James Ledgerwood and I have just released our 3rd Annual Central Gold Coast Prestige Report that examines the beachfront and waterfront sales in the FY2014/15. It is now clear that the value of the prestige property market in the central Gold Coast precincts is trending upwards and set to continue.

Increasing property prices, strong auction clearance rates and shorter days on market are evident across many price brackets and various property types. We’ve seen that Broadbeach Waters and Isle of Capri achieved the greatest growth in terms of number of sales in the $2M-$5M range – this range saw 46 sales, up 24.32% on the previous year. Mermaid Waters was a new entry after having been absent in the past two years with the sale of 13 Intrepid Drive for $2.65M in March.

Riverfront homes cemented the price increases of FY2013/14 with two sales taking place above $6M. 117 Commodore Drive was the top riverfront sale of the year achieving the 6th highest price of all time in Paradise Waters at $6.6M to a Chinese purchaser. Paradise Waters also had the strongest growth in value with the average price up 40% on the previous year to $2,644,818 in FY2014/15.

Along the beachfront this year we saw an improvement in the total dollar volume of sales, up 47% from FY2013/14 and an increase of 10.5% in the average price of a beachfront home. Entry level pricing for a ‘beach shack’ or ‘knock down’ on a 405sqm block increased by 16.7% to $3.56M. By comparison to many previous years Albatross Avenue in Mermaid Beach had the greatest level of activity recording 50% of all beachfront transactions. Hedges Avenue accounted for 34% of the activity, Main Beach saw 2 sales – 16% of all transactions. The highest beachfront price was $8,420,000 for 1- 5 Surf Street, Mermaid Beach.

Improving property values will in our opinion, continue for some time driven by a number of factors including, but not limited to, an historically low interest rate environment, major infrastructure development around the Gold Coast; the G:Link light rail system as well as the upgrade and development of facilities to support the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Cranes are now back in our skyline, the litmus test for the Gold Coast economy, signifying the return of development and tourists are now flocking back to the city both domestic and international due to the lower Australian dollar which is keeping more Australians at home and bringing back more international visitors into Australia.

Once again this year the Gold Coast continued to draw strong Chinese interest. Significant Chinese investment produced an apartment auction record price of the Soul Penthouse, Surfers Paradise for $7M.

The ‘Seachange’ phenomenon is also making a comeback, partially due to the great disparity in the value of local Gold Coast property markets compared to those of the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Furthermore as low interest rates drive a huge appetite for investment many investors living in those cities who, whilst not relocating to the Gold Coast, can no longer afford to invest in Sydney and Melbourne property and are seeking better investment opportunities in the South East Queensland ‘Golden Triangle’ from the Gold Coast up to the Sunshine Coast and out to Toowoomba.