Big hike for 12 suburbs

HOUSE values have surged by more than 10 per cent in just three months in 12 Gold Coast suburbs, pricing out locals amid heated demand from interstate buyers.

Mermaid Beach was the city’s top performer – and third in Queensland – recording 12.9 per cent growth between January and March to hit an eye-watering median house price of $1.56m, CoreLogic data for the March quarter shows.

Annual growth reached 15.7 per cent in the iconic suburb, which is home to some of the Coast’s most expensive oceanfront properties along Hedges Ave, known as Millionaires’ Row.

The surrounding suburbs of Burleigh Waters and Mermaid Waters also boomed off the back of a post-COVID lifestyle shift north by people from the southern states. Quarterly house values in those suburbs rose 12.6 and 12.3 per cent respectively; and 17.1 and 14.5 per cent over 12 months.

Rounding out the quarter’s top dozen were: Miami, Currumbin Waters, Currumbin Valley, Elanora, Palm Beach, Jacobs Well, Tugun, Broadbeach

Waters and Mudgeeraba.

CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said interstate migration and the normalisation of remote working combined with a desire to escape highdensity living had boosted the local market.

“The Gold Coast market has consistently outperformed Brisbane for quite some time,” she said.

“(The Gold Coast) offers the best of both worlds in terms of lifestyle and access to amenities.”

Ms Owen said she expected demand to remain strong while interest rates were at historical lows.

Meanwhile, steep house prices in the most popular suburbs have led first-home buyer activity to stall since January, according to Herron Todd White’s latest housing report.

“Demand for residential property remains very strong across the central suburbs of the Gold Coast,” Herron Todd White director Stuart Greensill said. “Buyers are finding it difficult to enter into the market with what appears to be record-low stock levels.

Ray White Mermaid Beach agent Conner Malan said prices in his suburb were holding strong, but increased seller confidence had begun to trickle through with more properties starting to hit the market.

“A lot of people were being offered big money but were cautious of being caught with nowhere else to go because prices have moved so far,” Mr Malan said.

“Mermaid Waters had steady growth over the last decade but in the past six months it’s really hit the map and, like what has happened in Broadbeach Waters already, prices have gone through the roof and are rapidly catching up to the beach suburbs.”