Key trends impacting the Gold Coast Real Estate market as the financial year draws to a close

According to recent Gold Coast housing insights by Australian property developers, the housing conditions on the Gold Coast are stabilising following three years of frenetic developer activity to meet buyer demand.

In 2022, real estate dwelling values increased by 53.3 per cent, setting the record as the highest growth experienced in the history of property developers in the Gold Coast region.

During the Covid19-pandemic, the Gold Coast was the most preferred region that acted as the safe harbor for interstate migrants fleeing from the strict Covid-19 restrictions in New South Wales and Victoria throughout the pandemic.

Australian property developers responded to the increase in new arrivals and subsequent demand for homes by increasing the prices of homes.

Gold Coast’s Housing Market: Policy Updates and Trend
Rental Vacancies rise, prices stabilise
The recent property developer data indicates that the extraordinary rental crisis in the Gold Coast may have surpassed its peak, as the reports show housing vacancy rates rising in almost every suburb on the Gold Coast.

Moreover, the average weekly rental costs at Gold Coast started dropping in several areas as the property developers in gold coast returned to the market, hence providing a much-required market boost to supply.

Rate rises send new house sales tumbling down
The rise in interest rates has influenced stalled momentum in the housing market, making housing developers on the Gold Coast incur losses. For instance, new house sales plummeted by 15.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2022, up to the end of September.

Housing sales figures released by the Housing Industry Association indicate new house sales by property developers in Gold Coast plummeted for the third consecutive month in September 2022.

House Unit Sales in Gold Coast Towers Defy Shaky Economy
Real estate developers on the Gold Coast saw higher sales of new apartments in the June quarter of 2022. The sales increase indicates that the Gold Coast defied the ongoing housing supply shortage and pushed housing prices up.

The average price property owners paid per apartment was $1.1 million, which translates to 3.8 percent higher than the first two quarters of 2022, March to June. This record was just a few dollars shy of the highest record reported in the September quarter of 2022 at the height of the Covid19 pandemic.

Key Underlying Fundamentals Supporting Property Boost in Gold Coast
Population Growth:
Strong population growth in Gold Coast has been a key driver supporting the growth of the real estate markets in Gold Coast.

In the last few decades, Australia’s population has been increasing by approximately 360,000 per annum, meaning Australian property developers needed to build around 170,000 to 180,000 new housing units each year to accommodate all the new occupants settling on the Gold Coast.

In the last two years after the Covid19 pandemic, the Australian population stagnated. However, the Australian population is likely to surge following the new immigration rules. It is interesting that while Australia is increasingly being considered one of the safest havens in the world, the number of housing properties listed for various Australian cities is declining, creating an uneven supply and demand.

Housing Supply
Housing supply has a direct influence on the housing process, according to Australian property developers. The relationship between supply and demand is as follows: Undersupply, although the Australian property developers in Queensland are very few; housing influences a fast increase in housing prices, while an oversupply of housing units would cause a decrease in housing prices.

The oversupply in Gold Coast previously seen has now declined, and Australian property developers are opting for large sustainable development projects to solve the scarcity.

Change in Housing Size Trend
The current real estate trends on the Gold Coast are unique to the desires of the current, ever-increasing population of millennial property owners.

However, the households of millennials are smaller in size, hence, their type of demand for housing property on the Gold Coast is quite different.

Effects of Interest Rates
Australian property owners at Gold Coast observe that a low-interest rate attracts buyers to borrow more money with cheap interest and invest it in property development. Over the past couple of years, Australian property developers have witnessed several potential buyers investing in by buying houses and the developers who are favoured by the friendly interest rates.

When there are more buyers, however, it means the demand increases and supply struggles to keep pace, causing an imbalance for the property developers, especially the ones based in the Gold Coast, which, since Covid19 pandemic, is the most preferred region by customers to buy property.

In the present real estate market at Gold Coast, interest rates are fast rising and are predicted to go further throughout the year. It is also important to note that the RBA is now minimizing interest rate hikes.

Renters
Renters are a significant determinant of real estate success or failure.

The increase in demand for housing on the Gold Coast during the Covid-19 pandemic saw a surge in the construction of rental houses, which boosted the Australian property sector.

In the near future, 40 per cent of the Australian population will be property renters, first, due to housing affordability and secondly, because of lifestyle choices. There will be increasing pressure to own property, and this is likely to drive up the number of property owners on the Gold Coast.

High demand for housing will force would-be buyers to invest in the housing business sooner and earn by following my investment pieces of advice.

Investors
The property development scene on the Gold Coast is driven by investors.

Investors are, however, interested in different factors. Some investors are attracted by the rising interest rate. Still, other investors take advantage of the opportunity and just buy whatever is on offer.

The Economy
Most property investors make their decisions to either invest or wait until a particular time based on the health of the economy.

Various KPIs can show the economic growth of a country, region, or institution, including gross domestic product, GDP, employment data, market prices of properties, and manufacturing activity.

Even if the economy has some challenges, property managers can still do their jobs well and keep the real estate business on the Gold Coast afloat.

Major Project Signs of 2023
Savvy Gold Coast property developers have dived into the real estate market and signed major projects in 2023 that will capture holidaymakers and interstate investment opportunities.

The major real estate signings of 2023 on the Gold Coast amount to half a billion Australian dollars and include just some of the following projects:

• Lagoon Main Beach, by the Drew Group
• Greenwich at Chevron Island by Ention Properties
• Rhythm Kirra Hill, by Immerse Projects

These projects are a big win for the Australian property development sector and property developers.

Moreover, Jayde Pezet of Pezet Matheson said that this was an encouraging sign leading into the new financial year, despite conditions somewhat stablising in the property industry. Jayde adds that a solid indicator in the property sector for the Gold Coast is that settlements are coming through really strong:

Tim Lawless, the head researcher at CoreLogic, also adds that positive internal and intestate migration are significant in supporting housing demand as far as Australian property development is concerned.

The three major signings of 2023 indicate that demand for housing property has increased for the first and second quarters of 2023.