Now that the Queensland election is now out of the way and our Queensland borders are slowly opening, there is a pretty strong basis to start 2021 off with a bang.

In fact, in the recent Queensland COVID-19 Fiscal and Economic Review, there are some strong predictions ahead. Queensland Gross State Product will grow by 3.75 per cent in the calendar year 2021, mining is strong, and tourism seems to be well-positioned to make a steady recovery.

As Victoria and NSW are coming out of lockdown, we expect tourists will be free to travel to Queensland from December onwards. Queensland also continues to record better economic activity than our fellow states.

As we know, the real estate market has been insulated thanks to a wide range of monetary and fiscal policy during COVID-19.  The biggest question to ask is what is going to happen when all that government support stops?

It’s obvious that after March 2021, there will be some negative pressure on property prices, and it will be quite different in various parts of the country. Also, it’s highly likely that the trend we see at present of many people moving from the southern states to Queensland will continue for some time to come because of the perception that Queensland is a safer state to live in as well as a better economic future with more prospects.

Looking at real estate, we see Core Logic has just released their latest data on national property values which shows the biggest state, New South Wales, saw property values fall by 0.6 per cent, Melbourne alone fell by 2.2 per cent, yet Brisbane rose by 0.9%. This was for the three months to October 2020. Both the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast are reporting growth up to 25 per cent in certain locations.

In the past, the state of Queensland seemed to have been one of the worst-hit in a downturn. However, in such a positive climate, I firmly believe that this time around we will actually be the strongest property market in Australia over the next couple of years. Although there is no evidence of a real boom yet, the recovery thus far has been heading in a positive direction.

This year’s holiday season through December 2020 and into the early months of 2021 will be one of the most outstanding in the Gold Coast property market. We have already listed some fantastic properties that have attracted huge interest from interstate and overseas buyers. Some properties have sold “off-market” for record prices due to the high demand from interstate and local buyers.

It’s great to see the results we are achieving for our sellers at present in this busy marketplace. It may not last forever so anyone who is considering selling should capitalise on this busy time of the year.