Ray White’s Gold Coast Auction Experience kicks off 2025

The leading group pressed go on the Queensland property market, officially ushering in a new year for the real estate industry in the state. The auction experience, which saw 66 Gold Coast homes go under the hammer, recorded a 70 per cent preliminary clearance rate.

Buyers were back in action after the holidays with more than 270 registered bidders attending the event in person or tuning in online. There were local buyers eager to start the new year with a property purchase, along with interstate bidders from all across Australia participating in the bidding.

The top sale of the day was 54 Watts Dr, Varsity Lakes (pictured below) which sold for $1.5 million under the hammer through Ray White Robina’s Jon Paul and Pierre Gautron. The property attracted 12 registered bidders and sold to a local buyer for $220,000 above the highest offer during the campaign.

“The buyer lives in the area but they wanted to be on the water,” Mr Paul said.

“We had about 104 groups through during the campaign with a huge range of buyers.

“We had two groups who flew up from Tasmania, one from Griffith in New South Wales, someone from Sydney and even an Australian expat living in Turkey who registered from overseas.”

Ray White Queensland chief auctioneer Gavin Croft (pictured above) oversaw the bidding, taking more than 600 bids over six hours. Mr Croft said buyer appetite was as strong as it was during the peak of the COVID-19 real estate frenzy, five years ago.

“We’ve held several of these Gold Coast in-room events and that was the highest registered bidder volume we’ve seen. It was also the strongest clearance rate since COVID,” Mr Croft said.

“The energy from buyers was as competitive as it was back in 2020 when the south east Queensland real estate market just took off. There was a real, genuine appetite there and a lot of that was from first home buyers.

“They played a big role in the bidding and a lot of entry level stock between that $650,000 to $800,000 mark was really sought after. First home buyers were out in force.

“When we moved up into a higher price range, generally the bidding on a lot of waterfront property was very competitive. Anything on the waterfront or with water views was hotly contested.”