By Meighan Hetherington of Property Pursuit www.propertypursuit.com.au

Let's look at property on the Gold Coast and Northern New South Wales. The Gold Coast provides a strong alternative to Brisbane for Queensland property investors and is a long favoured lifestyle choice for home owners. In the five years to March 2007, Gold Coast unit and townhouse median sale prices have increased by over 88% (REIQ) and of those over 50% are some form of unit, duplex, townhouse or high rise.

Many industry analysts are bullish about certain pockets throughout the Gold Coast. Michael Matusik cites the Gold Coast as a stand out beneficiary from the current State and Federal Government infrastructure projects. He notes that access to beaches remains a strong driver. "You have the Tugun Bypass influencing the southern part of the Gold Coast as well as the airport upgrade. There are both major infrastructure developments and therefore will have impact on local real estate markets."

Terry Ryder goes a step further in identifying Tugun / Bilinga as ‘hot spots' with the Tugun Bypass due for completion in mid 2008 (six months ahead of schedule). Gold Coast property analyst Bill Morris of the Midwood Queensland Investment Report, says "Its main objective is to relieve traffic in Tugun. It's going to improve the flow of traffic and it's probably going to improve property values along the Gold Coast Highway, because it won't be so congested. It will take that Tugun/Bilinga precinct back to being the beach village that it's supposed to be. It will return it to its former glory days of being a quiet little place to have a holiday-instead of being a major highway"

Gold Coast valuer Garrie Love of CB Richard Ellis says "the real estate industry on the southern Gold Coast and northern NSW is a buzz with discussion of the impact of the bypass." "Everyone is talking about it." Northern NSW is set to benefit greatly from the opening of the Tugun bypass - therefore areas such as Pottsville, Kingscliff, Murwillumbah, Ocean Shores, Byron Bay and Lismore are set to undergo major changes due to the closer proximity to travel to the Gold Coast.  Amazingly once the bypass is completed it is expected there will be no traffic lights between Byron Bay and the Brisbane CBD!

The Gold Coast Airport is also under going a major upgrade, the future Robina-Gold Coast Airport rail line proposed to open in 2015, Southern Cross University is spending $20 million to build a new campus near the Gold Coast Airport and will have its first intake of students in 2009.

The Gold Coast alone has grown by an average of approximately 14,000 residents per year over the past 3 years. There is need to create approximately 5,100 new dwellings each year or 97 new dwellings per week on the Gold Coast to satisfy the growth in population. The Gold Coast population is projected to reach 573,925 by 2011, 637,986 by 2016 and 700,404 by 2021 (PRD Research).

So now is a good time to consider the Gold Coast and Northern New South Wales for your next purchase.