The Sunshine Coast’s new era of sustained growth

As the 10th largest ‘significant urban area’ in the country, the scale and strength of the Sunshine Coast as a region is often underestimated.

With a clear and progressive approach to sustainable economic growth, the Sunshine Coast economy and property market have both entered a new era of sustained growth. Enviable lifestyle benefits combined with robust investment drivers have resulted in economic and population growth which is outpacing other scale regions both as a percentage and in absolute terms.

The region boasts an economy worth $15.74 billion, having grown by around 29% in seven years and 12% in the previous two, and an infrastructure pipeline currently in excess of $20 billion.

Following the region’s significant population and economic growth, the Sunshine Coast has also experienced an incredible 22% median apartment price growth over the past five years. Even so, the median apartment price was still 28% and 80% more affordable than Melbourne and Sydney respectively for 2018.

The population is increasingly drawn to the lifestyle afforded by higher density environments including restaurants, shopping, transport and schools. Since apartments are generally closer to existing and future infrastructure, they are far more likely to experience value uplift associated with strong public and private investment.

Whilst affordably and improved lifestyle are key drivers of increased migration, improved employment opportunities are also imperative to sustain such growth, and the Sunshine Coast has experienced solid, progressive employment growth of 13% increase in jobs during the past five years to 2019.

As an investment opportunity, the Sunshine Coast experienced apartment rental yields of 5% as at July 2019, significantly higher than those being achieved in Sydney and Melbourne, and vacancy rates of 1.8% as at July 2019, substantially below that of Sydney which has seen progressive increases since May 2017, rising to 3.5% as at July 2019.

We are at the point in the cycle where you can lock in your off-the-plan property investment at today’s prices with just a 10% deposit and you don’t have to pay the reminder until the building is complete, when you should be able to take advantage of value uplift that has occurred during construction.

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