Commercial Market Update – Gold Coast Cityscope April 2021

The latest research from Gold Coast Cityscope shows property sale figures have significantly decreased over the past three months. Sales recorded in the three months to March 2021 recorded 25 sales for a total of $64.3 million. Of this, $4.6 million was for commercial, $1.9 million was for commercial strata, $40.8 million was for retail, $5.1 million was for retail strata and $11.8 million was for other.

In comparison, the three months to December 2020 recorded 53 sales for a total of $106.8 million. Of this, $54.3 million was for commercial, $15.8 million was for commercial strata, $11.9 million was for retail, $15 million was for retail strata and $9.7 million was for other.

The latest data raises the 12-month total to over $371.7 million, only $7.4 million less than the previous 12-month period.

The table below shows sales recorded for the past eight updates of Gold Coast Cityscope:

The most significant sales recorded this quarter together totalled over $41.1 million.

Bunnings Robina has been sold for $28.05 million to David Feldman Developments Pty Ltd. Jacob Swan, Sam Hatcher and Nick Willis of JLL negotiated the sale, which represented an initial yield of 5.49% on a passing income of $1,540,531 (n). The 12,803 sqm warehouse was purpose built for Masters in March 2014 (Masters closed in late 2016) and converted for use by Bunnings 2018 (opened December 2018). The property includes car parking for 321 vehicles. Original development cost, $15.75 million.

Primewest Property Income Fund, an open-ended unlisted fund, has purchased Bluebird Early Education Centre in Robina for $7.25 million through Perpetual Corporate Trust Limited. The sale represented an initial yield of 5.86% on a passing income of $425,000 (n). The single-storey child care centre was purpose built in 2004 for Smarter Kids Kindergarten and was recently refurbished.

A Gold Coast investor has purchased 86 Bundall Road, prior to auction, for $5.8 million. The property includes a two-storey 2,017 sqm showroom/office building fronting Bundall Road and a single-storey, 90 sqm warehouse to the rear. Steven King and Marlon Crawford of Colliers International Gold Coast negotiated the sale.

Properties currently listed for sale include:

• 8-10 Windmill Street, Southport – a large warehouse to the rear with a ground floor showroom and first floor office space to the front. The property includes undercover car parking for 25 vehicles. Total building area around 1,645 sqm. For sale with an asking price of $4.25 million; agent, Corwells (Cody Hart).
• 3 Beach Road, Surfers Paradise – a 769 sqm vacant block of land. For sale with an asking price of $3.95 million; agent, Cushman & Wakefield Gold Coast (Richard McCouaig and Ed Howard).
• 46 Scottsdale Drive, Robina – a 4,719 sqm vacant block of land; agent, CBRE Gold Coast (Tania Moore and Mark Witheriff).
• 25 Griffith Street, Coolangatta – a two-storey building with a ground floor retail shop and a three-bedroom, two-bathroom residence upstairs. Building area, 348 sqm. The property includes a swimming pool and two-car garage to the rear. For sale with an asking price of $2.9 million; agent, Tsimos Commercial Real Estate (John Black).

Properties currently under contract (conditionally or unconditionally) include:

• 287 Scottsdale Drive, Robina – a 6,985 sqm vacant block of land, part of the M1 Business Precinct. Under contract; agent, CBRE Gold Coast (Mark Witheriff and David Corke).
• 9 Energy Circuit, Robina – a 4,781 sqm vacant block of land, part of the M1 Business Precinct. Under contract; agent, CBRE Gold Coast (Mark Witheriff and David Corke).
• 82 Griffith Street, Coolangatta – a 266 sqm, two-storey office building. Under conditional contract; agent, DJS Stringer Commercial (David Stringer).
• Home & Life Centre Robina – a 14,782 sqm home and retail precinct. Under contract; agents, JLL Brisbane and Savills Brisbane.

 

Article Source: www.corelogic.com.au

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Grant Hackett’s luxury beach front pad on Gold Coast’s ‘Millionaires’ Row’ hits the market

Former Olympian Grant Hackett has listed his luxury beachfront pad on “Millionaires’ Row” on the Gold Coast in the hopes of upsizing in Melbourne.

The three-bedroom villa at 1/100 Hedges Avenue, Mermaid Beach is located on the most prestigious beachfront strip in Queensland, mere steps away from beaches and cafes.

