Set for life: where Gold Coast homeowners have struck it rich

GOLD COAST homeowners have won the property lotto in suburbs where house prices have doubled over the last five years.

Mermaid Beach was the biggest winner, with house prices up 114 per cent to a huge $3.33m, cementing the beachside suburb as the state’s most expensive house market.

Currumbin, Surfers Paradise, and Miami all delivered gains of 100 per cent, while another six postcodes grew by 90 per cent or more.

They were: Tamborine, Worongary, Palm Beach, Canungra, Jacobs Well, and Tugun.

PropTrack director of economic research Cameron Kusher said the effect of monetary policies introduced to safeguard the economy from Covid-19 had been the biggest driver of growth.

But the market began its upward shift earlier, when the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority removed strict loan serviceability buffers and caps on investor lending in 2019.

“The big change was the pandemic when interest rates were cut and prices began the rise,” Mr Kusher said.

With the Reserve Bank of Australia this year hiking cash rates to their highest level in a decade, the forecast for the next five years was significantly different.

“I think we’re going to continue to see prices fall next year because as interest rates continue to rise, it means people’s ability to borrow is less,” Mr Kusher said.

Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) CEO Antonia Mercorella said Qld’s market performance post-Covid had been, “nothing short of extraordinary”.

“However, as this year comes to a close, consecutive interest rate rises and inflation are starting to dampen this heightened buyer activity and see households tighten their belts.”

Homes were taking longer to sell as buyers traded frenzied activity for a more considered approach, she said.

“We’re no longer seeing the bullish behaviour and aggressive unconditional offers that emerged over the past two years,” Ms Mercorella said.

“The rise of risky behaviours such as buying sight unseen, impossibly short settlement periods, and waiving cooling-off periods are hopefully behind us now.”

Property analyst Terry Ryder said the Sunshine and Gold Coasts had led regional Qld with “spectacular and unexpected” price growth.

Gains had slowed in both regions through the last three quarters as markets across the nation traversed a phase of price correction following the boom.

“The Sunshine Coast has been on its own up cycle for the last four years, and the Gold Coast also had considerable uplift for the second half of 2020 and though 2021, but has also passed its peak,” Mr Ryder said.

“Those two iconic coastal markets are the exceptions to regional Qld overall because they went to greater heights during the boom.”

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Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said homeowners who took a long view to property investment made the largest gains.

“Although people buying and selling property quickly have done well through the pandemic, holding property long-term is always the best strategy to build wealth,” Ms Conisbee said.

“Even if you buy at the absolute peak of the market, keeping a property for a long time means that it barely matters.

“And having a fully owned home at retirement puts you in a vastly different situation to a renter,” she said.

Buyers’ agent Oliver Dunstan, of Rose and Jones, said vendors had become more willing to negotate on price through the second half of this year.

“For those buyers with adequate finance and a need to secure a property or investment, now is an opportune time to take advantage of the lack of competition in the market,” Mr Dunstan said.

“Most buyers need to take a long-term view when considering a real estate acquisition, so if the right asset is available for the right price they should act with confidence.”