Gold Coast Property Investment

The Gold Coast property market is somewhat insulated from rate rises because of population growth, business investment and infrastructure spending. BIS Shrapnel nominates Queensland as the state most likely to perform in the next 3 years.

The Coomera town centre, in the exploding Brisbane-Gold Coast corridor, will eventually be home to almost 70,000-80,000 more than the current population of cities such as Rockhampton. It will service a surrounding catchment area of at least 200,000 residents.

Millions of dollars worth of land purchased by the State Government for the failed 2002 world Expo bid, as well as a parcel owned by the Dreamworld theme park, also form a part of the site earmarked for the town centre.

Coomera area councillor, David Power said the centre would dwarf the master-planned satellite town of Robina and rival the Gold Coast CBD of Southport as a retail, commercial and residential hub.

“It is a massive project that will probably take some 20 years to fully develop,” Cr. Power said. “We are talking about an area that will ultimately house more than 65,000 residents and will have a catchment of some 200,000 to 250,000 people stretching from Gaven in the south to Ormeau in the north and west to Tamborine”. Cr. Power said the Coomera Town Centre was so large and significant it would probably require its own Act of Parliament, similar to the legislation which paved the way for Robina, which is expected to house about 38,000 when fully developed.

The Coomera centre would feature 100,000sq.m of shops and office buildings and residential accommodation, including medium-rise apartment towers providing residents with views from Stradbroke Island to Surfers Paradise.

Cr. Power said that unlike Robina, which has a central commercial centre surrounded by housing, at Coomera shops and homes would be side by side. “In that sense, it will be more of a traditional town centre,” he said.

The State Government has also earmarked the town centre for an education precinct, including a TAFE college and possibly university. Work on the first shops and commercial buildings could start as early as this year, Cr Power said. He said Coomera was a strategic location for a town centre because of its central position in the Brisbane-Gold Coast corridor.

The Coomera Town Centre would help cater for the Cold Coast’s record growth, which was bringing at least 14,000 new residents a year to the tourist strip. The Coast’s population of almost 460,000 residents is growing at about 3.5 percent a year and is forecast to reach 500,000 by next year.

“Property purchasers should not wait until the boom arrives before purchasing, particularly when interest rates are so low. The forecast average price rise in 2008-09 is equivalent to 40 percent over the next four years, about 10 percent a year. It is perturbing to think that the average house price in 2008-09 on the Gold Coast could be 625,000. it will no longer be as affordable destination for homemakers without a substantial increase in wages and salaries”

The Gold Coast market is in a typical state of post-boom adjustment, however, low interest rates have seen quality, well-priced product perform quite successfully,” said the Midwood Investment Report. Brisbane house prices are now similar to those in Melbourne, the average being $350,000.

Main beach has Queensland’s most expensive homes, with the average residence selling for $2.2 million.

The average house price in Surfers Paradise is $1.2million and Runaway Bay is in third spot with $775,000. New farm in Brisbane ranks fourth with an average house price of $774,000.

The average house price in Main Beach has climbed by 343 percent in the past five years.

Coolangatta was second with house prices up 237 percent and Surfers Paradise was third with a rise of 196 percent.

Queensland’s most expensive units can be found in Noosa Heads, Main Beach and Hope Island, with median sale prices past $500,000. Rockhampton has the state’s cheapest homes.

Meanwhile, the room rates have gone up 17 percent on hotel rooms, but this has not affected occupancy figures, coming on the back of solid growth in international visitor numbers.

There were 825,000 international visitors to the Coast in the past year, up by 10 percent. Domestic visitors totalled 3,568 million, up just one percent on the previous year. There are now 508,000 people permanently residing on the Gold Coast and this figure is expected to hit the 600,000 mark by 2010, according to the Midwood report.

The Gold Coast is the fastest growing region in Australia.

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