The Gold Coast Highway has become one of the most contested stretches of commercial property on the coast, with investors and developers increasingly competing for the same sites. 

Kollosche Commercial’s Adam and Tony Grbcic have sold and settled more than $85 million worth of commercial and development assets along the highway over the past five years, with Adam saying that demand had only grown stronger over time. 

“We are seeing two very different buyers chase opportunities,” he said. “Investors want secure income and long-term growth. Developers want land they can build on. The highway delivers what both are after.” 

Mr Grbcic said underpinning the highway’s broad appeal was population growth. The Gold Coast continues to attract many new residents, and much of that demand is focused on the beachside suburbs between Surfers Paradise and Palm Beach. 

Critically, it is a market defined by constraints. With the coastline to the east, established suburbs to the west, and minimal developable greenfield land remaining, new housing supply has had nowhere to go but up.  

Growth has therefore been delivered mostly through higher-density infill development within already established precincts, which concentrates population rather than dispersing it. 

“High-rises change the make-up of a suburb,” Mr Grbcic said. “Palm Beach is a good example. In the ten years to the 2021 Census, its population rose 17 per cent to accommodate 16,000 residents, apartments grew to become almost 40 per cent of homes, and median household incomes climbed about 80 per cent.” 

More residents with more to spend, living within walking distance of shops and cafés, has activated entirely new retail and commercial precincts along the corridor over the past ten years, including The Oxley 1823 at Nobbys Beach and the former Mermaid Beach Shopping Village, sold by Kollosche Commercial for $26,000,000, which is currently being turned into a residential and lifestyle hub. 

These gentrified precincts, Mr Grbcic said, support stronger tenants and higher rents, which in turn lifts what properties are worth.  

The completion of Stage 3 of the Light Rail has added a second source of demand. Since the first stage opened in 2014, the line has been extended north to Helensvale and this year south to Burleigh Heads, with further extensions not fully off the table. 

“Sites along the line now get passing cars and people on foot, which is a big plus for retail tenants,” Mr Grbcic said. 

For developers, the bigger benefit has come through planning. Sites close to the light rail have been allowed to provide fewer car parks and have been given more flexibility on height and density. 

“Every car park you don’t have to build underground is money back in the project, and every extra floor equals more apartments to sell,” he said. 

Research by Griffith University found that properties within 800m of light rail stations rose in value by more than 30 per cent over the period studied, with much of that gain coming before the trams started running. 

“The market moves early on these corridors,” Mr Grbcic said. “Buyers who get in ahead of the next stage tend to do best.” 

Set to test the depth of buyer demand along the city’s most sought-after commercial strip is 2791 Gold Coast Highway, Broadbeach. 

Open to expressions of interest through Kollosche’s Commercial team, the 1,681sqm parcel is a prominent site on the beach side of the highway with Florida Gardens Light Rail station less than 300m away. 

Anchored by a four-shop retail building, currently leased to Cellarbrations, O’Bagel, and Noodle Box, the property will return about $134,220 a year in net income once fully leased. The land is zoned High Density Residential with no height limit, and each lease includes a demolition clause. 

“It pays its way today, and the zoning gives the next owner a clear path to something much bigger when the timing is right,” Mr Grbcic said. 

He said with highway frontage in fixed supply, it underpinned the listing’s long-term value. 

“You can’t make more of it,” he said. “As the city keeps growing around the highway, a well-chosen site on it is one of the safest long-term holdings on the coast.”  

Click here for more on the latest Gold Coast Highway opportunity.