Gold Coast growth

Economic growth, location, lifestyle appeal and rental performance are the chief considerations for people studying property investment in Australia. Southeast Queensland, led by the Gold Coast, remains Australia's premier growth region, suggests a Gold Coast based property company, Solmac Developments.

Fuelled by a booming state economy, low unemployment and record levels of interstate migration, the area is significantly outperforming the rest of the nation.

Key indicators for investors are statistics that show approximately 17,500 people are relocating to Southeast Queensland every year, resulting in extremely low residential real estate vacancy rates, according to Solmac director Duncan McInness. In addition, the latest figures from the Queensland Government's Office of Economic and Statistical Research, for the December 2004 quarter, show the Gold Coast recorded the state's lowest residential rental vacancy rate at 2.1 per cent.

The figure for residential rental units (including townhouses and apartments) is even lower at 1.9 per cent.

"Economic fundamentals assured, the next step for investors is to assess property investments based on location, lifestyle and rental returns,'' says McInness. "On all counts the Gold Coast's $1 billion integrated Varsity Lakes community scores highly."

The Cape, a $40 million waterfront apartment development five minutes from Burleigh Heads and midway between Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast Airport at Coolangatta, is one project within the Varsity Lakes developments by Solmac. The Cape has 100m wide water frontage, and is flanked on its other boundaries by Bond University, Varsity College, Varsity Central IT Park and the Market Square shopping and dining precinct. "The academic and business community, plus the waterfront position, create huge residential rental demand, with vacancy rates in this vicinity consistently lower than anywhere else," claims McInness.

The Cape has 76 two- and three-bedroom apartments, plus two three-bedroom-plus-study penthouses and two luxury waterfront villas.

Apartment prices start at A$425,500.