Inside the glitzy world of Gold Coast real estate with reality stars and footy players

The heady world of Gold Coast real estate makes for some strange bedfellows.

In the (still) booming GC property market, reality TV stars and ex-footy champs are among thousands of new agents jostling for sales commissions on multi-million dollar beachside homes.

Property values on the Gold Coast surged an incredible 60.7% between July 2019 and 2022, compared to Sydney (34%) and Melbourne (20.6%), with the median property price jumping from $650,000 to $1,080,000 – an increase of $430,000.

Not surprisingly, applications for real estate licences have also exploded.

More than 3000 new real estate licenses have been issued in Queensland since October 2019 – almost half of those on the Gold Coast.

Amongst those are former GWS Giants forward Jonathan Patton who walked away form AFL back in April last year to take up a position with high-end Broadbeach agency Kollosche.   

Six months in and Patton inked his first major sale – a $4.51m four-bedroom Miami home which sold for a staggering $1.3m above the reserve.

He also works alongside ex-Love Island contestant-turned-estate agent Eoghan Murphy who can often be seen hosting open houses along Mermaid Beach’s prized beachfront. 

Married At First Sight alumni Jake Edwards also relocated to the Gold Coast in mid-2021, setting up a buyer’s agent business amongst the maelstrom of a multi-million dollar selling frenzy.

‘My first 12 months…there has been so much growth so in terms of that new business period I think we have timed it pretty well,’ says Edwards, who admits his MAFS pedigree can make for the occasional ‘ice breaker’.

 ‘I certainly don’t lean on (MAFS fame) but it can be a conversation starter for sure. But the way the market is on the Gold Coast there is so much going on there’s plenty to talk about.’ 

While the pandemic sent property prices skyrocketing across Australia, few markets have been quite so dizzying as the Gold Coast.  

Since early 2020, stories of mind-boggling sales figures have become daily conversation staple on the Gold Coast where real estate generally dominates dinner party chit-chat.

A few stories have stood out: There was the record-breaking sale of a luxury Surfers Paradise penthouse atop the Soul building. Initially purchased for $8million, the pad was flipped during lockdown for $15.25 making it the most expensive apartment sale in Queensland last year.

Veteran Gold Coast realtor Luke Henderson recalls the moment not long after mask mandates were first introduced back in March 2020 when it became clear something special was happening in the market.

Henderson’s dad John opened the Professionals realty in Mermaid Beach in 1973 and Luke himself had more than 20 years under his belt. 

But even with his yearly average of $100million in sales and a string of awards recognising him as one the nation’s top selling agents, Henderson admits he still wasn’t quite prepared for what was to come.

‘I remember I had this deceased estate in Mermaid Waters where the roof had fallen in and there was significant water damage through the whole place,’ Henderson told Daily Mail Australia.

 ‘The carpet was all ripped up and basically it was a shell with half a roof on it.

‘And I looked at it and initially I was thinking; ‘Gee how are we gonna sell this?’

‘But when we opened it up to auction registrations, of all the auctions we had had in the past two years, we had more registrations for this out of maybe 150 others.

‘We also had the most number of bids higher than the reserve than any other auction.

‘We held the auction in a cul-de-sac and anded up having to block the street off the crowd was that enormous. I have never seen anything like it.

‘That’s when I realised; ‘Wow. People are just buying anything…warts and all.’

The shell with no roof, which had coincidentally last sold in 1988 for $232,000, ultimately sold for $1.5million. 

Based on the prices that have followed in the two years since – it was a bargain.

Lleyton Hewitt’s purchase of a luxury home in Burleigh Waters also attracted local interest – not least because the former Wimbledon champ relocated from his beloved Toorak for a sea change on the Gold Coast.

The Aussie Davis Cup captain paid $4.3million for the home, almost $1million more than the previous owner paid just four months prior.

Then there is the sale of one of the iconic beachfront mansion – 159 Hedges Avenue – sold by tech billionaire Chris Morris for $21million – a $6million profit on his original purchase price just over a year earlier.

Harcourts Coastal Group realty director Dane Atherton, who handled Hewitt’s Burleigh purchase, said the surge in demand since early 2020 could be directly traced to interstate lockdowns.

‘Every time there was a lockdown in Sydney and Melbourne our phones would just go crazy,’ Atherton told Daily Mail Australia.

‘And probably one of the biggest surprises for me was seeing these ‘sight unseen’ transactions.

‘Going back two years, selling a property sight unseen was virtually unheard of but during Covid I would say they accounted for one in two sales.

‘One of them was a $5million home in Sorrento which the buyer inspected over Facetime.’

As for the Gold Coast’s future as the country’s foremost real estate hotbed, Core Logic’s head researcher Eliza Owen admits it is holding strong despite significant market dips elsewhere.

‘I’m not saying the Gold Coast is immune to what is happening elsewhere, in terms of reflecting the changes in interest rates,’ Owen tells Daily Mail Australia.

‘But it is an area which does seem to have a long tailwind.

‘It is still the main destination for internal migration.

‘And I think when we start to see more of the international borders opening up I think the Gold Coast again will be the focus of another wave of growth that you might not necessarily see in other places.

‘That all points to a positive outcome.’