Gold Coast approves record 12 high-rise towers in single council quarter

Gold Coast City Council approved 12 high-rise residential towers in a single quarter, the highest quarterly approval figure in the city's history, reflecting extraordinary developer confidence in the Gold Coast residential market and sustained demand from buyers relocating from Sydney and Melbourne.

The towers, ranging from 20 to 52 storeys, are concentrated in the Broadbeach, Surfers Paradise, and Southport precincts, adding a combined 3,840 apartments to the city's residential pipeline. Pre-sale rates on the approved towers averaged 74 per cent before construction starts, well above the industry threshold of 60 per cent typically required by financiers.

Urban Development Institute of Australia Queensland president Nick Chand said the approval rate reflected a development market responding rationally to a severe undersupply of premium residential stock. "The Gold Coast has had strong population growth but constrained supply for three consecutive years. Developers are now catching up, and the council deserves credit for processing these applications efficiently," he said.

Infrastructure coordination has been identified as the key planning challenge in the approvals, with several towers in the Surfers Paradise precinct requiring water and sewer network upgrades before occupation. The council has committed to fast-tracking those infrastructure projects in parallel with construction of the towers, targeting a six-month period between network completion and the first occupations.

The residential pipeline now contains more than 18,000 apartments in various stages of planning and construction, providing inventory across a range of price points from affordable one-bedrooms to luxury penthouses targeting interstate and overseas buyers.

This article was compiled by AI from the sources linked above and screened before publishing. See our editorial standards.