Ray White Surfers cracks record with $116m sales month

The Gold Coast’s leading real estate group has recorded its biggest sales month since its inception 26 years ago as the city’s property market rides a wave of activity.Ray White Surfers Paradise Group chalked up $116 million in unconditional property transactions in March across its residential offices citywide.RWSP CEO Andrew Bell said it surpassed the Group’s previous high of $107 million which was recorded at the peak of the last boom in October 2007.“That was right at the top of the market and included some landmark sales of more than $8 million,” he said.“During the GFC, we recorded our worst month on record at $26 million in sales, so that puts the level of activity we’re seeing now in some context.”Mr Bell said the Gold Coast market continued to improve, with his offices noting steady increases in volumes and values of sales.But it was how the company capitalised on that opportunity that has seen it record month on month growth since the start of the financial year.“We saw conditions starting to improve towards the end of 2014 and we knew it was time to implement our growth strategy and play our part in rebuilding the Gold Coast property market,” he said.“Part of this included attracting the right agents, marketing through the right channels and increasing our reach overseas.“It’s good to see the local market continues to make a very controlled recovery – there have been no dramatic price increases.“This is positive because sharp price increases are destined for a short run and are often followed by a major correction, as we saw in 2007.”Mr Bell said at a market level, growth was driven by the rise in activity from local owner occupiers and offshore investors who had renewed confidence in the Gold Coast.“The latter part of 2014 and all of last year saw the rise of local owner occupiers – people had started to upgrade their homes again,” he said.“That has continued and in fact intensified, people are more likely to buy before they sell now which says a lot about their confidence in the market.“At an international level, the Chinese are still the most active and that shows no signs of waning.“It’s also pleasing to see recovery in the prestige market where we’ve recorded 28 sales above $2 million in recent months.”Mr Bell said the activity coincided with the company’s move into a larger, full floor office space at 50 Cavill Avenue.