Visiting the Gold Coast?

Here's a good link for anyone not familiar with the awesome Gold Coast!

www.visitgoldcoast.com

I love the Gold Coast in terms of investment fundamentals right now. But quite apart from that it's an awesome place to live!

 

What is it that you do on the Gold Coast out of interest?

Eat, Drink, Shop, Play and Stay - Visit Brisbane

 

Start with a morning walk/swim. Then cafe for coffee and newspaper. Then home for a healthy breakfast. Emails in morning. Usually out for lunch/brunch. Arvo is a combo of gym/swim. Emails/Calls. Sometimes a nap. Evening is usually a dinner or bbq etc with friends. It's a good life

 

GC is a cyclical place to invest - changes every 2 years. Was there this week and of course, booked accom at surfers for a night of fun.

We have chinese investors buying in Surfers, Broadbeach and Southport. Much like the japanese in the 90s they are buying in large towers which are mostly overpriced. We are seeing some towers 'significantly' purchased by overseas (chinese) buyers. This, to me, is not a fundamental, its a short term trend. Yes its a great place to live however for investment it is buyer beware. This is the same as every market though.

Cheers Ivan

 

Hi Ivan. You are describing the apartment market which is on the skids in Melbourne and Brisbane too. The cycles are considerably longer than 2 years though. Houses were only hit here last cycle with GFC and the AUD strength. It is units that I forecast will be in oversupply in about 4 to 5 years. Hopefully there is some spillover to residential buildings so i can buy our retirement apartment at Broadbeach when it's on special.
@big max where do you normally have your morning coffee? I'm either at Madissons or Three Beans in Broadbeach nearly every morning. Occasionally I'll walk toward Nobby Beach and caffeinate at BSKT or Piccolo's at Miami.

 

Just got back from from a couple weeks visiting my sister on the gc, definitely a life style I could get used to. Say that every time I get back from there, just no work there for me.

 

Well you can make your own work. So many opportunities on the GC at the moment!

 

Love BSKT café at Mermaid Beach. Been known to have done a couple of lunches there.

 

I went through a phase where I was going to that cafe by the oracle etc at Broadbeach. Then I started going to that place at Burleigh with the cinema seats. Now it's cafe 52 at Nobbys which I like best. And yes often BSTK for lunch

 

Markets with big cycles are perfect for investors. Which is why I really like the Gold Coast as an investment market. I have bought up every bottom of the last 3 cycles (although never sold at peaks, opting to hold). We are right now at the start of a super cycle that I believe will run the next 5-8 years.

 

I have a house pretty much opposite bstk. Around 30 seconds walk ...

 

It really pretty great food huh? I'm not really too into the whole quinoa acie berry gluten free thing but their food really is pretty amazing. And not too expensive either for the quality you get.

 

Totally agree. Every time we have eaten there, we have been truly impressed.

 

I found this linky

 

The thing i look at more than anything else is jobs- depth, breath , type, salaries etc. Ill bet that thats the single most important reason sydney and mel boomed was because of this. Get the jobs right and most other things follows. eg sentiment, gentrification, spending, etc...
Im convinced about brisbane creating more permanent higher skilled diversified higher payinh jobs..but not fully convinced about gc. Sure its better in gc than it was 2-3 yrs back...and do seem to be on right track with jobs...but i dont know how much is low level casual/seasonal retail /hospitality type jobs spurred by lower dollar environment. Thats not the kinda jobs that proved to be successful for sydney and mel.

 

Went to 52 Espresso at Nobby with Mrs Player this morning. Had a nice quirky vibe to it. The coffee was quite robust. A bit strong as I drink mine black (long or short depending on my mood).
I expect I was meant to go to the precinct to check out the café as whilst there I stuck my head into the used book store and picked up a book a mate of mine was discussing with me recently as we were talking about philanthropy. "The Billionaire who Wasn't." How Chuck Feeney secretly made and gave away a fortune. It's in my to read pile along with many others

There are so many cafes popping up. Not all will survive, however for the while they are there it's good to sample different venues and cafes. There are less and less vacancies along the Highway strip now and Mermaid and Nobby are coming into their own after being in the doldrums until a few years ago.

 

It's all relative. I would be looking at growth in % terms rather than absolute. Sydney will have higher average incomes for quite some time in the near future. But % of employed (and % of unemployed) and % increase in income etc - all of this I expect will be much stronger on the Gold Coast than Sydney next 5 years. These are the benefits, for an investor, in coming off a low base

 

You forgot the biggest one - the beach........

 

So...where is the best place to stay if we are going up for the GC marathon in July? I think it starts and ends in Southport. We have a 2 yr old who you can guess is very active and needs to run around a lot.

 

Merrion in Broadbeach is excellent. Great kids playground across the road. Massive shopping mall supermarket and lots of dining. Also a great vegan restaurant near there.

You could also could consider Meriton in southport. Much cheaper and also have great playgrounds there but it's much less of a beach feel. Book early. You get great prices if u book early. Enjoy!

Ps the marathon should be awesome as its probably the commonwealth games route you will run.