Andrew Bell’s Market Wrap: The Perfect Beachfront Apartment for Downsizers

Issue 5 |   February 28th |  The Perfect Beachfront Apartment for Downsizers

Hi, Andrew Bell here with you and I am coming to you today from this magnificent apartment building at 116 The Esplanade, Surfers Paradise. This boutique building of just 20 apartments is nearing completion and due to welcome the first residents by the middle of this year.

I particularly wanted to show you this building as it represents everything that downsizers are looking for. Downsizer’s are playing such a huge role in our marketplace and they are made up of both Gold Coasters, as well as interstate downsizers. There has been a great mixture of buyers who have already bought into ­­­­this building, which, by the way, only contains two per floor and one per floor apartments. From Queensland, our buyers have come from the local marketplace, and areas such as Sanctuary Cove and Ephraim Island. From broader Queensland, there have been buyers from Toowoomba and other regional parts of the state. We ­also have national buyers out of Melbourne and Sydney, as well as one buyer from overseas.

Most of these buyers are coming out of family homes and so they are rejecting small apartments and looking for more sizeable apartments. One 16 was built by a developer for himself to occupy the penthouse. It was not built in terms of making money, but to provide the lifestyle and the quality of the apartment he was looking for. This means that not only are the apartments larger than usual, but it is a residential only building with quality fittings. Have a good at this location; far enough away from the heart of Surfers yet within a quick few minutes walking distance to restaurants, cafés, and shopping hubs. Out front is what it is all about, the magnificent Gold Coast beachfront with uninterrupted views; the larger than usual balconies means this lifestyle can all be enjoyed from this location. A perfect fit for the needs and desires of downsizers.

With baby boomers now starting to peak in the age bracket that downsizing accommodates, there is a growing demand for these types of apartments. However, they are hard to find, and so we are working with more developers to develop these types of buildings, although it is so hard to find a location like this that is so much in demand.

It is no surprise that there has been significantly more activity in the higher-priced brackets in recent times. Our office has been particularly targeting the types of properties that downsizer’s want. Whilst there is an incredibly strong demand for apartments, we also have people wanting to get into markets such as Sanctuary Cove and central locations such as Paradise Waters. This is why our office has recorded sales in the past couple of weeks at Sanctuary Cove for prices such as $5.225 million and $3.995 million, Paradise Waters with a sale a few dollars under $8 million, and along our beachfront with a sale at $8.650 million and another in the first week of an auction campaign at $3.7 million. There have also been sales along Monaco Street of $7.5 million and $2.99 million.

It is just amazing how significant the downsizer’s have been in the Gold Coast property market over the past 6-months and will continue to be a strong force of buyer demand throughout this year and beyond.

One other topic. Great results at last Thursday’s Commercial Event program where, again, we saw how investment dollars are drifting away from the stock market and fixed deposits in banks and are increasingly seeing security in the commercial property market. A packed auction room of over 300 saw lots of sales, including a tenanted industrial factory at $2.245 million, a commercial lot in Southport for $2.350 million, a Helensvale industrial investment at $2.650 million, plus a host of others from $505k to $765k.

As we see from the above results, we are reporting some very robust activity at present, although all our enquiry has come from very well-crafted marketing programs identifying the types of buyers for those properties and taking the properties to those buyers. We also note that unless properties are correctly priced to February 2019 market values, sales are not occurring. Whereas where properties are correctly priced, there is strong demand and sales are occurring in a very timely manner.

That is all for this fortnight, but I should remind you about our Johnathan Thurston special Gold Coast Business Meets Sports Luncheon coming up on Friday, 29 March 2019. It will be great to have Johnathan as our guest talking about so many of his experiences and perhaps some that couldn’t quite fit in his book. He is one of Australia’s great characters and it will be nice to be in a relaxed Gold Coast format in the Grand Ballroom of The Star Casino, Gold Coast. Get a table of friends together, or, for any of our business houses, this is a great way to entertain clients and staff. Tables are from $1,600.00 and single tickets are $160.00.

BOOK NOW:

http://rwspevents.com.au/business-meets-sport-lunch/

Selena Carson: 0410 650 185 or s.carson@rwsp.net

I trust you are living in a space of appreciation for this amazing country we live in and all the opportunities that present themselves in this part of the world.

Kind regards,

Andrew Bell, OAM
Chief Executive Officer
The Ray White Surfers Paradise Group

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