Hackett grew up in the adjacent suburb of Mermaid Waters. He said the opportunity to buy the home six years ago was too good to resist.

“I decided to move back to the Gold Coast in 2014. Who doesn’t want to move to the Gold Coast and live on the beach?” Mr Hackett told Domain.

“It’s a perfect spot. Steps away from the beach and I absolutely fell in love with it straight away.”

In the last four years, the gold medallist known as one of Australia’s best long-distance swimmers has relocated to Melbourne with his family.

Hackett snapped up the property for $1.5 million in 2014. Photo: Supplied

They have used the Gold Coast property as a holiday home since then and have decided it is time to sell.

“There’s no news yet but our family is growing down here in Melbourne,” Mr Hackett said. “We want to get a bigger property down here in Melbourne.

“When we do go up [to the Gold Coast] we are spending all our time with our family. It doesn’t make sense to hold such a beautiful property any longer.

“From our perspective, we’re sad to see it go but I’m sure someone else will get some pleasure out of it.”

The home also has two powder rooms. Photo: Supplied

The home, which has a total space of 331 square metres, spans four levels and has a double lock-up garage in the basement plus visitor parking.

The property has open-plan living and dining rooms that showcase the beach views.

It also has a private internal lift to take residents up to the fourth-floor rooftop terrace with panoramic views of the Coolangatta coastline back to the mountains.

The beachfront villa has panoramic views Photo: Supplied

Selling agent Troy Dowker of Kollosche said he anticipated the luxury modern villa would be in high demand.

“A luxury style villa is few and far between,” he said. “You get rockstar views from the rooftop terrace. It is a pretty amazing space.”

The property last sold for $1.5 million in 2014, records show.

It is scheduled to go to auction on May 30 at 9am.

 

Article Source: www.domain.com.au

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Investors spark frenzy on Brisbane’s commercial property market

Certain commercial property markets in Brisbane saw their best March on record, with the city’s south enjoying a “frenzied” success as investors flocked to snap up warehouses and logistics centres, new data has revealed.

The sale of commercial property in suburbs to the north of Brisbane CBD went into overdrive in March, while the city’s south recorded one of the best months in over 20 years for industrial precincts such as Rocklea, Sumner, Raceview and Loganholme, Raine & Horne revealed in a recent market update.

According to its commercial division, astute investors and owner-occupiers taking advantage of the low interest rate environment are turbo-charging higher than normal sale volumes in Brisbane’s northern suburbs.

“Record-low interest rates mean that investors have to look for alternative places to park their funds, so quality assets with good tenants are in red hot demand,” Trent Bruce, managing director of Raine & Horne Commercial Brisbane North, said.

Mr Bruce revealed that some of the best-performing suburbs in the north were Albion, Chermside, Strathpine, Bowen Hills, Stafford, Hendra, Lawnton and Geebung, with investors from Sydney and Melbourne also said to be showing considerable interest.

“This interest is undoubtedly a result of the current strong interstate migration to Queensland following the impact of lockdowns in the southern states,” Mr Bruce said.

Joseph Grasso, director of Raine & Horne Commercial Brisbane Southside, agreed that poor cash returns are driving investors to Brisbane commercial real estate.

“Money in the bank is generating returns of 0.3-0.4 per cent, if you’re lucky, on a term deposit over 12 months.

“In comparison, the returns that commercial property provide are very attractive, while investing in the stock market is still a volatile ride,” Mr Grasso said.

He revealed that in the south of Brisbane, it is the warehouses and logistics that are becoming increasingly popular.

“Reflecting some residential markets around Australia, there is an element of FOMO (fear of missing out) driving some investors to snap up warehouses in Brisbane’s southside,” he said.

Consequently, Mr Grasso noted, since September last year, the yields for industrial warehouses have fallen by about 1 per cent in Brisbane’s southern commercial precincts.

“In April 2020, it was possible to buy industrial property in Brisbane’s southside for 6.5 per cent net. Now it is closer to 5.5 per cent,” he concluded.

Moreover, Mr Grasso pointed out, non-listed fund groups are making their presence felt in Brisbane’s southside markets.

“They are even playing in markets under $5 million that are usually the domain of private investors, and this activity is adding to demand levels.

