Rents in thousands

RENTERS at the upper end of the market are dishing out thousands a week in a scramble to secure prestige Gold Coast homes.

As demand continues to outstrip supply, asking rents are rising with the most expensive long-term rental to ever hit the Gold Coast market topping out at $7500 a week. The bond is $30,000.

The Main Beach Parade beach house registers as one of the country’s top 10 most expensive rentals, realestate.com.au shows.

The property hit the rental pool after recently being purchased by a local buyer for a suburb record of $9.8m. The four-storey, four-bedroom home is one of only eight left in the suburb with direct beachfront access.

Brent Martens of Harcourts Coastal, who is handling the prestige listing, said since Covid the high-end rental market was firing with no shortage of tenants lining up to pay the sky-high prices.

“The market has changed dramatically over the past two years,” Mr Martens said. “Three or four years ago you would get one inquiry every two weeks on a property renting for $3,000 to $4,000-plus, now we get 10 to 15 immediately,” he said.

“The properties don’t come up very often, so when they do they get snapped up straight away,” he said.

“Just in the past week we rented a nonbeachfront home in Mermaid Beach for $6000 a week and one in another suburb for $4000.

“Palm Beach in particular is a hotspot. The demand for luxury apartments there is unprecedented. We’re getting 15 to 20 groups through each listing, and it’s consistent. There are a lot people around with a lot of money.”