Surfers Paradise 
If you can’t find a home that you like, or even one that you’re willing to renovate then consider buying for the land and demolishing- giving you a clean state to build your dream home.
GOLD Coast homes are crashing down as a wave of demolition rolls through the city.
Some buyers are forking out more than $500,000 for houses only to then call in the bulldozers.
Suburbs including Palm Beach, Southport and Broadbeach Waters have emerged as knockdown hot spots with some smaller demolition businesses run off their feet, flattening up to 20 homes a month.
Among the homes that have come crashing down are ones built in the 1980s, with buyers spending up to $18,000 to clear the way for new luxury homes and duplexes.
Wipeout Demolition owner Tim Hend said he was busy with multiple quotes a day.
He even knocked down two side-by-side Burleigh homes earlier this week.
Mr Hend said Palm Beach was a destruction epicentre where he did seven jobs last month.
He also had five jobs in Southport.
“We’ve been extremely busy. It goes all the way through the Gold Coast,” Mr Hend said.
“We have about 14 or 15 jobs on the go at the moment.
“Most are residential houses and a lot of the houses are fibro bombers.
“The busiest spots at the moment are in Palm Beach and Southport and Broadbeach Waters.
“There are even a few brick houses that aren’t that old coming down for new canal homes.”
Gold Coast Historical Society vice-president Bob Nancarrow said knocking down homes was nothing new for the Glitter Strip.
“This is the Gold Coast — once it gets to about 30 years it’s too old,” he said.
“Very few houses get heritage-listed.
“How much character the houses have is debatable — it comes down to the owners too.”
Wayne Barrett, owner of demolition company Azzy ‘n’ Demo, has been knocking down Coast buildings for about 25 years.
He agreed with Mr Nancarrow and said most older homes across the Gold Coast were beyond repair.
“It’s not like Brisbane,” hge said.
“There are some houses with a bit of character but a lot (on the Coast) are stuffed and they can’t be saved,” he said.
Mr Barrett said much of his work was in Palm Beach and even ritzy waterfront homes were not safe from bulldozers.
“In wealthier areas, people might knock down homes that have only been built in the ’80s,” he said.
McGrath Palm Beach real estate agent Laura Dean said just three years ago the “knockdowns” were worth about $450,000.
Now the median house price was $650,000, surging 12 per cent in the past six months.
About 20 groups attended a recent Palm Beach auction for a two-bedroom, one-bathroom shack which sold for $760,000, with the successful bidder aiming to bulldoze the house immediately.
“People are building duplexes and their selling in the mid to high $700k range,” Ms Dean said.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland boss Antonia Mercorella said land values were often higher than the value of the structure on the land and she had seen a trend of mum-and-dad developers who were focused on small projects.
She said people were also knocking down older homes to build bigger houses which was cheaper than extending the current house.
“The knockdown price is likely to be lower and this is a popular strategy when the basic footprint of the house needs to be repositioned on the block,” Mr Mercorella said.
“We know that our homes are definitely getting bigger and we also know that the average suburban block size is getting smaller.”
Article sourced from Gold Coast Bulletin.
