SALES HIT NEW HEIGHTS

OFF-THE-PLAN apartment sales on the Gold Coast are soaring to new heights, defying the national market downturn.

New apartment sales in the first three months of this year have jumped 45 per cent from last quarter, according to property consultant company Urbis’ latest figures.

The Gold Coast is home to five of the top 10 best-selling projects nationwide.

Urbis senior consultant Lynda Campbell said it had “definitely been a good start to the year”.

OFF-the-plan apartment sales on the Gold Coast are soaring to new heights despite other markets across the country continuing to fall flat.

New apartment sales in the first three months of this year have jumped 45 per cent from last quarter, according to property consultant company Urbis’ latest figures.

The Quarterly Apartment Essentials report, released today, found new apartment activity in the first quarter of 2019 was up by more than 70 sales from the December 2018 quarter.

Urbis senior consultant Lynda Campbell said the Gold Coast’s new apartments had defied the market downturn thanks to developers appealing to buyer appetite.

“Most of the developers on the Gold Coast are meeting the market,” Ms Campbell said.

“The top-selling projects have been boutique and targeted at owner-occupiers and that’s what the market is looking for at the moment.”

There were 231 new apartment sales recorded from January to March with boutique-style developments most in demand.

Two-bedroom, two-bathroom pads also proved to be

popular, making up 65 per cent of sales.

There are 2800 apartments under construction on the Glitter Strip, of which 62 per cent are earmarked for completion this year.

Ms Campbell said the Gold Coast was home to five of the top 10 best-selling projects nationwide.

“The developers are doing a lot of homework and making sure what they take to the market is what the market is looking for,” she said.

“It has definitely been a good start to the year and now the election is over things will settle and I think the next quarter will see a good result as well.”

The report also found interstate investors held back in the new year, claiming 25 per cent of sales, down from 42 per cent in the final quarter of 2018.

Foreign investors claimed almost a quarter and buyers in the box seat proved to be owner-occupiers, who accounted for 43 per cent of sales.

The southern beaches precinct, which stretched from Mermaid Beach to Tweed Heads, has experienced a boom and was home to more than 60 per cent of sales for the quarter – the highest level recorded for the area in the past five years.

In the first quarter last year the stretch only accounted for 25 per cent of sales.

It was also home to all of the four new projects launched across the Gold Coast.

Knight Frank director and Queensland head of project marketing Chris Litfin, who is marketing a number of new apartment developments on the Gold Coast, said the majority of sales were being recorded at the southern end because that was where the stock was.

He said many developers bought land between Mermaid Beach and Tweed Heads because it offered better value compared to other blocks closer to existing infrastructure.

“They can provide a product near the beach at a low price point,” he said.

The majority of those developments were considered boutique, which Mr Litfin said included between 60 and 120 apartments.