The southeast Queensland Olympics are 10 years away but the Gold Coast property market is expected to benefit from the international event well before 2032.
While the booming market across the city is predicted to slow down, there’s still plenty of growth, according to property experts.
PropertyPricer’s Ross McLelland said based on the experience of other cities that have hosted the Games, suburbs on the Coast and south-east Queensland could potentially grow by up to 30 per cent in the five years leading up to the Games.
“Historically, the building of significant infrastructure across the Olympic precincts and surrounding areas are considered to be the major contributor to an increase in property prices,” he said.
His Coast suburbs to watch include Robina, Nerang, Merrimac, Palm Beach, Burleigh and Pimpama.
“While locals in Palm Beach and Burleigh may be up in arms about the light rail, this project has the potential to give a further uplift in price to these southern suburbs, with researchers concluding that the big increases in property prices in Atlanta and Barcelona were caused by the huge spending on desperately needed improvements to urban infrastructure,” he said.
“The Olympic and Paralympic village at Robina will have the potential to accommodate future renters and buyers, making this suburb an obvious choice for a price rise.” He said transport also played a huge part.
“With the Coomera Connector, the road corridor between Loganholme and Nerang, likely to be pushed for completion by 2032, this hinterland suburb will become a more popular choice.
“Future stations at Merrimac and Pimpama, along the Cross River Rail, will offer an easy connection into the Brisbane CBD and around the Gold Coast.”
Mr McLelland said it was after the 2000 Sydney Olympics that local homeowners benefited the most. “The gains were mostly in the surrounding suburbs of Homebush (where the Olympic village was located) and a small portion of these gains can be attributed to some of the Olympic village properties being available for sale after the event.”
James Fitzgerald, of Custodian, shared a similar view – he predicted Robina and Merrimac would benefit from the Olympic village. “(They are) either side of the proposed 2032 Olympic village and 270ha Green Heart parklands project (and) these areas will benefit from a huge amount of future infrastructure,” Mr Fitzgerald said. “Both markets are still affordable (with medians of $817,000 and $1.08m).”
Gold Coast-based buyer’s agent Matt Srama said the Olympics would put the city on the “world map”. “It’s not so much the event itself, that obviously creates a buzz and is a spectable, but the infrastructure it brings”.
This article first appeared in the Gold Coast Bulletin on the 14 February 2022.
