Price surges are seeing more affordable suburbs away from the beach like Upper Coomera and Parkwood now sit among powerhouse postcodes Gold Coast locals are moving to.
Muval chief commercial officer Adam Coward said a surge in out-of-town demand for the Gold Coast had forced more locals further away from the beach lifestyle the city was renowned for.
“What we’re seeing in Gold Coast is that local market is looking for better value maybe away from the coastline, and your interstaters are looking to take those coastline spots,” he said.
Muval removalists’ data, collating the top 10 postcodes chosen by locals moving within the Gold Coast, showed how strong the iconic beach pull still is with Southport, Labrador (4215) topping the list.
“What we’re generally seeing is that local inquiries, the number one spot is Southport Labrador which has been trending really well. It looks like one of those spots where locals know they can go to, there’s a little bit of space still around those areas,” Mr Coward said.
But it was the rise to second position of Coomera, Upper Coomera, Pimpama (4209), beating the third-placed iconic Main Beach, Surfers Paradise (4217) that signified just how much life changed for locals.
Parkwood, Ashmore, Arundel and Molendinar (4214) also made the top four postcodes to move to for Gold Coast locals.
Professional Real Estate Group director Andrew Henderson said there was a lot of pressure on landlords with extra costs, land tax, rate increases, which saw some locals cash out as prices peaked.
“They’ve got a market that’s increased, so a lot of them that were nearing retirement age took the opportunity to cash out of the real estate market and look for other investments.”
“Compounding that is we’ve seen significant demolishment of older style, three-storey walk-up buildings built in the 70s and 80s, and a lot of those have been replaced with medium and high rise buildings, brand new units that are so much more expensive – on the rental side too,” he said. “Nowadays it’s hard, what we call affordable is still so expensive.”
University of Qld associate professor and demographer Dr Elin Charles-Edwards said there has been “a real adjustment in housing” given it was increasingly harder to move with less properties for sale and tight vacancy rates.
“All of this has created this perfect storm” for households, she said.
“So whether we actually start to see increases in public transport use and average household sizes again, or growth in group households as people are adjusting, the system has defined it as the new normal, which is what we’re moving towards.”
Article source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au