Allan and Dee Wright of Runaway Bay in the house they just flipped in Runaway Bay for a tidy profit. Picture: Glenn hampson
THE Gold Coast has been crowned king of an army ‘flippers’ who have been getting rich quick by buying and selling in the boom — but they may be on borrowed time.
Data from Ray White reveals that last year the Gold Coast had the highest number of units bought and re-sold, within 12 months, of any housing market in the country, and it ranked second only to Sydney for houses and units combined.
Dee Wright and her husband Allan are serial flippers. Picture: Glenn hampson
In total, buyers turned over more than 720 units, with Surfers Paradise being the hotbed for transactions with 261 properties flipped, representing 6.2 per cent of the suburb’s 4,240 sales.
Southport was the next hotspot, where 127 units were turned over, making up 6.1 per cent of a total 2,093 sales.
When it came to houses, 50 were bought and re-sold, according to the data, with Hope Island and Upper Coomera leading the charge at seven flips each, making up 0.8 per cent and 0.5 per cent of those suburbs’ total sales, respectively.
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Ray White analyst Will Clark said that while generally houses did register flip sales, it was much more common among units because, on average, they were cheaper and more fungible, and could often be bought off-the-plan and sold again at construction completion.
He said house flips generally emerged in development suburbs, while units were focused on inner-city areas.
The Wrights bought, renovated then sold this home in Runaway Bay all within 12 months making a tidy profit. It was sold through Phillis Real Estate for $2.8m in February.
Alex Phillis of Phillis Real Estate said the jump in the number of flipper sales was indicative of the buying frenzy during Covid.
“If you’re not emotionally attached to a property and someone is going to offer you hundreds of thousands of dollars more than what you paid for it only months before, you’re going to take it,” he said.
Andrew Bell, CEO of Ray White Surfers Paradise, said flippers become active when they feel the market is on a steep rise, so it was no surprise there were record numbers on the Coast last year.
The Palms in Burleigh Heads, sold for $4.305 million in September last year, making a $500,000 gain in three months.
Mr Bell said many buyers were able to make a profit without having to spend a cent, while others were “accidental flippers”.
“Some people bought without intending to sell, but a couple of months later they would get a phone call from an agent asking if they would consider it because a buyer was prepared to pay them far more than they paid,” he said.
Mr Bell said the Coast wouldn’t see the same volume of flip sales this year, because prices would not appreciate at the same rate as they did during Covid.
“There’s only a brief period of time in the market when you can get in and make some money,” he said.
Influencers Chloe Szep and Mitchell Orval pocketed $900K on their Broadbeach Waters home at 267 Monaco St after only 12 months.
Serial flippers Allan Wright and his wife Dee, know the scenario well.
The pair have flipped three properties within the past five years, with the most recent being a house in Saltash Ct in Runaway Bay, which ranked sixth on the list of house-flipper hotspots.
The couple bought the four-bedroom waterfront property in November 2020 for $1.225m and had it back on the market in November 2021. It sold in February for $2.8m.
“This was a bigger house than we had previously done, so it needed a much bigger renovation, but we still saw a gain of about 30 per cent,” Mr Wright said.
“We were lucky because we managed to renovate before all the Covid-related construction problems started to bite,” he said.
This block at 90 Savoy Dr, Broadbeach Waters, changed hands twice within eight months with both sellers making a profit.
“I think if we do another renovation we’ll go for units, because they are generally quicker to turn-around.
“We’re stuck at the moment though, because we can’t find anything to buy that’s at the right price. People are paying silly money, even for apartments.”
Mr Wright said the rising cost of property and materials will make it harder to make a lot of profit flipping in the future.
“You have to know what you are doing,” he said. “You need to know as soon as you walk into a place, what you can do with it and how much it is going to cost.”
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var result = minutes + “:” + (seconds < 10 ? "0" + seconds : seconds); return result; } })(window.videojs); TOP 10 FLIPPER HOTSPOTS Units Surfers Paradise Southport Broadbeach Labrador Biggera Waters Runaway Bay Main Beach Mermaid Beach Mermaid Waters Nerang Houses Hope Island Upper Coomera Coombabah Ashmore Coomera Runaway Bay Surfers Paradise Southport Pimpama Paradise Point Source: Ray White The post Gold Coast is king when it comes to flipping properties for profit appeared first on realestate.com.au.