“It’s a sellers’ market, so the savvy investors are trying to lock up assets with off-market sales,” he concluded.

 

Article Source: www.smartpropertyinvestment.com.au

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Regional jobs boom to help fuel move from city to country

A boom in job vacancies across regional Australia will help fuel the continued shift of people from cities to the country.

According to the Regional Australia Institute, there are more than 66,200 jobs available in regional towns and cities across the country.

The institute’s chief executive officer Liz Ritchie said the regional job boom was the largest since records began and even beats demand during the mining construction boom a decade ago.

Economists have warned without jobs to keep them there, the pandemic-driven exodus of people from the city to the country could quickly stall.

The work from home directive has translated into higher price increases for country properties than those in the city, even though home sales there are experiencing a price boom of their own.

Some property commentators have warned that post-COVID-19, the new country residents will have to head back to the cities for work.

Housing Industry Association economist Angela Lillicrap did not agree.

“It all depends on what businesses do in the future but all the signs are that having staff working from home is here to stay,” Ms Lillicrap said.

“It is likely that much of the shift in population to the regions will be permanent.”

Other analysts are predicting the regional growth trend has at least two to three years to play out yet.

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics research released on Friday, teleworking is now favoured by many employers.

Before COVID-19, one in five (20 per cent) of businesses had staff teleworking.

Currently, 30pc of businesses have staff teleworking “with 45pc of these experiencing improved staff wellbeing as a benefit”, the ABS said.

Investment manager Atlas Advisors Australia has called for better use of migrant investment funds under a key visa program with the aim to fill critical gaps in venture capital in regional areas.

Atlas’ executive chairman Guy Hedley said Australia should use the Investor Visa program to channel funds to regional economies as the US already does.

“This would lead to the development of regional economic hubs that may attract other metropolitan businesses to relocate to obtain funding support,” he said.

The Regional Australia Institute has launched a campaign to encourage more people to consider moving to the country.

Developers are quickly moving on those towns within commuting distance of the city to create new estates to accommodate the demand. 

The latest jobs numbers come at a welcome time, the RAI’s Ms Ritchie said.

“Regional job vacancies now account for nearly one third of all vacancies across the country.”

She said the current strength in the regional labour market is broadly based across all states and territories and occupations, with the greatest demand being for professionals and skilled tradespeople.

In March 2021, a record number of jobs were advertised in regional areas of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.

Australian Community Media has also seen continued growth in the rural job advertising market.

This jobs growth has “shown no signs of easing off after such a strong start to the year”, according to ACM’s agriculture division commercial director Craig Chapman.

“Our experience is position vacant advertising on our platforms is closely aligned to the confidence the rural sector has, not only at the production level but also for those businesses providing products and services to rural producers,” Mr Chapman said.

Ms Ritchie said in Queensland and Western Australia, regional job vacancies were not far below previous records, while in the Northern Territory, regional job ads have been trending higher over the past eight months.

RAI chief economist Dr Kim Houghton said the Dubbo and Western NSW Region recorded the strongest annual growth, with job ads up by 117pc in the year to March 2021.

“Each and every one of the 32 regions outside of the mainland state capitals had more vacancies in March 2021 than in the previous month and also more vacancies than a year earlier,” Dr Houghton said.

Key job categories are Health Care and Social Assistance, followed by Public Administration and Safety, then the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sectors.

Ms Ritchie said their research from late last year found that one in five people living in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne are considering a move to regional Australia.

Those research results mirror those from most others, including NBN Co. which commissioned its own survey to discover whether the city exodus was going to continue.

More than a third were looking to move after the pandemic.

People see benefits like saving money, a quieter lifestyle, and getting on with the things that make them happy as the key drivers for relocation.

Ms Ritchie said: “Of course there will be growing pains with regionalisation, but we should not shy away from the challenges ahead – and housing is one of those.

“While regional communities have long faced housing challenges, these have been amplified by the increased interest in regional living sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and the working-from-home phenomenon.”

Housing will be the focus of RAI’s next Regions Rising webinar series on May 20 to discuss those housing challenges.

 

Article Source: www.northqueenslandregister.com.au

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‘People are desperate’: Regional renters forced to apply for homes sight unseen

Real estate agents in regional areas with housing shortages are asking prospective tenants to complete a rental application before letting them attend a property inspection.

