Sunshine Coast market remains bright

Last year was like no other for our team of agents on the Sunshine Coast.

We had huge volumes of buyers – from around the country – wanting to purchase and a reduced supply of properties for sale.

Indeed, according to Image Property Sunshine Coast sales agent Nathan Christmas, multiple offers were the norm, with the vast majority of properties sold at the first open home or under the hammer for record prices.

Of course, as has been widely reported, such a strong level of buyer demand, combined with constrained supply, resulted in the Sunshine Coast being one of the top property performers by price growth around the nation.

The thing is, while other market major property markets have started to record reduced prices, metrics on the coast remain sound.

Market leader

According to the REIQ, the house’s strongest quarterly performer was the Noosa LGA, with a whopping 15.38 per cent quarterly rise to an eye-watering median of $1.5 million based on almost 200 sales from January to March this year.

Plus, asking prices coast-wide has remained firm since that time, too.

According to SQM Research, the Sunshine Coast asking price for houses had increased by 0.5 per cent over the quarter to early August, while the asking price for units had risen by 5.9 per cent over the same period.

The coast has been experiencing record low residential vacancy rates for tenants, with the current figure just 0.6 per cent. This has resulted in the asking rent for houses and units combined increasing by 11.7 per cent over the year to August.

Also, while we have seen an increase in property listings over recent months, we need to recognise what this means in a historical context.

For example, there was a total of 6646 properties for sale on the Sunshine Coast in June this year, which was 14 per cent higher than the year before.

However, if we look back to the same period three years ago, this number of listings remains 32 per cent below the figure back then, plus that volume of listings was standard for several years before that time.

Sunshine Coast in the news

The coast remains one of the hottest property markets in the nation because of the sheer number of things happening there, including the evolving construction of the new Maroochydore CBD and plans for light rail and a heavy rail connection between Beerwah and Caloundra.

Indeed, the coast’s significant major infrastructure program is part of why so much new development is taking place on the coast.

According to a recent news report, an avalanche of development activity is waiting to be triggered in Maroochydore, with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of unit projects launched in the first half of 2022.

The pipeline of projects is growing, with Sunshine Coast Council approval being sought for more than 500 units in projects lodged with the council since January, as the ongoing market squeeze continues.

Likewise, investors are continuing to put their faith and money into the booming Sunshine Coast property market, with several suburbs making the top 100 list of investment opportunities in Australia.

The Courier-Mail Make Your Move Report, powered by PropTrack, saw Meridan Plains, Yandina, Landsborough and Kuluin all listed in the top 100 suburbs to invest in if looking to buy a house.

Meanwhile, the same report revealed those chasing something smaller should strongly consider buying a unit in Sippy Downs or Mountain Creek, with both suburbs making the top 50 spots in the country to buy.