New Urbis Data – Gold Coast Apartment Sales Upswing

WORDS: Ocean Road Editorial Staff PHOTOGRAPHY Supplied

The Gold Coast has experienced a dramatic uptick in apartment sales in positive signs for a market further constrained by supply due to rising construction costs, according to new data from Urbis.

In a presentation yesterday afternoon (09/11/23) to the property development industry by project marketing specialist Highland, Urbis director Paul Riga revealed a significant increase in apartment sales (470) sales from the previous quarter (200).

Mr Riga said the majority of sales were centred around the traditional apartment precincts of Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and Main Beach – while the remainder of sales along the Gold Coast were limited due to a lack of new projects.

In a significant new trend, a number of projects that were built as “Build to Rent” Projects had also been switched to “Build to Sell” – signifying developers’ desire to capture sales in a constrained supply environment.

“What the data tells us quite simply is that the demand for apartments has remained strong, with new developments harnessing the purchasers,” said Mr Riga.

“This is great for the property market, underpins property prices but creates further problems with supply – meaning if new projects don’t get underway the supply will continue to diminish.”

 

The data snapshot reveals:

 

• 470 sales during Q3 2023 – 77% of which were in the Gold Coast Central Precinct with all sales in Surfers Paradise, Main Beach and Broadbeach except two which were in Southport.

 

• 1,770 apartments remaining for sale at the end of September – 82% of which are in Surfers Paradise, Main Beach and Broadbeach

 

• North Shore, Coastal Fringe and Southern Beaches Precincts all have limited supply with just 264 apartments remaining for sale across all three precincts.

 

• Five new project launches during Q3 2023 – four are in Broadbeach and Main Beach.

 

• Three projects which began as Build to Rent projects and switched to selling, and one project switched from selling apartments to a Build to Rent project.

 

Highland CEO David Highland, whose Sydney-based company has expanded its operations to the Gold Coast and is marketing one of the city’s key apartment projects, Sammut Group’s ‘Coast’ apartments under construction on Garfield Terrace at Surfers Paradise, said the data underpinned the resilience of the market.

“What this shows us is that demand for the Gold Coast has not diminished since the boom times brought about after the Covid pandemic,” he said.

“We are still seeing very strong interest from Sydneysiders keen to either move to the Gold Coast or at least take a stake in the Gold Coast’s future by purchasing an apartment here.

“The problem is that unless construction costs stabilise there may not be the stock required to meet demand, so buyers getting into the market now are in an enviable position where there may be considerable upside in the value of their apartments.”

Mr Highland said the current inflationary pressures and construction costs were drawing buyers to quality developers which had the capacity to deliver.

“Projects under construction or with a builder locked in are certainly at a distinct advantage in the eyes of buyers,” he said.

“There’s a flight to quality – people want certainty in an uncertain environment where we don’t know where prices are going to.

“This is certainly encouraging people to get into the market sooner than later and perhaps this is why there has been an uptick in sales in the third quarter.

“We expect this will continue as we head into the peak selling periods for apartments over Christmas and New Year where hundreds of thousands of people will be holidaying on the Gold Coast and inspecting property.”