GOLD Coast land sales have surged above 600 a quarter for the fourth time since 2009, according to property marketing firm, Oliver Hume.
The company said land sales jumped 23 per cent in the August to October quarter compared to 522 sales in the January-May quarter.
It said a slew of new projects had given rise to the market and increased demand since late last year.
Managing director Brinton Keath said the release of new land was likely to ease pressure on pricing.
“It is a very competitive market at the moment and buyers can really shop around for a great deal if they have the option to be a bit more flexible about location,” he said.
The number of vacant land sales in 2015 was 1643, which was significantly lower than the Gold Coast’s 15-year sales volume average of 2037 a year.
“This was due wholly to the lack of supply in the market, with all projects on market currently witnessing pent-up demand each time a new stage is released,” he said.
Mr Keath said the Coast’s land market had bounced back to life with major releases, including Villawood’s The Surrounds project at Helensvale.
“After a strong start to 2015, things fell away a bit late last year and for the first half of this year as developers ran out of good stock and quality lots were hard for buyers to find,” he said.
“Many buyers have simply held off and waited for some quality stock to come to be released, and dived in as soon as it hit the market.
“We are now experiencing a bit of a ‘catching-up’ phase from the pent-up demand the market acquired and we think the next six months should see some the highest volumes recorded since 2008.”