A lack of overseas buyers has done little to dampen the Gold Coast property market. There are more than 50 residential projects under construction on the Gold Coast, according to Colliers International research, which says demand will surge even further once international borders reopen. Urbis reports that in the June Quarter international buyers accounted for just 4% of sales of new Gold Coast apartments. Before the pandemic it was around 25%. Interstate buyers are now accounting for 21% of the new apartment sales. Steven King of Colliers International says the pandemic has made interstate buyers consider the Gold Coast market sooner than they normally would have. “A lot of people from Melbourne and Sydney always wanted to come to the Gold Coast,” he says. “COVID has probably brought forward those plans many years, where they’re buying now as opposed to when they retire.” A record 742 new apartments were sold in the March Quarter.
Qld Gains From Vic Decline
Queensland continues to be a top destination for interstate migrants fleeing locked-down southern states. ABS figures show an additional 43,900 moved to Queensland in the year to March while at the same time Victoria’s population dropped by 42,000 residents. According to Pete Wargent of BuyersBuyers, Queensland is an obvious choice as it has experienced relatively few restrictions in the past 18 months. RiskWise Property Research CEO Doron Peleg says the majority of new residents are heading to Greater Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, making it harder to secure a rental property in those markets. “In Brisbane, the rental vacancy rate has continued to tighten to below 1.5%, while Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast both have exceptionally tight rental markets,” he says. Wargent says the South-East Queensland property market is booming as a result of the influx of intestate migrants, with the only handbrake being a lack of listings
Quote of the Week
Every Australian capital city has seen a lift in the number of new real estate listings over recent weeks, with some of the largest listing increases recorded in those capitals navigating lockdown.” Tim Lawless, CoreLogic
House Prices Drive Rise In Wealth
Australians have become even wealthier in the past year, with new figures revealing the growth in property values has helped drive household wealth up by 5.8%. The latest ABS figures on household wealth for the June Quarter 2021 shows that household wealth has now hit a record $13,433 billion, with wealth per capita up to $522,032. Residential property contributed 4.5 percentage points to the quarterly growth in wealth, with superannuation adding 1.1 percentage points and shares 0.3 percentage points. With Australians unable to travel, savings were also high with $341.8 billion now sitting in Australian banks, although household savings weakened in June on the back of further spending and fewer lockdown days. ABS head of finance and wealth Katherine Keenan says growth in owner-occupier loan balances is the strongest it has been for five years and that the value of loans to owner occupiers hit new highs in the first six months of 2021
Units Join Price Growth Trend
Units are proving popular with buyers, with new data revealing record high demand in many suburbs. CoreLogic figures show demand for units in suburbs with desirable lifestyles are on the rise. More than half (560) of the 994 unit markets analysed by CoreLogic are experiencing record high prices, with average growth of 16% or $108,000 since March last year. Two thirds of those 560 growth markets are in capital cities. CoreLogic Australia head of research Eliza Owen says while some apartment markets in the inner cities continue to struggle, she expects to see further value increases in other unit markets, particularly those in desirable lifestyle locations. Owens says the strong growth in house prices in the past year appears to be slowing slightly with the unit market now experiencing uplift. But there are 434 unit markets which have values still below their pre[1]pandemic levels with the top ten biggest drops all occurring within Greater Melbourne
