Sunshine Coast unit prices have ballooned when compared with the rest of the country during the past five years.
Many local property values, including houses and units, more than doubled in that timeframe.
But the region’s rising unit prices led the way on a national level.
The Sunshine Coast laid claim to three of the top-four growth suburbs for unit prices in Australia, four of the top 10 in the country and nine of the top 10 in regional Queensland.
Noosaville was number one in the nation with the median unit price blowing out $485,000 to $935,000, at a 108 per cent increase.
Sunshine Beach and Coolum Beach were numbers three and four respectively, and Marcoola was number nine.
The data was collected in the five years to April 2023.
PropTrack director – economic research Cameron Kusher says buyers from the cities want to embrace a lifestyle change and have sought value on the Sunshine Coast.
“We saw a really strong increase in unit prices on the Sunshine Coast right through the pandemic,” he says.
“They were generally cheaper than the Gold Coast and we started to see people wanting that beach lifestyle, and from an investment and holiday home perspective.
“So, we saw a big increase in median prices in areas like Noosaville, Sunshine Beach and Coolum Beach, and also Marcoola and Mount Coolum, which are not as easily recognisable.
“And Tewantin isn’t on the coast but we still saw median prices jump there.”
He says he is a “bit surprised” that Noosaville was number one.
“But prices there were relatively cheap five years ago, at $450,000, and I think there could have been a spillover of people who couldn’t afford an apartment at Noosa Heads,” he says.
“They instead went looking in Noosaville, where you are still only a five-minute drive from the beach and you have the river. It’s quite an attractive place to be.”
He says high demand from prospective buyers, low supply and low borrowing costs “for most of the last five years” fuelled the price rise.
“People wanted to get out of the city (during the pandemic). They wanted more space and a different lifestyle, and they wanted to move to areas like the Sunshine Coast, but there wasn’t much stock for sale, which pushed up prices significantly,” he says.
Mount Coolum, Buddina, Peregian Beach, Tewantin and Golden Beach were also in the top 10 for unit price growth in regional Queensland.
Peregian Beach, Buddina and Eumundi were in the top 10 for house price growth in regional Queensland.
Median prices doubled at least.
