City Beat May 2024: Gold Coast unit market continues to surge
It's continued month-on-month gains in the Gold Coast unit market.
CoreLogic's Home Value Index showed another solid gain of one per cent over April, following growth of 1.1 per cent in both March and February.
The median value for a Gold Coast unit, which incorporates both townhouses and apartments, is now at $768,000, having started the year at $727,000. The median far outstrips the median unit value in Brisbane ($600,000) and Melbourne ($613,00).
Read more: City Beat March 2024: What is happening in the Gold Coast off the plan apartment market?
What happened in the Gold Coast off the plan market in April?
There was little activity on the Gold Coast in the way of new projects launching to the market in April, however many more are coming in the pipeline.
The only project to launch was Marquee's latest Gold Coast development, La Belle at Palm Beach.
La Belle Palm Beach will comprise 74 premium beachfront apartments over 14 levels that will take advantage of sweeping views from Surfers Paradise to Coolangatta.
The development, with 40 metres of beach frontage, has three, four and five-bedroom apartments on offer, with internal living spaces between 150 sqm and 680 sqm, catering for the owner-occupier.
Designed by award-winning Cottee Parker Architects and detailed by BDA Architecture, La Belle is set to offer a diverse range of amenities including a heated outdoor pool and spa, multiple teppanyaki dining bars and entertaining areas, and a resident’s lounge with a billiard room, bar, and a large screen TV.
There will also be a wellness centre with a state-of-the-art gymnasium, yoga and Pilates movement room, Nordic and Infrared saunas, indoor hydrotherapy hot pool and two cold plunge immersion baths.
Given how tight the market is for new projects, developers who can get their projects in market, with confidence that they're going to go ahead, are seeing strong results.
John Kearney's Immerse Projects has seen a surge in sales at their Ombré apartment development in Robina, hitting the $40 million mark within just four weeks of launching.
Ombré, comprising 95 apartments designed by BDA Architecture, offers a diverse range of floor plans. Some of the one-bedroom apartments have two living areas, as do some of the two-bedrooms. They've been popular given there's nothing like that on the market in the whole of the Gold Coast.
Kearney's construction company Greyburn will build Ombré, which is slated for completion in December 2025.
Veteran Gold Coast developer, Morris Property, is also seeing success at their Broadbeach apartment development, Crest.
Crest Broadbeach, which marks Morris Property Group's eighth high-rise residential project in Broadbeach, recently hit the 50 per cent sold milestone. The first tower in the project tapped into the demand for new apartments in the sought-after Broadbeach postcode.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, Crest saw a total of 25 sales, with an average sale price of $1,089,000 per apartment.
Morris has padded out its future pipeline in their favourite suburb, submitting plans for their 10th residential development in the suburb neighbouring Surfers Paradise.
Morris has submitted plans for a high-end tower focused on the more affluent owner-occupier at 14 Chelsea Avenue, Broadbeach, a 607 sqm site next to their Opus Broadbeach tower which they completed in 2021.
The plans for 14 Chelsea Avenue. Image credit: Cottee Parker
They've had Cottee Parker design a 25-level building with 22 full-floor apartments and a sole two-bed unit. They will sit above three basement levels which will have 45 parking spaces.
"Buyers love Broadbeach because it offers beachside living with metropolitan amenities, which is what the market is after," Morris told Urban back in 2022.
Read more: Exclusive first look: Morris Property Group plot another Broadbeach tower
Getting closer to the launch of their next project is Aniko Group who on their flagship $2 billion mixed-use development, The Landmark in Mermaid Beach.
They settled on their $32.5 million Mermaid Beach site, earmarked for four towers which are set to transform the long-vacant property into a vibrant new residential, commercial, dining and leisure precinct.
Aniko purchased the 1.13ha site, located at the corner of the Gold Coast Highway and Seaview Avenue, in 2022.
Elsewhere on the Coast, Sydney apartment developer Chanine Developments settled on a secured a site across 1407 Gold Coast Highway and 402-404 The Esplanade through site amalgamation specialists GV Property Group.
Chanine, led by Marwan Chanine, has now lodged plans for a boutique eight-level building with 15 half-floor apartments and a massive five-bedroom penthouse.
Chanine said the vision is to bring the opulence of the Eastern Suburbs to Palm Beach, in both finishes and aesthetics.
Macquarie York is another starting to put their marketing together for their next project, having received approval from the Gold Coast City Council for a 17-level tower at 50 Sunset Boulevarde, a 1,057 sqm riverfront block on the Nerang River facing Chevron Island's Home of The Arts building.
Plus Architecture designed the building which will have 42 two and three-bedroom apartments and a three-level, four-bedroom penthouse.
Plus, led locally by Danny Juric, says the project has been "meticulously designed to seamlessly blend with its urban and natural surroundings, achieving a harmonious balance between the human-scale streetscape, riverscape, and the emerging skyline."
Read more: Macquarie York secure approval for new Surfers Paradise apartments
Read more: City Beat March 2024: What is happening in the Gold Coast off the plan apartment market?