How the Newcastle and Gold Coast off the plan apartment markets are performing: Five minutes with Urban Activation's Matt George

Not many project marketers cover as much of the country as Urban Activation.

The Melbourne-based company is currently marketing projects in Newcastle and Orange in New South Wales, as well as Vista in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. 

They've recently sold down all of Melbourne developer Hirsch & Faigen's Gold Coast projects; Hemingway at Palm Beach, Yves at Mermaid Beach, and Emerson at Kirra, the latter of which has just the $10 million penthouse remaining.

With everything going on at Urban Activation, we caught up with director Matt George to talk about the off the plan apartment market nationally.

George says the key to successful sales at the moment is confidence in the builder and developer.

Talking about the Gold Coast, George suggest buyers don't want to be sitting on their hands if they're looking.

"Every single project we're working on up there we're doing sales every single day out of each project," George says.

"[In the Gold Coast] you're dealing on a national basis, so there's a lot of competition from people who are investing, downsizing, or upsizing."

George says there's regular price increases due to the amount of demand that's coming through.

"We find that buyers really take a backward step when they come back three or four months later and realise that due to the cost of construction and the sales volume that's come through, the price has increased. I can assure you, up there at the moment, the initial offering of pricing is very very competitive and it will keep going north."

George suggests buyers need to understand the broad range of products in the Gold Coast and find out what their needs are, what their budget is, and move very quickly.

He says the demand is equally strong in Newcastle, however that's a more insular market.

"Of course you get interest from Sydney, but there's not the same interstate investment like on the Gold Coast. It's a local market, it's a lot of upsizers and upgraders from what they've previously purchased."