The coronavirus panic spreading through financial markets doesn’t appear to have infected the rarified air of Noosa Heads’ absolute beachfront apartments.
In fact, the man whose firm just smashed a sales record for the trendy strip by a cool few million dollars thinks plummeting shares could be adding to demand.
A deep-pocketed buyer last week dropped $14 million on a 242-square-metre penthouse just a few steps from astounding Main Beach: 8 Noosa Court on exclusive Hastings Street.
Tom Offermann, principal of the eponymous firm whose agents Eric Seetoo and Nick Hunter made the sale, said the three-bedroom jewel with a study originally sold for $2.35 million off the plan in 1997 and just $5.5 million six years later.
But he wasn’t surprised to see the whopping price given recent activity, which he said included auctions with as many as 22 registered bidders and an almost-perfect success rate.
“There’s certainly been some frenzied buying activity in recent weeks as buyers panic to secure tangible assets in the wake of volatility in the share market, and the extremely low returns on cash invested in the bank,” he said.
“We are in uncharted waters so it is impossible to predict the effect on the property market in the short term.
“However, as I always say, real estate is a long-term investment that never disappoints in the long run.”
Mr Offermann said the price beat the suburb’s previous apartment sale record of $9 million, for another Noosa Court flat reported earlier this year, and even topped the most expensive house, an $11.2 million sale in Allambi Terrace.
It was within spitting distance of the biggest sales in nearby Sunshine Beach but a few million shy of Brisbane’s most expensive house.
The tumbling records weren’t confined to the Sunshine Coast’s luxurious beachfront.
Chandler, the south-eastern suburb better known for swimming than multimillion-dollar homes, also has a new record holder, according to Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty senior sales executive Tyson Clarke.
The new owners, reportedly Supercar driver Liam Talbot and original Hi-5 star Charli Robinson, should be right at home in the architecturally designed “James Bond House” with Brisbane’s largest car garage.
They picked up the 1553-square-metre piece of refined minimalism on just over a hectare of rural serenity for $5.1 million.
“I haven’t really seen anything like this design in a long time, which is a big large home all on one level,” Mr Clarke said.
“You know, it’s really well designed, a lot of spaces, a lot of living options.
“The underground garage was phenomenal.”
The ball started rolling on the Chandler sale back in October/November last year, before the coronavirus had started to make its impact felt even in China.
Mr Offermann, the Noosa-based agent, said his colleagues further south in Brisbane and the southern Sunshine Coast had seen a similar urgency to buy in the past month.
But Mr Clarke said it was too early to tell what effect the virus would have on demand.
“I think it’s [possibly] one thing where people are looking at what’s happening and stocks and going, geez, we’ve got to dump all that money in property, which is what happened during some of the more difficult times in recent history,” he said.
“It may slow down things like, you know, approvals and finances and things like that a little bit, depending on people’s individual things.“
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