Leo Patterson Ross, the chief executive of the Tenants Union, said this practice used to be rare but it had taken off in the past six months across regional NSW, including the Central Coast, Illawarra, Hunter Valley, New England and Riverina.

“Because the landlord generally has multiple applicants they operate a competitive system to choose,” Mr Patterson Ross said. “The more people they have, the more rapidly they want to cut down the list – and asking for applications up front is clearly a pretty effective method and has bonuses because it also gets all the info up front.”

Many regional areas are grappling with very low vacancy rates because of a housing shortage and an influx of city dwellers moving to regional areas in a trend sparked by the pandemic and working from home. The real estate industry uses a 3 per cent vacancy rate as a benchmark of what is “normal”, but SQM Research figures show vacancies are well below 1 per cent in most country towns and regional cities.

The Sun-Herald has seen several advertisements for rental properties on the Central Coast where the agents are requesting prospective tenants to fill out a rental application beforehand in order to be allocated a place at an inspection or to arrange a private viewing.

A three-bedroom house on Summerland Point, near Lake Macquarie, was advertised with instructions to complete an application form first. “This will allow our office to process your application and then make an individual inspection time if your application has been pre-approved.”

Several agencies advertising this process did not return calls.

Virgina Richardson found agents would destroy the applications, meaning they needed to be completed multiple times.CREDIT:RHETT WYMAN 

Emily Sim, the chief executive of property management for Ray White, said it was a symptom of the low vacancy rate across the country.

Ms Sim said Ray White preferred online tenancy applications because tenants could complete one form for multiple properties and it cut down the time to process the application.

“We’re not requiring or encouraging it to be done in advance but on an individual office basis, they might be making their own policy around that, just trying to manage the numerous applications they’re getting,” she said.

Kelly Seaton, the owner of the Leasing Network in Bateau Bay, said demand for rental properties on the Central Coast started to pick up in October last year and it was now a crisis.

“I’ve been in the industry 27 years and I’ve never seen it like this,” she said. “People are desperate – it’s alarming.”

Ms Seaton said she does not ask prospective tenants to fill out an application in order to see a property and in her view it would be a waste of time to vet tenants beforehand in case they were not interested. However, some prospective clients chose to do the paperwork in advance so they were ready to go if they found something.

Jayne Pavic moved from Balmain to Forresters Beach on the Central Coast before Christmas with her husband and toddler and found the competition for rental properties intense, with properties being snapped up after two hours.

“We had to fill out the applications beforehand and it was really frustrating because … they weren’t all in the same system and it felt like a job application because we had to put so much detail in,” Ms Pavic said.

“We’re in our 30s and we’ve been renting for 10 years, and that’s never been the ask before, so I guess we took it as a signal of how competitive it is to get a place on the Central Coast.”

Virginia Richardson in East Gosford had a similar experience but added she had to fill out the paperwork twice for some agencies because they destroyed all the applications after each property was let.

 

Article Source: www.brisbanetimes.com.au

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Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast house prices surge as remote workers swap traffic for sand

The Sunshine Coast could soon become Queensland’s priciest place in which to buy a house after median prices surged to a record $770,000 following one of the strongest rates of annual growth across Australia.

House prices in the sun-drenched city rose a staggering 19.4 per cent – or $125,000 – over the past 12 months and an incredible 6.9 per cent in the March quarter alone, the Domain House Price Report for the March quarter revealed, with a near once-in-20-year boom ignited by roaring rates of interstate migration.

While the Sunshine Coast has continued to outperform the rest of the state for a few consecutive quarters, the report revealed South-east Queensland’s coastal hotspots continued to reap the benefits of an exodus from major Australian hubs, with the Gold Coast also clocking a record high median house price of $749,950, following a 4.2 per cent quarterly rise and 15.4 per cent annual jump.

Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell said the figures demonstrated the compelling pull of lifestyle precincts within a new world where more and more Aussies worked remotely and could swap the concrete jungle for less traffic and more sand.

“The Gold and Sunshine coasts continue to be standout performers, although the pace of price acceleration appears to be easing on the Gold Coast,” Dr Powell said.

