The Sunshine Coast office market is the hottest in Queensland, according to a CBRE report, as the region grapples with the growing pains of a booming population.
Vacancy rates dropped from 21.9 per cent in 2019 to 13.2 per cent in July, 2021, as more people moved to the regions in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the CBRE report, the expansion of the medical precinct at Birtinya has partly driven the uptake of office space while the Sunshine Coast is also one of the biggest breeding grounds for start-ups nationally.
The Sunshine Coast economy has grown 3.5 per cent each year since 2015 and is forecast to reach $33 billion in 2033, with the new Maroochydore CBD forecast to provide 15,000 jobs and inject $4.4 billion into the economy over the project’s 20-year timeframe.
Sunshine Coast is currently home to 350,000 people and is feeling the pinch of land supply constraints and a booming residential market.
The region has the smallest lot sizes in south-east Queensland and the most expensive land, excluding Brisbane City, according to property researcher Terry Ryder.
The population is forecast to grow to 580,000 by 2041, which would require more than 70,000 new dwellings to be built, which Directive Collective claimed amounted to one new suburb every year.
CBRE Sunshine Coast managing director Rem Rafter said the past 18 months had provided “huge opportunities” for the Sunshine Coast.
Sunshine Coast infrastructure pipeline ($million)
^Source: Deloitte Access Economics
The property market has been the strongest performer in Queensland during the past two years, banking 7.7 per cent growth in median house prices now valued at $630,000.
“We have seen an increasing number of people moving to the region from interstate and other areas of Queensland, and there has been unprecedented government and private investment in infrastructure on the Sunshine Coast,” Rafter said.
“While the Coast’s economy was once reliant on tourism and construction, it has evolved into a modern, smart economy.”
Knowledge-based jobs and healthcare have helped bolster the economy with a further 23,000 jobs added to the Sunshine Coast during the past five years.
Rafter said low supply of freehold industrial property had fuelled “unprecedented prices” that were now at a 15-year peak, while the retail sector was bouncing back from pandemic-induced lows.
About $1.4bn in infrastructure projects are under way on the Sunshine Coast including the Maroochydore City Centre, the Sunshine Coast Health Precinct, a new business and technology precinct, a Bruce Highway upgrade and the expansion of the Sunshine Coast Airport.
