Perfect storm tipped for property
IT is being touted as the 'Perfect Storm'. 
 
According to Gold Coast property experts, prices will continue their upward swing in 2010 but a looming 'massive undersupply of housing' is set to reach critical levels. 
 
Ray White Surfers Paradise CEO Andrew Bell yesterday told a packed auction crowd the Gold Coast's current construction approvals were failing to keep pace with the booming population, which would in turn drive up property prices. 
 
While it's good news for those who already own real estate, houses will become increasingly unaffordable if more development does not hit the market soon. 
 
Mr Bell said southeast Queensland was experiencing the worst land shortage in history -- only supplying 26,000 lots annually despite demand for 45,000 lots. Similarly, he said the supply of apartments was dwindling to the point that there would be no new developments bringing new stock on to the market at Main Beach, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach in the second half of this year and into next. 
 
Mr Bell said developers were being turned off by rising interest rates combined with it being 'near impossible' to obtain bank finance and bureaucratic red tape delaying developments. 
 
"Authorities call the current situation the 'Perfect Storm' -- lack of supply, difficult financing conditions, rising construction costs and high infrastructure charges resulting in land prices rising by 10 per cent," he said. 
 
"The South East Queensland Regional Plan predicts 300,000 new arrivals for the region over the next 22 years and we will need 143,000 new dwellings to house them. 
 
"Yet broadacre undeveloped land is expected to provide only 32,000 dwellings and will run out by 2016. 
 
"The underlying shortfall is already upon us. The southeast's population increased by 75,000 in 2008/09, requiring 30,000 new homes, yet only 17,000 were built." 
 
The undersupply will push up property and rent prices. 
 
The good news is that after a tough 18 months, all areas of the Gold Coast property market were recovering. 
 
"The indications are that Gold Coast real estate is rebounding strongly from the effects of the Global Financial Crisis and that 2010 will be seen as a watershed year in the history of the region's property market, marking the beginning of the next upswing," said Mr Bell.  

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