“South-east Queensland’s housing market has become increasingly popular with interstate buyers [and] the number of Australians relocating to Queensland from other states is at its highest level since 2006.

“Changed lifestyle preferences post-lockdown and the option of remote working has driven demand to south-east Queensland as buyers are drawn by affordability, liveability, climate and greater value for money.”

While the report revealed unit price growth continued to lag behind houses, with Gold Coast unit prices weakening by 1.2 per cent over the March quarter, the sheer strength of the Sunshine Coast market sparked an eye-watering 10.2 per cent unit price rise over the same period to $550,000.

It’s a figure that’s also up 18.3 per cent year on year, which equates to a whopping $85,000.

“This is the quickest rate of price increases in roughly 17 years,” Dr Powell said.

“The Sunshine Coast has been such a stable market for a number of years where it hasn’t seen major swings either way, so there are probably greater legs on this price rise … It [also] doesn’t surprise me that the Sunshine Coast outperforms the Gold Coast …  I think it’s probably the difference in lifestyle that people are looking for.”

Wayne Beck of McGrath Estate Agents Caloundra said while the Sunshine Coast was in the midst of a boom, he believed the long-underrated region was merely coming back into line with other Australian hotspots that had enjoyed significant growth over the past decade.

But while it’s a price correction he felt needed to happen, the buyer demand had placed enormous pressure on all aspects of the market, including rentals.

“For us, we go into a property, we appraise it, and two weeks later, it’s worth more,” Mr Beck said.

“When you look at rentals, we have zero occupancy levels … and it’s predominantly because a lot of people moved from down south where they’ve already sold, but our market doesn’t have enough supply to meet the demand, so they have to rent.

“Now, if you look through our caravan parks, they’re completely full because people are living there until they can buy.

“That’s going to push our market and sustain our market.”

Harcourts Coastal Group sales director Rob Forde said their team had clocked up an astonishing quarter on the Gold Coast with southern buyers from Victoria and NSW fuelling the price growth fire.

“The Gold Coast still offers great value for money, especially what you can get, and I think the kind of lifestyle it represents … you’ve also got a maturing cafe and restaurant culture, which has come a long way and, of course, there’s the weather we’ve got,” Mr Forde said.

“No market can keep going forever [with this kind of quarter-on-quarter growth] … but, I think, if you’re looking across a national level, it was undervalued previously, and buyers have just realised that.

“I think we will remain in a good market, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the growth we’ve seen in the past two quarters continue.”

Across the Gold Coast, Broadbeach and Burleigh recorded one of the biggest annual house price hikes, according to the data, with prices rising 27.1 per cent over the past year to pass $1 million, soaring from $945,000 to $1,201,500.

On the Sunshine Coast, the Noosa Hinterland stole the show after house prices soared by 25 per cent, year-on-year, from $640,000 to $800,000.

 

Article Source: www.domain.com.au

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RBA unlikely to advance interest rate moves after lower than expected inflation figures

The consumer price index (CPI) came in materially lower than what was forecasted across markets

Australia’s inflation, a key metric in the RBA’s future interest rate calls, rose 0.6 per cent over the March quarter, according to data released by the ABS.

The consumer price index (CPI) came in materially lower than what was forecasted across markets and broadly in line with the RBA’s below market expectation.

Westpac was forecasting a one per cent lift in the CPI, with AMP Capital forecasting a 0.9 per cent rise.

The RBA say they will not increase the cash rate until actual inflation is sustainably within the two to three per cent range.

Seafarers 731 Flinders Street, Docklands VIC 3008 

For this to occur, wages growth will have to be materially higher than it is currently, which will require significant gains in employment and a return to a tight labour market, the RBA noted at its April board meeting.

The latest results will unlikely change the RBA’s thinking that rates won’t move until 2024 at the earliest.

CPI was 1.1 per cent up annually, compared to the forecasted 1.4 per cent.

New dwelling prices declined 0.1 per cent over the quarter, namely due to the impact of the Federal Government’s HomeBuilder grant and similar grants by Western Australian and Tasmania state governments.

“Without the offset from these grants, the price of new dwelling would have risen, reflecting increases in materials and labour prices in response to strong demand”, head of prices statistics at the ABS Michelle Marquardt said.

 

Article Source: www.urban.com.au

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