Emerging homegrown confidence as Gold Coast property begins long recovery
All six registered attendees placed bids when Peter Drake's Mermaid Beach mansion went to weekend auction.
There were two bids once the property was announced for sale at $7.3 million - at $7.325 and the final sale price.
McGrath selling agents John Natoli and James Ledgerwood were pleased at the high level of buyer engagement.
Especially as five of the six were from Queensland which has traditionally preferred, if possible, to negotiate such deals away from the auction room.
"There was no sitting on hands," John Natoli told me.
It was the highest sale on the beach since a $7.3 million sale in April last year on Surf Street.
Sales of up to $19 million in 2006, and then $18 million in 2009 despite the onset of the global financial crisis, have been recorded on the beach showing the coast's boomtime potential.
But just where the supposed publicised $37 million valuation figure for the Drake mansion came from remains a mystery to the McGrath sales team.
Lifestyle markets have been hit hard by a housing market downturn but it looks like some life is now starting to be breathed back into the coastal region, according to Tim Lawless at RP Data.
He's noticing the trend of more properties being listed for sale as vendor confidence resurfaces and more homes selling as buyer confidence improves as well.
Estimated transaction numbers for houses are 60% higher on the Gold Coast compared with a year ago and unit sales are 54% higher.
"The improvement in buyer demand is moving higher from a very low base, however the rising number of sales indicates that these markets have well and truly moved through the bottom of the cycle and are back on the path to what is likely to be a long recovery, considering values across most lifestyle markets remain substantially lower than when they peaked."
Tim Lawless thinks buyer demand is mostly confined to detached homes noting the Gold Coast median house price up 3.2% higher over the year while unit prices are still falling - down a further 4.2%.
Home owners just want or need a home, even if the Gold Coast strip is synonymous with holiday homes and short term rentals.
No doubt the reason for the weakness in the Gold coast unit markets is that they are more often owned by investors who are understandably cautious of not being caught in an extended bounce along the bottom.
Tim Lawless noted some high profile post-GFC settlements that resulted in substantial capital losses and concludes the public attitude towards unit developments in these locations "may still be tainted."
Property Observer recently published a series on the bleak resales of apartments bought in the tainted Surfers Paradise Hilton, Soul and Oracle projects.
