‘Gone straight away’: all cashed up and nowhere to buy

Digital professional Taryn Elder, 38, moved to the Gold Coast from Melbourne six months ago for work and cannot find a place to buy in the tight housing market. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Interstate migrants may find housing markets a shock when they cross borders, with record price levels beginning to lock out even cashed up buyers.

Digital content specialist Taryn Elder is in homebuyer limbo after having sold in Victoria to move to the Gold Coast for a new job – and counts herself lucky to be able to rent in a sharehouse given the shock of coastal home prices that are “more like Sydney” than Melbourne.

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Ms Elder counts herself lucky to have been able to find a sharehouse to rent in at Tugun, saying the lifestyle is a major drawcard. Picture: Glenn Campbell

“When I got the job offer, I started doing some inquiries and saw that it was a pretty competitive market,” she said, then went on to discover just how bad the housing supply situation really was on the ground. “A lot of listings would be on there and they’d be gone straight away.”

“I definitely would love to live (in my own home) but whether that’s reality, I’m not sure,”

Little Real Estate executive GM of property services Anne Crarey said low supply and high demand particularly in family-friendly areas like Coomera and Pimpama were driving up prices, while beach suburbs like Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach were seeing prices remain high across the board.

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Taryn Elder, 38, has now decided to “sit tight” in a rental while she builds up an even bigger deposit to buy property. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Ms Elder said a home in Brisbane might be more in her price range now, hoping to not stay out of property ownership for too long having sold in Victoria.

“I’m actually looking at Brisbane as a potential place to buy. I see potential there.”

“The Gold Coast is quite expensive in terms of buying property,” Ms Elder said. “I’m looking at when and where can I buy.”

Latest PropTrack figures show Brisbane’s median house price of $910,000 continues to sit below that of the Gold Coast ($1.21m) despite massive surges in price since the pandemic.

Ms Elder said “I will sit tight for now (in a rental sharehouse). A lot of friends that have moved up from Victoria have actually had to move to suburbs that are away from the coast, in the more inland regions which are more affordable than the rest – especially those who want houses.”

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Members of Tugun SLSC enjoying Australia Day 2025 on the Gold Coast where suburbs up and down the coastline are at record price levels. Picture: Glenn Campbell

“It was really quite hard to even attempt to get a house up here so I decided to make the call, one due to cost, and two, due to the logistics, to potentially move in with someone else who was based up here”.

Ms Elder considered herself lucky to be sharehousing now in a two bedder at $900 a week with someone who also travels a lot for work as she does – cutting down accommodation costs, allowing her to build savings for a housing deposit and giving them space close to the beach in Tugun.

“I love it here. I love the people and the way of life. I just had to adjust my expectations (for having her own place).”

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