he said.

The million-dollar club is led by Mermaid Beach with a median price of $1.38 million, which is down from $1.5 mil- lion in 2017, followed by Broadbeach Waters, Surfers Paradise, Clear Island Waters and Tallebudgera Valley.

Median house prices in all the suburbs except Broadbeach Waters declined during the past year while some, including Bundall and Paradise Point, dropped below the threshold completely.

Mr Newlands said the market was correcting itself after several years of strong growth, but he did not think it would decline as much or as fast as Sydney and Melbourne.

“Our market is a healthy one,” he said. “The banking royal commission and tighter lending criteria ... those are the sorts of things that have had an impact on the market.”

It was reported nationally yesterday that nearly 100 suburbs around the country have dropped out of the million-dollar club.

Twelve per cent of suburbs with a median house or unit value at or above $1 million were reported to have fallen into six digits.

DJ Stringer Property Services principal David Stringer said a lack of property on the market at Bilinga was increasing demand and bumping prices up.

He said buyers were owneroccupiers wanting a slice of beachfront real estate and developers wanting to build boutique apartment buildings.

“Bilinga is riding a wave of development and that hasn’t happened for 10 years,” Mr Stringer said.

Ray White Surfers Paradise agent Josh Thomas said demand was pushing prices up at Guanaba.

“Over the years it’s been very tightly held – there wasn’t a huge turnover,” he said.

“People are now realising that to have such large parcels of land and still be 35 to 40 minutes to the beach is becoming very attractive.”