NEIGHBOURING the Gold Coast’s vibrant cultural precinct, Bundall is a central suburb boasting a commercial hotspot in the north and flourishing with a residential precinct in the south.
With the old “beehive” of the Gold Coast City Council headquarters relocating across the road from Evandale Parklands, the suburb is lively with businesses, schools and sporting clubs.
At the centre of the suburb is the Gold Coast Turf Club, a landmark which dates back to the 1890s where public meetings were held in Bundall’s old cane paddocks. The Turf Club is now surrounded by a commercial district on Upton St and Crombie Ave.
Lucy Cole Prestige Properties managing director Lucy Cole has been working in the area for 28 years and describes Bundall as a suburb brimming with young professional families.
Bundall is encompassed by shops but retains a quiet residential precinct.
“There is a mixture of young professional families who want to live in an area surrounded by schools and Bundall is just that,” Lucy says.
“The suburb covers quite a large area including Sorrento, Isle of Sorrento and Bundall — areas which have all risen in price over the years because of the location.”
Lucy describes the area as having three tiers of homes.
“The units are generally positioned around the racecourse,” she explains. “There is a shortage of non-waterfront homes which have a median price of $700,000 and $800,000 and a lot of homeowners and buyers are renovating these homes and bringing them up to speed with the value of the area. It is a very family friendly suburb, and most homebuyers look for houses on cul-de-sac streets.”
The suburb neighbours the Gold Coast Arts. Photo: Richard Gosling
Lucy says it is hard to find any waterfront homes for under $1 million.
“They are hugely popular with some homes priced up to $8 million,” she says. “Availability is becoming scarce and anything that comes on the market is snapped up normally within a week.” While the most popular property trend in the area is renovating, Lucy says it’s no surprise the northern part of Bundall is dotted with homeware stores.
“On the northern side of Ashmore Rd the suburb offers lots of homeware stores which is handy for people renovating in the area, a lot of people from the Coast flock there for the major brands too,” she says.
Gold Coast Iceland owner Graham Sullivan and his Olympian wife, Shan Burley, have been operating the centre in Bundall for 20 years and say it is the biggest rink on the Coast.
“My wife competed in the 1976 Olympics for ice-skating and I use to play ice hockey so owning a rink was a dream for both of us,” Graham says. “The ice itself is spread across a 55m by 25m area and there are a lot of Bundall locals who are regulars here.”
After buying the building in the 1990s Graham transformed it into an ice-skating rink.
“We chose Bundall because we were looking for a space bigger enough to fit an ice rink that was also central,” he said. “Bundall has been a really good location for the club.
“On Sundays the ice hockey teams have competitions and during the week the figure skaters are getting up at 6am to practice, but between that it is mostly local school students.”
Original article published at www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au by Hannah Sbeghen, News Corp Australia Network 9/7/16