Ray White Surfers Paradise Group's luxury home sales top $35m in first quarter

The Gold Coast’s largest real estate agency Ray White Surfers Paradise Group (RWSP) secured more than $35 million in big-ticket property sales alone in the March quarter, with the numbers revealing a surprising trend at the top end of the market.The impressive total, which comprises sales of properties worth $5 million or more, comes despite a widely acknowledged slowdown in the national property market.RWSP CEO Andrew Bell said the key point to note from the sales figures is that the latest property correction is shaping up differently to those experienced on the Gold Coast in the past.“There are a number of factors at play at the moment, but most notably there are no desperate sellers and the market is excellent in terms of overall stability,” said Mr Bell.“The recent run of sales demonstrates that there are always buyers in the marketplace and when correctly priced properties are presented to buyers, sales inevtitably occur.“One of the key pieces to sales these days is the marketing of properties, as buyers aren’t constantly searching the internet looking for properties. It’s more a responsibility for us as the agents together with our sellers, to take the property to the buyers, making them aware of the properties for sale.“Buyers are prepared to buy the property to which they aspire – most people seek the property they love and they are not always driven by a bargain to attain that property.”The latest figures come off the back of more than $30 million in general realty sold by RWSP at The Event on January 28 in one of the most active auction programs hosted by the group in years.Mr Bell said the solid run of luxury home sales over the March quarter were achieved because buyers and sellers have found more common ground in assessing values in todays marketplace.“Buyers realise that price adjustments have occurred, so they’re seeing value in many properties in the market today.”Mr Bell sees a number of positives supporting current market conditions and laying the foundations for continued confidence in the Gold Coast market over the longer term.“These positive factors being one of the stronger economies in the western world, record low interest rates, falling unemployment, steady population growth and a re-adjustment to a more attractive housing affordability,” he said.“Interestingly, all past price corrections in the last 40 years have been triggered by rising interest rates which caused considerable financial stress for many owners and an overflow of sales by people urgently needing to exit the market.“That’s not the case presently where record low interest rates have not seen properties flood the market.“As a result, we don’t have a lot of forced or distressed sellers as we’ve seen in previous cycles when interest rates were high.”With property owners in no hurry to sell, RWSP is taking innovative steps to maintain the momentum, especially among the sought-after big-ticket properties.“As an agency, we must be innovative in our marketing strategies, proactive in our engagement with the seller and in tune with the current Gold Coast property market,” said Mr Bell.Among the luxury-home sales achieved by RWSP in the March quarter are:• 311 Monaco Street, Broadbeach Waters: six-bedroom waterfront home that sold for $7.5m after achieving more than 300 inspections.• 171 Jefferson Lane, Palm Beach: six-bedroom beachfront home sold for $3.7m• Sea, Main Beach: RWSP secured a buyer for a beachfront property sold for $8.25m• 5724 Observation Crescent, Hope Island: expansive Sanctuary Cove home sold off-market for $5.225m• A property within ‘The Parkway’, Sanctuary Cove: luxury five-bedroom lakeside home sold for $5.25m