INTERSTATE and offshore buyers have decided the time is right to move back into a 'corrected' Gold Coast luxury housing market, according to Colliers International.
John Natoli, a Surfers Paradise-based Colliers executive who focuses on prestige property, said the buyers are out shopping and spending while their Gold Coast counterparts remain largely on the sidelines.
"It's a repeat of the trend that we saw on the Gold Coast in the 1990s," he said.
"The out-of-towners compared their own prices with those on the Gold Coast and cottoned-on to the value and upside in our market well ahead of the locals. Now, in 2010, it's happening again."
Mr Natoli said interstate buyers became shy of the Gold Coast in the latter stages of the last residential boom because they perceived that the city's upmarket property was dearer than equivalent property in Sydney or Melbourne.
"Now, with the Melbourne and Sydney markets sparking to life and prices rising, they are taking renewed interest in the Gold Coast," he said.
"They are finding that major price corrections for beachfront and riverfront land, as well as top-end apartments, have provided some enticing buying opportunities.
"The corrections are giving them a chance to move into a market that by 2008 had exploded either out of their reach or out of their sense of fair value."
Mr Natoli said beachfront land on Hedges Avenue peaked at more than $18,000 a square metre in the boom.
"The latest sale was at $11,000 a square metre, which represents a near 40 per cent correction," he said.



"Riverfront values have suffered also, falling by 25 to 30 per cent.
"A riverfront Naples Avenue home has just sold for an estimated land value of $4200 a square metre, $1700 a square metre less than the neighbouring property achieved in 2008."
Mr Natoli said interstate buyers had 'seriously switched on' to the opportunities available on the Gold Coast.
"They are diligently doing their research, monitoring what's on the market, and ringing regularly to determine the status of listings.
"We are getting comments such as 'Gee, you guys are offering good value'.
"By contrast, Gold Coasters seem to be sitting on their hands waiting for something to spur them into action."
Mr Natoli said a Colliers International auction campaign in January saw a 75 per cent clearance rate for luxury properties, with prices ranging from $1.4 million to $3.1 million.
He said the buyers, with the exception of one offshore party, were from Brisbane or interstate.
"Gold Coast buyers were noticeably missing in action," he said.
Mr Natoli attributed the reticence of Coast buyers to a lack of confidence.
"Historically, when Gold Coasters decide to move, they develop a herd-like mentality but by then the best buys are all gone," he said.