Gold Coast unit sales defied the national downturn in the first half of 2026, with sales higher than they were a year earlier.
New data released by property consulting firm Urbis analyses the market in the first half of 2026 and found there were 644 sales, up from 576 in 2025.
Nearly 60 per cent of sales in the second quarter of the year were localised around the central region of the city, with Urbis senior consultant Lynda Campbell said the Gold Coast market’s resilience was “encouraging”.
“The combination of sustained sales, rising average prices and continued project launches points to a market that remains resilient despite broader economic and policy headwinds,” she said.
“The broader figures are encouraging and to see more than 300 sales in both the first and second quarters, despite all the uncertainty around tax changes, demonstrates that underlying demand remains very strong.
“Buyers are clearly continuing to make decisions based on the quality of the project, location and long-term appeal rather than being paralysed by broader economic headlines.”
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- According to the data:
- There were 326 sales in the first three months of the year, with a further 318 in the June quarter.
- Around 58 per cent of all sales were in the central region of the city, which includes Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and Southport
- The weighted average sale price during the second quarter of the year was $2.6m, up from $2.2m in the first three months of 2026.
- The average sale price on the southern Gold Coast, where new unit stock remains at a premium was significantly higher, coming in at $4.874m, the highest in the city for three consecutive quarters.
- There are now 97 developments underway on the Gold Coast, a record, with 14 launching in the first quarter, followed by eight in the second.
- The highest-selling development in the second quarter was the $240m Eveleigh which is being built by Melbourne-based developer Hirsch and Faigen, the company’s fourth residential project in the city since the beginning of the decade.
It comes amid a shortage of units to meet the population growth, with around 15,000 people moving to the city annually.
According to state government housing targets set out by the South East Queensland Regional Plan, the Gold Coast must deliver around 5643 attached dwellings annually from 2021 to 2031, and 5924 annually from 2031 to 2046.
However, Property Council state executive director Jess Caire last year warned there was “significant doubt” over the Gold Coast’s ability to meet those targets, with less than a third of those required houses actually built annually since 2019.
A recent council report on its Local Growth Management Strategy, its 20-year vision for the future, said the number of new houses built annually must hit 9000 in order to catch up to the state targets.
While more than 4000 houses were approved in 2024-25, many of those will not be built immediately, or at all.
Originally Published in the Gold Coast Bulletin. View online article HERE.