And they are by no means the only ones anticipating great things for this regional city.
In the latest issue of Your Investment Property, Andrew Wilson, Senior Economist at Domain, estimates that there will be price growth there between 5-10% in the next 12 months. He attributes this largely to its strong local economy.
In fact, some well-located beachfront property on the Gold Coast could triple in value over the next five years, off the back of rising Chinese investment and tourism numbers, according to the independent financial services company Fat Prophets.
Furthermore, the population is increasing, the Australian dollar is decreasing and there are two major five-star hotels being constructed on the beachfront.
And in April, the building of the $122 million Carrara Sports Precinct officially got underway, which is generating 400 jobs during design and construction.
Overall, the $320 million Commonwealth Games infrastructure program is set to create 1000 jobs during the design and construction phase.
But despite all the money being poured into infrastructure spending, Terry Ryder, director of hotspotting.com.au, believes that investors should exercise caution.
“We hesitate to recommend the Gold Coast because it lurches from one boom-bust scenario to the next,” says Ryder.
“Developers never seem to learn, as they are addicted to building skyscrapers with hundreds of apartments, each one of them the same as the others.”
This is a recipe for more oversupply and bad results for investors, he says. Not to mention the fact that it is too reliant on tourism.
“It’s not really evolving the way other regional cities in Queensland are,” he says. “If you look at the median price for units at Surfers Paradise, it is lower now than it was five years ago.
“It’s all about high-rise apartments trying to be sold to Chinese investors and it’s a recipe for the market to crash again.”
Even though he acknowledges that there is a big increase in sales activity and lots of new infrastructure spending, Ryder believes there are better and safer places to invest in Queensland than the Gold Coast.
To read the full analysis and many other in-depth articles, grab a copy of Your Investment Property magazine, out on sale now.
