Strong demand has sent home prices in Gold Coast, Australia, soaring over the past year—ongoing growth that could still pay off for buyers getting in now.
Overall home prices have risen 12.3% over the past year—and growth has been even more pronounced in the high-end market, said Tim Lawless, executive research director of CoreLogic Asia Pacific.
“We’ve seen at the upper end of the market experience double-digit growth over the past 12 months, and that comes after a strong rate of growth since the onset of the pandemic as well,” Lawless said.
Main Beach is currently home to several new apartment developments, one of which is the amenity-laden Masthead Ocean Club Residences
Masthead Ocean Club Residences
Some property experts believe the booming city just south of Brisbane could see prestige housing values continue to grow. And with limited buildable land in the city and steady demand from cash buyers, house hunters getting into the market now are looking at long-term financial upside.
Values Are Up
Corelogic data to the end of February reveals the median house price in the Gold Coast’s top-10 most expensive suburbs sits at A$1.118 million (US$730,000) after a 12.6% 12-month increase, while units were at A$740,000 after an 11.9% jump.
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The priciest suburb for houses is Broadbeach Waters, at A$1.982 million, where values have climbed 7.5% in a year, while the most expensive unit suburb was Main Beach at A$1.295 million, after a rise of 8%.
Meanwhile, luxury prices in the Australian city property rose higher than the global average last year, according to the latest Knight Frank Wealth Report. Gold Coast ranked 38th in a list of prime price appreciation (defined as the top 5% of each market by value) across 100 global cities. Knight Frank reported luxury price growth in Gold Coast at a more conservative rate of 4.1% during 2023.
An Abundance of Cash Buyers
Main Beach is currently home to several new apartment developments, one of which is the amenity-laden Masthead Ocean Club Residences. With prices from A$6.6 million, the boutique block of 28 apartments includes two, two-story sky homes and a 9,050-square-foot penthouse.
Well-amenitized luxury condo developments like Masthead have helped put the Gold Coast on the map, said Masthead’s selling agent Alex Caraco of ERA Real Estate.
“It says there’s a new level of luxury, unseen before, and it’s the sort of luxury you can manage quite easily. It’s very hard to manage a megamansion because there’s a lot of upkeep,” he said.
Caraco said that despite the Gold Coast’s history of rocky real estate prices—when home values plunged by as much as 50% between 2010 and 2014—today’s top-end apartment market is attracting a steady flow of ultra-high-net worth individuals. “At this high end, we’re dealing with a lot of cash-only buyers,” he said.
“The market is very stable at this end, compared with the past, when finance was heavily involved on the Gold Coast. Now, people have the cash they don’t need to sell or make irrational decisions.”
Lawless added that although the Gold Coast was once oversupplied, today the sprawling regional city—which stretches 43 miles from Coolangatta on the state’s border with New South Wales to Beenleigh just before Brisbane—is facing a reversal of demand, saying it “now has the highest volume of unit sales of any Australian jurisdiction, mostly concentrated between Main Beach and Broadbeach.”
Houses Set to Become Hot Property
Famous for its beachside apartment lifestyle, demand has also grown for the Gold Coast’s houses.
“There isn’t a lot of developable land because what’s left is either low-lying and flood-prone, earmarked for agricultural purposes or it’s parkland. Soon there’ll simply be no other way to go but up,” Lawless said.
The government’s plan for ‘nSouth East Queensland, which involves incorporating the Gold Coast among a handful of other regional centers, predicts the population to hit 6 million by 2046, with an additional 900,000 new homes required by then. The Gold Coast, Australia’s sixth-largest city, is one of the fastest-growing economies in the country and is home to more than 625,000, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“It’s clear this market is going to densify massively,” Lawless said.
“This just highlights the scarcity value of detached housing across the Gold Coast. It’ll become more extreme, especially for houses in prestige sectors close to the water and homes around the hinterland on large blocks.”
Pacific Fair shopping center.
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Local selling agent Nicole Carter of McGrath Southport, said she is confident local demand will continue to buoy prices for both houses and apartments.
“We’re running out of land. If you don’t secure something on the beachfront, it’s not like we’ve got more coming to market,” she said.
There are now two distinct parts to the Gold Coast: the hinterland and the beach, Cartner said. “Anything near the water has traditionally been hot, but what I’ve seen since Covid is lots of families moving out toward acreage,” she continued. “Whereas once you’d be spending A$3 million to A$5 million on a house by the water, now you’ll be achieving that up in the hinterland.”
Areas of Opportunity for Buyers Today
Some suburbs of the Gold Coast will show stronger performance over the medium to long term, Lawless said, given the “emerging scarcity value” as the region densifies.
“If you’re looking for opportunities on the Gold Coast across the upper end of the market, areas like Currumbin, Palm Beach and Burleigh Heads fall just outside of the top-10 most expensive suburbs. That’s where there’s a lot of opportunity, around the southern end of the coast toward the border. These are a little removed from the hype, away from busy Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, which may be more appealing for families,” he said.
Beyond the beach, Carter said ongoing infrastructure improvements have put the Gold Coast on par with Australia’s other major cities and a step ahead of other lifestyle markets.
“We’ve got location, big luxury shopping centers like Pacific Fair, theme parks and amazing restaurants,” she said.
After a major tramway line began in 2014 and plans to improve the rail connection through to Brisbane by 2025, the Gold Coast’s connectivity is only adding to home values, said Carter.
“Before, it was difficult to get around if you didn’t drive. Other major cities throughout the country had access to great infrastructure and we didn’t,” she said. “But by the way everything’s tracking, we’ll be up there with those top cities and that’s why people will continue to flock to the Gold Coast. Once you’ve got transport fully developed—and you’ve got the beaches, shops and restaurants—you don’t have to go anywhere else.”
