Gold Coast apartments at top of the property cycle: HTW
Apartments on the Gold Coast are at the peak of the market cycle according to the June property clock from Herron Todd White.
Units in Dubbo, Newcastle and Melbourne are also at the peak.
According to HTW, a boom is unlikely given the current state of play, and bust is not expected provided prices do not continue to grow through to 2018.
"During a boom market the last sector to see gains has historically been acreage housing and old highrise units. It is also not unusual for these two sectors to be the rst to stall as the market slows, which is the case according to our current experience," HTW said.
"There is a hive of activity around Southport in the Priority Development Area with a number of new mediumrise residential buildings either recently completed or under construction.
These buildings are offering compact style units which have mainly appealed to investors at attractive price points around $400,000. These units are renting out between $420 and $470 per week and have quite manageable Body Corporate fees of around $50 per week.
"Agents have been reporting that older established units (duplex and townhouses) are spending more time on the market than six months ago and this could be attributed to the new affordable stock available in Southport and Biggera Waters.
HTW reported the apartment market for central Melbourne has started to soften for the first part of 2016, with a 0.5 percent drop in unit prices for the first quarter of 2016, including a fall of 0.9 percent in March, according to CoreLogic.
"Based on figures provided by the REIV, Melbourne CBD had a 17.2 percent drop in the median unit price while Docklands had a 6.7 percent increase in the median price and Southbank had a 6.3 percent median price rise," HTW said.
HTW also noted Melbourne houses are now at their peak.