The Whitsunday region remains high on the shopping list of local and interstate luxury buyers with more than $52M in prestige sales in the last year alone.
For a region that was hard hit by the GFC and a tropical cyclone, it was not uncommon to see lengthy days on market, but these recent sales are a sure sign of confidence in the desirable north Queensland spot. In the last 12 months there have been seven prestige sales worth more than $52M in the area.
$14M – Mandalay House, Airlie Beach
$13M – 4/383 Mandalay Rd, Mandalay
$5M – Heaven’s Gate, 860 Gloucester Ave, Whitsunday
$7.08M – Villa Botanica – 119B Botanica Drive, Woodwark
$7.5M – 1 Oceanview Ave, Airlie Beach
$3.4M – 371 Mandalay Rd, Mandalay
$1.65M – 305 Mandalay Rd, Mandalay
Ray White Whitsunday – which has 50 per cent market share in the region – boosted sales by 40 per cent in the year to June 2018, compared to 2016-17 year.
Right now the Ray White team has everything on its sales books from this stunning architectural property (pictured here) at 1/188 Mandalay Rd, Mandalay for $4.4M to a hand crafted house inspired by a Mongolian yurt near Cannonvale for $449,000 to a high end holiday rental for around $15,000 per night in Mandalay.
“We will see more high end buyers come to the Whitsundays and we will see more larger boats in particular super yachts over 200ft long which put millions into the local economy from servicing to provisioning,” said Mark Beale, who owns Ray White Whitsunday which been awarded for the best customer service in the Ray White network for the last 2 years.
“High end buyers love the anonymity of Airlie Beach. They can wear thongs, shorts and a singlet and no one cares. They can easily fly in with or without their friends, stay at their luxury property and go out on their boats for the day around the islands and reef,” he said.
“The town is nearly back to normal after Cyclone Debbie. There are still a lot of tradespeople here completing work and will be for another six months which is further fuelling the rental market.
“The $1.3B of insurance money into the region has had a very positive affect.
“There are a lot of new estates and new houses getting built and the population is growing very well.
“Value for money, you can still get a two bedroom apartment for around $150,000 and get $250-$300pw rent.
“These units pre GFC were selling for $250,000 to $280,000. My prediction is that investors from Sydney and Melbourne will continue to see excellent ROI and purchase these and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were at $200,000 soon.”
Mr Beale said he was cautiously optimistic about the outlook for 2019.
“The value for money equation is still very good but we are still nowhere back to pre-GFC prices. The rental vacancy rate of around three per cent is healthy and with mining picking up we will see more mining families choose to live here while one partner commutes to work,” he said.
“Not too long ago there were a lot of high end homes for sale and they had been for sale for quite some time but you can feel there’s a confidence in the air now.”
Source: raywhite.com
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