The near-record $25 million sale of Gold Coast trophy home “Tidemark” has boosted confidence in the glitter strip, where sales are returning after years of inactivity.
Five luxury waterfront homes from Mermaid Beach to Sovereign Island have sold for more than $10m this year, after almost five years of no ultra-prestige sales.
Valuer Luke Nichols, from Herron Todd White on the Gold Coast, said sales at the high end of the Gold Coast market had resumed in the past 12 to 18 months.
“That recent sale is close to the best price we’ve ever achieved,” he said.
“Just to see activity (in that price range) does signal a shift in buyers’ perceptions of property. They believe that we have reached the bottom.”
The Australian has tallied more than $115m worth of $5m-plus waterfront sales recorded with authorities this year along Mermaid Beach’s prestige beachfront streets.
Margin Call yesterday reported former Billabong director Scott Perrin’s Albatross Avenue mansion had sold to Melbourne-based Moose Enterprises chair Manny Stul for $25m.
The six-bedroom, six-bathroom contemporary home on 2833sq m of beach-facing land reportedly cost $20m to build. It had been on the market since April 2015, originally with a $29.5m list price. Agent Michael Kollosche did not return calls yesterday.
This year another Albatross Avenue mansion sold for $11.45m, while new owners bought a nearby Hedges Avenue address for $13.25m. On the Isle of Capri, two homes sold for $15m and $15.5m, and on Sovereign Island, Cross Drive notched up an $11m sale.
Another four prestige homes along the Mermaid Beach waterfront remain on the market with multi-million-dollar list prices.
Mr Nichols said the last $10m-plus homes to change hands before this year were in 2009 and 2010, when there were two sales.
He stressed the segmented nature of the Gold Coast property market, where sales of average homes were ticking along nicely.
Since the peak of the market in 2007, a $600,000 home has appreciated to $800,000; a $1m house would sell now for about $1.1m, he said.
But a $2m home would remain at about $2m and a property that sold for $3m to $4m in 2007 would only achieve a sale for about 90 per cent of the price.
At the very top end, Mr Nichols said, properties’ current cost is up to 70 per cent of the pre-global financial crisis value.
Professionals agent Andre Sharples said there was increased confidence in the outlook for the Gold Coast’s top-end homes, but supply was tight.
“That strip has only just started to go now,” he said. “It’s still very affordable or great value compared to Sydney and Melbourne. There is continued improvement in prices and if the stock remains low and interest rates remain low, we will continue the trend in price, and continue to rise, especially with these beachfront sales giving confidence to the market.”
Original article published at www.theaustralian.com.au by ROSANNE BARRETT 13/8/16