Coast rides property wave

THE Gold Coast property roller coaster continues to ride record highs.

Properties are being snapped up within days of being listed for sale and some buyers have had more than eight offers on a single property as demand outstrips supply.

Skyrocketing house prices have seen the city's median house price jump 9 per cent to $436,050 in the 12 months to September, according to the latest figures from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ).

The boom times are being underpinned by a continuing flood of migrants from southern states and the increasing equity that Gold Coasters now have in their homes.

"Drive around the city and in most suburbs you see 'Sold, Sold, Sold' or 'Under Contract'," said REIQ Gold Coast chairman Terrence Allen.

"Most properties are spending less time on the market and sell at auction or prior to, and I'm seeing six, seven and eight offers on the one property with sellers getting far more than their listed price.

"The growth is amazing and even with interest rate hikes and a change of government, people don't even blink any more.

"Real estate experts are saying the market is going to get very strong in 2008 and really going to push again, so people are stretching themselves now to get on the property ladder."

The northern end of the Gold Coast has seen the biggest surge in price, with Eagleby, where the median house price is now $272,000, recording a massive 203 per cent price increase in the past five years and 19 per cent in the past year.

Other northern growth suburbs include Beenleigh (up 170.6 per cent in five years), Bethania (up 143.9 per cent), Mount Warren Park (up 141.3 per cent), Molendinar (up 129.2 per cent), Oxenford (up 126.3 per cent), Windaroo (up 125.4 per cent) and Coombabah (up 106.8 per cent).

The prestige end of the market also continues to hit new highs, with The Sovereign Islands now having a median house price of $2.6 million, up 19.6 per cent in the past year, and 95.4 per cent in the past five years.

The other prestige property gems continue to be Surfers Paradise, with a median house price of $1.55 million, and Mermaid Beach with a median house price of $1.325 million.

In the acreage market, Worongary ($700,000) is now a clear frontrunner ahead of Tallai ($615,00), which had in the past been the prestige acreage location.

REIQ state chairman Peter McGrath said the mass migration to the Gold Coast would continue to see property prices soar.

Mr McGrath's tips for areas that were good buys and yet to really take off were Varsity Lakes and Emerald Lakes, Carrara, parts of Robina, and the northern growth corridor.

"The movement of people into the southeast is back up to nearly 1800 a month and there is a very dramatic undersupply of both existing and new stock in which to house them," he said.

"At the same time tourism to the Gold Coast continues to boom with new airlines bringing more people into the city which is generating a lot of extra income.

"The state's economy is also driving so hard that this growth is going to be sustainable into the foreseeable future."

Mr Allen said many long-term Gold Coast residents were now using the increased equity in their homes to either retire or invest in more prestigious areas.

"It's very exciting that a lot of local people are using the equity in their homes to perhaps move from a dry block to a canal block, or from a canal block to river frontage," he said.

He said the only downside to the boom was the increasing difficulty for first-time home buyers and families on single incomes to get a start in the current property market.

"Buyers do need a dual income to buy property, it is certainly a struggle for them," he said. "Many people have to buy a lesser property than they ideally would have wanted."

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source: goldcoast.com