A $10 million off-the-plan sale at One Redcliffe captures two forces shaping Queensland’s apartment market: downsizers are choosing more compact homes, and demand is spreading beyond Brisbane’s inner city. Gardner Vaughan Group director Sam Gardner says buyers increasingly want to shed house maintenance while keeping their ties to familiar suburbs.
The Redcliffe buyer was returning to the area after living in Newstead and purchased about 600 square metres across two titles in the development. Most buyers, however, are looking for considerably less space.
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Gardner Vaughan Group has sold a unit in its One Redcliffe project off-the-plan for $10m.
Downsizers are trimming the floor plan
GVG’s preferred downsizer apartment has contracted over four years. The most popular option was once a four-bedroom home of about 160 square metres. Two years ago, demand had shifted to three bedrooms and roughly 140 square metres; now, Gardner puts the sweet spot at three bedrooms and about 120 square metres.
He describes this as downsizers becoming more considered about how they use rooms. Extra bedrooms initially seemed useful for guests, grandchildren, a study or storage, but those needs often proved occasional or could be met with less space.
“The initial thought was second bedroom for guests, third for grandkids, fourth for a study,” Gardner said. “In reality, guests don’t stay, grandkids visit a few times a year including Christmas and, when it comes to study and storage, we can make it smaller — you don’t need a whole bedroom.”
Sam Gardner of Gardner Vaughan Group.
Coastal centres draw local buyers
The shift reflects more than the cost of detached housing. Many older owners want to stay near friends, shops and familiar services while giving up the upkeep of a large home. “We don’t think people want to move out of the area they grew up in,” Gardner said, describing the value of downsizing without leaving a community.
That preference is supporting apartment demand in established centres beyond Brisbane. Gardner points to Redcliffe in Moreton Bay, along with Mooloolaba and Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast, where transport, retail and other services are already in place.
Ocean views from one of the apartments in One Redcliffe, Gardner Vaughan Group.
At One Redcliffe, GVG has signed two further expressions of interest at prices about 25 per cent above equivalent values from two years earlier, Gardner said. Enquiry strengthened in September after a softer stretch for the broader market. “There’s absolutely still activity,” he said. “Maybe spring is in the air, but we’re seeing it come back stronger in September.”
For many downsizers, the appeal is practical as well as local: fewer weekends spent on pools and gardens, with more time for travel and leisure. Gardner expects intergenerational wealth transfers over the next 20 years to add another dimension, as some families help adult children buy homes or acquire apartments.
The pool in One Redcliffe by Gardner Vaughan Group.
Supply depends on what stacks up
Meeting that demand remains a development challenge. Gardner says project economics often favour larger, higher-priced apartments over one- and two-bedroom homes. In some inner-city locations, that can mean only a handful of large residences per floor, despite capacity for many more homes.
“What a waste of opportunity here. You could have put 100 units on there,” he said of one such site, adding that the stronger commercial return from larger residences helps explain the outcome.
GVG includes one- and two-bedroom apartments in its projects, Gardner said, and these homes can help developments reach the presale thresholds needed for funding. His broader point is that Queensland’s housing mix will need to accommodate more apartment living as buyers seek manageable homes in established communities. The demand is visible; the question for the market is whether project economics can deliver enough homes at the sizes buyers increasingly want.