Harcourts Coastal have reported a leap in their sales figures for the month of January, up an incredible $14 million from this time last year.
More than $81 million sales were made on 105 properties and Managing Director Dane Atherton said the outstanding results had been largely driven by local buyers.
“This was a record January for us. In January 2017 the figure was $67 million so this is an enormous jump,” Mr Atherton said.
Harcourts Coastal held 35 auctions of which 20 sold under the hammer and 10 prior, with an average of four registered bidders on each auction.
“And the remaining five properties are very close. That’s a clearance rate of 86 per cent which is exceptional,” he said.
“We actually made $81.5 million for the month of January and there was notable increase in local activity. Local buyers led the charge which is a promising sign for the Gold Coast.
“We’ve also already had 15 sales in the first 5 days of February.”
“It’s good to see the confidence of 2017 going to another level in 2018.”
Properties ranged from an apartment in Surfers Paradise for $220,000 to a beachfront apartment for more than $3.5 million. Mr Atherton said while historically January was a busy marketing month for the company it was not necessarily its busiest transactional month.
“However, it’s proving to be a strong sales month this year. And in saying that, while it’s very early February (at the time of writing), we’ve already got nine sales on the board. So it appears to be a continuing trend,” he said.
In addition to local buyer activity, Mr Atherton said more interstate buyers were looking at the Gold Coast as a genuine investment haven.
“The Sydney and Melbourne markets appear to have reached their peak … they have definitely cooled,” he said.
“So interstate buyers are seeing more confidence and extreme value in the Gold Coast. They are not just buying here for lifestyle, they are buying here because they see excellent value and growth prospects.
“And that, in turn, is spurring local confidence in the market too.
“Two years ago interstate buyers were pipping locals to properties because locals took a while to process the growth that was happening.
“Now there’s lots of confidence from the locals and that is definitely driving the market.”
