Gold Coast Apartment Slump… Body Corporate fee Rises to Blame
”Unconditional sales volumes of new apartments have continued to be miserable for the region since the beginning of 2010, averaging only 57 sales a quarter,” according to Millwood Report author Bill Morris.
The latest Millwood Report released this week said 49 unconditional sales of highrise apartments were recorded in the three months to the end of August – down from 51 sales three months earlier and compared with 74 a year ago.
Mr Morris blamed price volatility in the wake of a spate of receiverships along with escalating body corporate fees and depreciating unit values.
Mr Morris said the body corporate fee problem was more acute in older buildings but the failure of bodies corporate to allocate enough in sinking funds to meet maintenance issues was swaying potential buyers away from apartments generally.
The level of available highrise stock also dropped, with 618 new apartments remaining for sale the lowest in nine years.
The picture for medium and low-rise apartments was even worse, with 24 and six unconditional sales recorded respectively in the three months to the end of August.
”This is a dismal result given that there are 611 new apartments currently for sale in medium-rise projects and 159 new apartments in low-rise projects,” Mr Morris wrote.
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