Upturn expected for Gold Coast

Gold Coast investors can expect an upturn in just a couple of years, according to several industry experts.

Gold Coast property has been hard hit by the depressed market, however speaking to Smart Property InvestmentGold Coast investors can expect an upturn in just a couple of years after being hard hit in 2011, according to expertsm>, Savills national head of research Tony Crabb said that a three to five year “correction” time span is usually required for the market to return.

He believes that this correction process is already underway.

“We’re well into that three to five year correction period; it has certainly corrected and now stabilised. I don’t see it deteriorating much further from where it is now because I don’t see the fundamentals changing to the point where it ought to deteriorate,” Mr Crabb said.

Gold Coast-based Jean Brown Properties principal Jean Brown also told Smart Property Investment that the market is in a stable period.

“I don’t think it has changed much over the last 12 months, in terms of the sales or value,” Ms Brown said. “It has been completely stagnant. I think it’s just going to remain stagnant over the next 12 months as well.”

“2014 will see the market starting to move a bit more,” she said.

Oliver Hume Research figures based on sales uptake for the September quarter of 2011 also suggest an upturn in 2014/2015.

“We’re looking at 2.5 years,” Oliver Hume Research state research manager (Queensland) Josh Brown said.

“The Gold Coast could be well underway in terms of an uptake in the market by 2014.”

What the uptake will look like is still uncertain, and Ms Brown remains unsure as to whether it will see huge hikes in property values.

“In 2014/2015, I think we will see increased sales and values might start to rise a bit. We will have a boom, but I don’t think we’re going to have another huge boom like we did before the 2008 slump,” she said.