Prestige Sales Lift Coastal Hotspots

There’s a common view in the Australian property industry that when prestige coastal bastions such as Noosa and Byron Bay are going well, the property market is in a fairly healthy state across the board.After all, it’s these locations that tell us a lot about the discretionary spending capabilities of those who can afford property in these highly sought after areas.If this is true, then things are looking up.In Noosa in the last couple of months, there have been two off the plan apartment sales of $4.5 million in the latest stage of Cape Bouvard’s Settler’s Cove luxury apartment precinct.The healthy thing about these sales in the newly released Emerald stage is that both have been secured by local residents.What this tells us is they believe they will be able to secure the price they require on their existing Noosa property in order to get into Emerald.Interestingly, the prices achieved are considerably higher than the prices achieved for comparative product in the previous stages at Settler’s Cove, where the highest off-the-plan sale to date has been $3.3 million.Cape Bouvard’s Gary Godfrey says recent sales reflect the resurgence of the Noosa property market.“The prices achieved reflect the quality of the product that we are introducing, but they certainly wouldn’t have been achievable if the demand wasn’t there,” Mr Godfrey said.“Noosa is buzzing again and people are now willing and able to purchase apartments of this calibre, indicating a significant confidence in the local property market going forward.”A little adjunct to this story is the recent $4.25 million sale of a penthouse in the late Brisbane Mayor Clem Jones’s super-luxury Anchorage on Maloja apartments in Caloundra’s ‘Milionaire’s Row’ overlooking Pumicestone Passage. The sale smashed Caloundra’s long-standing apartment price record of $3.5 million which was set in 2008.Selling agent Billie LeKich, of Billie’s Prestige Selection, says the quick succession of sales and bullish enquiry for the remaining penthouses demonstrates the strengthening of the area’s prestige market.“Buyers are increasingly prepared to commit to high-end real estate that combines a fabulous location with outstanding quality,” she said.In Byron Bay, the narrative is similar.Land values in the tourist town have jumped by 8.25 per cent in the past 12 months, the second highest jump of any NSW Coastal area, according to the NSW Valuer-General.McGrath Byron Bay’s Nick Dunn says the level of buyer demand, price growth and rental return is the best he has seen since 2007.He says the imbalance between growing demand and tight supply in Byron Bay is once again fuelling price growth in the iconic beachfront town.“The number of enquiries on a single property has risen dramatically. We are seeing multiple prospective buyers interested in a property which in turn is driving the market.”Capitalising on this shift, developers are identifying the time is right to bring their projects to market.Billionaire John Van Lieshout’s Unison Projects unveiled its $16.5 million Seacliffs subdivision late last year – the first of its kind in Byron Bay for almost 15 years.The company reports strong enquiry – particularly from local buyers who appreciate the rarity of new residential development in the seaside town.On the Gold Coast, the prestige market is also strengthening at a time when Australia gets its first examination into the strength of the marketplace in 2015 with the Ray White Surfers Paradise Group’s The Event, to be held this Sunday at the Gold Coast Turf Club.The Event is widely regarded as a litmus test for the market moving forward and will give us a gauge of where the market is heading, particularly on the Gold Coast.Recent high-end sales handled by Ray White Surfers Paradise Group paint a positive picture. They include a $5.75 million penthouse sale in The Ocean Isles boutique apartment building at Main Beach; the Xanadu North penthouse at Main Beach for $4.06 million; the $2 million sale of the Beaches sub-penthouse at Surfers Paradise; and the penthouse of Beachside Tower at Main Beach for $1.85 million.So all and all, things are on the up as we head into 2015.Across southeast Queensland, foreign investment from China and Singapore-based development groups is strong and local developers are all positioning themselves to take their piece of a market which is continuing to improve.