Market Update

2021 WITH STEVE HUNT | MEDIAHUNT.COM.AU MARKET UPDATE WHEN OPPORTUNITY

KNOCKS South East Queensland’s property market continues to soar.

Imperial Square

IN MORE THAN 20 YEARS in the development industry in Southeast Queensland, I’ve never seen so many opportunities come across my desk as the last six months.

It’s truly incredible.

I’m sure many in the industry are thinking the same thing – to say business is booming on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coasts would be an understatement.

I’ve never liked the term boom because it also implies there could be a bust, but I have to say the fundamentals in the SEQ property sector give no indication of the latter.

Strong interstate migration, a growing downsizer market, the work from home phenomenon, greater work flexibility, and a philosophical post-Covid shift in thinking about how – and where – people want to live is driving SEQ’s incredibly healthy property sector.

Thankfully this phenomenal recovery isn’t just restricted to middle or high income earners – with first homebuyers now able to get onto the property ladder thanks to unprecedented government stimulus measures and record low interest rates.

I don’t know a tradesperson who is struggling to find work. On the contrary they are, as a friend said to me recently, ‘busier than one armed bricklayer in Beirut’.

I also spoke to a businessman who installs and sells solar panels across the southeast and he can’t find staff for work netting $3000 a week.

It really is an incredible period for this industry at a time when tourism has lagged under the shadow of border closures.

Hopefully this will change soon with the emergence of a vaccine.

From our own clients’ news desk, we have so much to report.

The best-selling projects on the Gold Coast over the past six months are predominantly clients of Media Hunt. HERE THEY ARE: • $90 million in sales in less than three weeks after the December 27 launch of Miles Residences, the first stage of the $380 million Kirra Beach Hotel re-development. • The complete sell-out of $74 million S and S Projects Flow Residences at Rainbow Bay for an average price of $3.5 million. • The near sell-out of all three projects by Brisbane based Spyre Group scattered along the Gold Coast – the $77 million Natura at Burleigh Heads, the $79 Elysian at Broadbeach and $25 million Maya at Kirra (Spyre has tapped into such a strong beachfront downsizer market that it is also planning a new project called Cala Dei Residences at Coolangatta on the iconic Kommune Hotel site). • Evergreen Gold Coast development stalwart Roberto Badalotti has brought forward plans for the second stage of his $1.2 billion Imperial Square at Southport off the back of strong sales in the first stage Regal Residences. • More than $107 million in sales in one calendar year in the Serenity 4212 masterplanned community on the northern Gold Coast. • More than $70 million in sales in the second stage of George Mastrocostas’ $140 million 1 Grant Avenue which is re-shaping Hope Island.

Kirra Point

• The best ever Ray White Surfers Paradise ‘Event’ auctions in 30 years with millions of dollars in sales in January.

So how is the rest of the year shaping up?

There are plenty of new projects among our stable of clients that are set to enter the market in 2021.

These will play a major hand in re-shaping their respective locations.

Brisbane-based Bottega Group is making some great inroads as it prepares to launch in its luxurious 123OBR apartments at Broadbeach.

Other pending projects include Allure Property Corporation’s 88 Burleigh on The Esplanade at Burleigh Heads, Spyre Group’s Cala Dei at Coolangatta, and the Old Burleigh Theatre Arcade on Goodwin Terrace – all of which are pending approval by council.

There are great signs emerging for Brisbane’s ‘lifestyle’ market with Pikos Group finalising plans to launch a luxury residential development on one of the city’s most acclaimed sites overlooking the CBD, having acquired the spectacular Kangaroo Point site from Singapore’s Banyan Tree.

Bottega Group is also planning a residential project targeting the downsizer market in Bulimba while Townsville’s Honeycombes Property Group – no stranger to Brisbane – will in coming weeks launch its new residential offering at Ferny Grove where it is set to launch a $140 million mixed use project.

With the challenges of last year behind us, we are embracing 2021 as a great year for property and we wish the entire communities of SEQ every success with the economic recovery underway.