Professionals Burleigh 
It was a rough start to the year for the Gold Coast property market, but its future is looking bright, according to new research.
QBE Insurance has this week released its Australian Housing Outlook 2019-2022 report, which predicted the city’s median house ($625,000) and apartment ($425,000) prices would increase in the next three years.
The report attributed population growth, a steady supply of infrastructure projects and a strong tourism industry to the expected rises.
“House price growth to 2022 is expected to remain positive, albeit at a slower rate than the previous upturn at an average rate of 2.9 per cent per annum,” the report said.
“This will take the median house price to $680,000 by June 2022.
“Given the greater rise in the supply of units, unit prices are projected to show slower growth, averaging 0.8 per cent per annum to take the median unit price to $435,000 over the same period.”
Real Estate Institute of Queensland Gold Coast director John Newlands believed the predictions were possible given the number of people who were expected to move to the Gold Coast during the three-year period.
“That’s basically where that’s all stemming from,” he said.
“If that is the case … people are going to need places to stay and supply and demand is going to push prices up.”
He tipped suburbs like Ashmore, Carrara, Burleigh Waters and Hope Island to become more popular as people started to consider them central locations instead of outer areas.
With Melbourne’s median house price forecast to reach $810,000 and Sydney’s $1.04 million by June 2022, Mr Newlands said people would continue to move to the Coast.
“Affordability here on the Gold Coast is still very good,” he said.
Chief realestate.com.au economist Nerida Conisbee said while the Coast would be considered much cheaper than other cities, some buyers would need to reconsider their property plans.
“We often do celebrate price increases but it’s never good for first home buyers … and upgraders,” she said.
“With the Gold Coast, it will get more and more expensive over time because it’s a great place to live but also because it’s relatively constrained in its land.”
“The land shortage will probably be a big issue.”
