Australian seniors lead the demand for luxury high-rises
Australian seniors lead the demand for luxury high-rises
Baby boomers Down Under are looking skywards for retirement
Affluent senior citizens living in Australia’s Gold Coast are eschewing big, beachfront mansions for relatively more compact but similarly luxurious properties atop the skyline.
Gold Coast Bulletin reports that buyers are willing to shell out AUD1 million (USD761,000) to AUD5 million (USD3.8 million) for these low-maintenance apartments, which sit close to the Australian city’s light rail lines and tram routes.
Older buyers are mostly driving this demand for “skyhomes.” “The people who are picking these up are Baby Boomers who are happy to pay a great price for a great product,” Robert Graham, a real estate agent with Ray White Prestige Gold Coast, told the Bulletin. “They want to move away from big homes to spectacular beachfront properties which have less maintenance costs and that is what driving this change in the market.”
UDIA Gold Coast president Finn Jones thinks the phenomenon mirrors older residents’ penchant for conveniences in an “urbanised environment.” “People want to be out of the suburbs and into places where they can get coffee and live near the light rail,” he said.
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Such homes are sprouting in locations like Main Beach, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach. Many of these units are part of “boutique towers,” buildings typically shorter than 10 storeys but have only one or two units to each floor.
The Gold Coast City Council is in the process of approving or assessing at least five in the city.
“There is clearly a market need for high-quality, well-located unit produce and council has recently approved a number of single-unit-per-floor product,” Gold Coast city councillor Cameron Caldwell said.
Christine and Ronald Champion, a couple who has lived for the past 17 years in apartment blocks, told the Bulletin that skyhomes give them a chance to travel without worrying about their property too much. A few other creature comforts are manifest too. “We have lived in many houses but we couldn’t live with walking up and down stairs now,” Ronald Champion said.
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Source: Property Report