The month in review: Gold Coast
By Herron Todd White
April, 2010
The Gold and Tweed Coasts are well known for their
surfing beaches and holiday lifestyle. Traditionally, it has
been the beachside high-rise and low-rise units have been
sought out by intra and interstate investors as holiday
homes. These vary from one bedroom units for $175,000
to penthouses apartments for $8 million. Many Brisbane
families own old beach cottages within Mermaid Beach,
Burleigh Heads, Palm Beach and Kingscliff and depending
on proximity to the beach, these range from $400,000 to
$1.5 million.
With the rise of numerous holiday internet websites,
other classes of residential real estate are now sought by
holiday makers and used by out of town owners when
not booked. These include canal front homes throughout
the Gold Coast and varying in quality and price. The
most opulent of these are located at Sanctuary Cove and Sovereign Island, such as the house below purchased by
Hong Kong residents for $11 million in 2006.
The most unique of our holiday destinations would be
South Stradbroke Island which is situated to the north of
the Gold Coast seaway and accessible only by boat. There
are two locations on South Stradbroke Island that have
freehold house properties used for holiday homes.
The first is Currigee which was established in 1966 is home
to 72 freehold allotments averaging 800 square metres.
The houses vary from basic fibro fishing shacks to modern
three level, architecturally designed homes. The roadways
are sand tracks, there is no town water, sewerage or
electricity. These island getaways are supported by tank
water, septic systems and solar power cells and batteries.
The roadways are unformed sandy tracks and four wheel
drives, fishing and surfing along South Stradbroke Island’s
21km beach is the star attraction where often tens of
kilometres are uninhabited. There have only been three
properties sold/for sale during the past five years.
Couran Point was established in 2001 to cater for those
wanting a less rustic lifestyle. The estate has underground
services, sealed roadways and a communal resort facilities
with lagoon swimming pool. There are so many wet and
so many dry allotments with the waterfront lots having
private pontoons for easy access to their properties
from the main land. Quality of housing ranges from
basic lightweight single level homes to architecturally
designed, two level properties with suspended slabs and
home theatres. Homes constructed to date have ranged
in cost between $300,000 and $1.9 million. Land in the
estate generally ranges from $300,000 for dry allotments
to $650,000 for canal front land. Alike Currigee, owners
within this estate are permitted to have four-wheel drives
to access the roadways and beachfront. Properties in this
estate change hands frequently.
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