More buyers make the lifestyle switch to Queensland's luxe apartment market
Enticed by panoramic sea views more mesmerising than a Monet and urban positioning that feels a world away from the concrete jungle, empty-nesters are cashing in their multimillion-dollar estates for luxury apartments along the south-east Queensland coastline and injecting life into a market that’s been idle for years.
From Noosa’s sparkling shores to the cliffs of Brisbane’s elevated inner-city pockets that take in views from the serpentine river to Main Beach and its golden dunes, prices for penthouses and whole-floor apartments have soared by up to 30 per cent in a year, with experts now describing the high-end unit market as a marathon that’s hit its stride.
It’s already seen the luxury unit sector match the record-setting pace of houses, with buyer demand for creative, spacious abodes so significant that many apartment hunters are splashing millions on homes in buildings that are yet to receive development approval, says Place Estate Agents Kangaroo Point director Simon Caulfield.
“The [prestige apartment] market is the best we’ve ever seen … days on market have dropped significantly, and prices are rising,” Caulfield says.
“We recently re-sold an apartment at 2 Scott Street, Kangaroo Point [in the Walan building] that bettered the two previous sales there from late last year.
“Both of those apartments had a third car park and were higher up … they sold for $4.4 million and $4.375 million. The one we just sold had two car spaces, and it transacted for $4.5 million.”
And it’s Brisbane-based downsizers and empty nesters that are leading the charge, he says.
“In Brisbane, I think locals still have a lot of control here because there’s a lot of swapping of capital here. They are selling their big houses for a few million and then buying an apartment for the same price,” he says.
“The infrastructure has helped the sector a lot as well … everything is driving people to live closer to the city, so this market has legs for a long time. We’re running a marathon, and we’re halfway through.
Caulfield, who is marketing an exquisite five-bedroom penthouse at 18E/39 Castlebar Street, Kangaroo Point, for about $6 million, says properties like these are now fetching as much as high-end estates.
“Castlebar is in a unique proposition, and it’s significant because it’s a full-floor penthouse and it has a 26-metre frontage, which is quite rare. The proportions of the property are as large as you’re ever going to see in an apartment, and you’ve got a 20-metre private mooring as well.”
Down on the Gold Coast’s perennial popular Main Beach, Ray White Prestige agent Robbie Graham says local downsizers have set the luxury apartment market on fire.
“I don’t know an apartment market more aggressive than Main Beach … the prices being achieved are substantial, and that’s driven by the lack of properties available,” Graham says.
“There’s a [three-bedroom] property that sold at 6/3531 Main Beach Parade for $5.5 million in October last year, but the new owners weren’t really ready to make the move. I sold it two months later, on Christmas Eve, for $6.3 million.
“Another property that didn’t even make it to the papers just sold on 41 Rankin Parade, Main Beach, and it was the highest price ever paid for a non-beachfront. It went on the market on a Friday and sold on the Monday for $5.3 million … people want convenience and lifestyle.”
While the Main Beach and its surrounds market is yet to soar to Sydney or Noosa heights, Graham says, buyers are paying $20,000 a square metre for luxury apartments – and looking for creative designs.
That creativity abounds in the 7/35 Northcliffe Terrace Surfers Paradise– a home so gargantuan it has been dubbed the pinnacle of Gold Coast beachfront living.
Further north on the Sunshine Coast, where house-price growth has hit national headlines, the region’s unit market has also climbed to record heights after median prices in Sunshine Beach jumped $212,500 in 12 months, according to a recent Domain report.
Unlike its southern counterparts, the growth here is being fuelled by interstate and Brisbane buyers, says Tom Offermann, of the eponymous property firm.
“There’s been a trend shift from investment buying to lifestyle buying here … a lot of people who are choosing to live here full-time work from home … and now we have around 10 people bidding at every auction, so each sale is generally creating a new price level,” he says.
In March last year, Offermann’s office transacted the Sunshine Coast’s highest-priced apartment sale of all time, collecting $14 million for a 242-square-metre penthouse at 8 Noosa Court, Noosa.
They sold another apartment for $8 million just down the road earlier this year, with a pristine three-bedroom unit at 8/81 Hastings Street, Noosa Heads, tipped to sell for a similar price at auction on September 18.
Offermann says 8/81 Hastings Street is particularly special because it “is literally 25 metres across the road from Noosa Main Beach … as well as having wide terraces overlooking the bay with three bedrooms in a prestige building of only nine apartments”.
He says prices in Noosa are expected to climb further in the months ahead.
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