Noosa property market red hot despite federal election

A federal election and the end of the financial year are notoriously bad news for any property market; throw in a good dose of winter weather and it’s routinely crushing for somewhere like Noosa.

Until this year. Auction clearance rates are up by staggering levels, buyers are paying record-breaking prices for property and demand has outstripped supply, lowering time spent on the market.

Local agent Tom Offermann said his agency’s auction clearance rate, which normally sits around 50 per cent, was up at 78 per cent. Ten days ago, he believes he broke the record for the highest residential sale on the Sunshine Coast.

“It’s not normal activity in the lead-up to a federal election combined with the end of the financial year – and it’s very much taken me by surprise,” he said.

“Normally with these conditions things would be extremely quiet; I would have been very happy with a clearance rate of 50 to 60 per cent. To get up to nearly 80 per cent…it’s really out of character. I haven’t seen anything like this in nearly 30 years of real estate.”

After years of property prices flatlining following the GFC, it’s been a busy year for real estate in Noosa, with record growth and massive multi-million property sales.

Data from Domain last quarter showed Noosa as the Sunshine Coast’s top performing suburb, having increased its median house price by 18.3 per cent in a six-month period alone.

Joanne Marek, principal of Marek Realty at Noosa Heads, said conditions had “never been better”, with her agency currently selling around three to four properties per week ranging from $1 million to $4 million.

“It’s unusual to be selling so well given the election and I don’t see it slowing down in the next six months,” she said.

“Ninety per cent of my buyers are baby boomers from Sydney and Melbourne who are cashing in on their property there, buying here and then putting the rest in super.”

Ms Marek recently sold a four-bedroom, five-bathroom waterfront home in Noosa Waters for $3.7 million. She said she had sold nearly $30 million worth of property, over the last quarter, on her own.

Mr Offermann agreed the migration of investor buyers from Sydney and Melbourne was contributing towards the impressive results.

“This week I received a multi-million offer on a property, site unseen, from a buyer in Melbourne,” he said.

Some of Mr Offermann’s agency’s best recent auction results include an architect-designed home in Noosaville for $4,295,000 and a waterfront Noosa Heads home for $4,775,000.

Dowling Neylan agent Adrian Reed said there was no doubt premium results were being achieved across the board – but he argued some of that could be attributed to a serious shortage of stock.

“There’s a sense of tension with buyers uncommon to this time of year but the problem is a lack of supply; there’s just not enough property being listed,” he said.

“We’ve got a fundamental problem where people would like to sell but won’t because they know how difficult it is to buy another property.”

Mr Reed said he believed the market would cool off in the aftermath of the election.

“Once the dust settles on that, I predict we’ll find sellers who have been holding off on listing their property will come out of the woodwork,” he said.

Jennifer Carr, co-principal of Richardson & Wrench Noosa, said she was waiting with interest to see how the election results would affect the local market.

“We’ve certainly had a great run with some notable sales, including a three-bedroom apartment on Hastings Street for just under $7 million,” she said.

“We’re not normally this busy during winter. I’m interested to see whether we can sustain this momentum, whether the confidence can remain in the market once the election is over.”

One of Mr Offermann’s current listings includes a house owned by former world No.1 tennis player Thomas Muster. The Noosa Sound house, which has an asking price of $5.9 million, is one of three Noosa properties that the tennis great owns.