SPRING IN OUR STEP
Gold Coast property market heats up as region records Queensland’s second-highest median house price rise
GOLD Coast’s property market is showing strong resilience, recording the state’s second-highest median house price rise, according to the latest report from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland.
New data shows activity in the city is starting to heat back up with March quarter figures revealing a 0.8 per cent rise while other parts of the country suffered significant declines. Property experts say the city’s resilience has been based on a wave of interstate migration and a strong economy.
COOLER property market conditions felt across the country appear to have been short lived on the Gold Coast, with new data showing activity in the city is starting to heat back up.
The latest Real Estate Institute of Queensland Quarterly Market Monitor report, reveals the Coast’s median house price recorded the second-highest rise in the three months to March, making it one of the state’s most expensive places to live.
While other parts of the country suffered significant declines, the city’s median house price rose 0.8 per cent to $625,000. Rockhampton was the state’s shining light, jumping 15.2 per cent.
Property experts say the city’s resilience has been based on a wave of interstate migration and a strong economy.
They are confident of the future too, especially with activity picking up almost immediately after the federal election and the Coast not solely reliant on traditional pillars of tourism and construction.
Over the past five years, the Coast’s median house price has climbed 28.9 per cent. Compared to Sydney and Melbourne markets, which have each felt 10 per cent drops in the past year, the Glitter Strip appears to be one of the shining lights in an otherwise dull market.
REIQ chief executive Antonia Mercorella said the market displayed a “quiet confidence” in the first quarter of this year, indicating an “optimistic” long-term view.
“While the Gold Coast housing market is holding steady, it is considered to be within the rising market sector of the price cycle,” she said.
“The Gold Coast was the state’s third-most expensive local government association (LGA) for houses based on the annual median price to March 2019, behind Noosa ($750,000) and Brisbane ($680,000).”
The increase comes despite an 18 per cent drop in the number of sales during the quarter.
Most of the 1096 houses that sold were between $500,000 and $1 million, which made up 64 per cent of all transactions in the period.
Director of self-titled agency Lucy Cole said buyers and sellers were no longer hesitant.
“There was a lot of nervousness prior to the election,” she said.
“We feel it’s turned a corner and there’s a lot of confidence out there.”
REIQ Gold Coast zone chairman Andrew Henderson said property owners doing more renovations and rebuilds could have helped bolster the median house price, while the number of listings and sales continued to decline.
Stamp duty was also one of the biggest hindrances when buying and selling, he said. But he believed a stable economy with plenty of jobs and improved infrastructure and interstate migration were mainly responsible for the rise.
“It shows the Gold Coast has obviously got good resilience … to have a positive quarter when the vast part of the country has gone into negative territory regarding property prices,” he said.
“(The 0.8 per cent) is a much more manageable and sustainable growth level.
“Where we’re seeing double figure growth in a year is not sustainable.”
Industry experts noticed the market had already picked up since March following the federal election and the announcement of an interestrate cut and more relaxed lending criteria.
However, the report also showed that units were in the recovery phase of the cycle, with the quarterly median price dropping 4.5 per cent to $422,000.
‘We feel it’s turned a corner and there’s a lot of confidence’