OS buyers keen on Coast

Foreign interest strong in local housing hot spots

THE Gold Coast dominates the list of suburbs where overseas buyers are keen to lay down roots, with our beachside suburbs continuing to capture global attention.

While Brisbane City tops the list for Queensland, it’s the Coast that features the most in the top 10 with five suburbs making the cut.

The Glitter Strip’s most searched suburb by overseas buyers is Surfers Paradise followed by Broadbeach and Burleigh. Southport and Robina also made the top 10 list.

The country with the biggest number of homehunters is just over the ditch in New Zealand. More than 208,000 New Zealanders were in Queensland during the 2021 Census, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), with many more considering the move.

In every other state, the top spot for overseas buyer search activity came from either the UK or US, with those buyers also on the hunt for a piece of

Sunshine State real estate. Other major markets looking at Queensland property included Hong Kong, Canada, Singapore, the Philippines, India, Germany and China.

Data from Juwai shows that there has been a 4 per cent increase in Chinese buyer inquiries for Queensland real estate in the past five years, with Queensland securing 22 per cent of all Chinese searches of Australian property last year.

Pimpama was the only Gold

Coast suburb to make the top 10 suburbs for growth in overseas searches, according to the exclusive Proptrack data.

Phillis Real Estate director Alex Phillis said his agency was hearing from “lots” of expats who were keen to come home to Australia with their young families.

“The typical demographic is that 40 to 50 year age bracket, the group who have worked overseas but also experienced lockdowns during Covid, many in apartments, and are wanting a life for their kids like they had,” he said.

Proptrack senior analyst Karen Dellow said the most popular suburbs for overseas property seekers were primarily close to the main cities but areas with higher employment, such as mining regions, may also be behind a drive in popularity.

“Queensland has consistently been a desirable destination for overseas property seekers so search volumes have remained fairly stable throughout the past few years, even during the pandemic,” she said. “Searches for properties for rent have been far more volatile.”

Ms Dellow said that searches for properties to buy was up 10 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021, and were 11 per cent higher than in 2019.

“There are a number of factors that drive relocation to Australia, such as lifestyle preferences, jobs, good salaries, good universities, universal healthcare and good state schools,” she said.