Surfers Paradise is a popular tourist destination and perfect for those night owls who are looking to party until the early hours of the morning. Surfers Paradise is the crown jewel of the Gold Coast, and its shores are lined with some of Australia’s tallest building, including Q1 Resort. Its beaches are famous for the golden sand and perfect waves.
There are changes coming to property law in Queensland from 1 August 2025 with the introduction of new requirements upon the seller of property when it comes to what disclosure they must make to a potential buyer, and what documentation they must provide before a contract of sale is entered into.
Helensvale is a well-connected suburb located on the northern end of the Gold Coast, with excellent public transport links to the coast’s beachside suburbs, as well as north to Brisbane. It is connected by the G:link Gold Coast Light Rail, as well as the train, and direct access to the M1 Motorway, so you can easily access the beaches or the city.
Hope Island is one of the Gold Coast’s most exclusive suburbs. Home to an enclave of exclusive housing estates, such as Sanctuary Cove and Hope Island Resort, with several world class golf courses meandering in between.
So you’ve spent countless weekends scouring the suburbs of Brisbane, or the Gold Coast for that perfect property and you think you’ve finally found ‘the one’ and are ready to put in an offer and sign a contract of sale. It’s right about now that you need to tap the brakes every so slightly. There’s no point rushing in and signing your name, as the entire conveyancing process will be dictated by this contract, so you want to make sure you’ve got it right before signing.
When you purchase a property in Queensland your solicitor is required to carry out a number of searches on the property as part of the conveyancing process in order to prepare for settlement and to ensure that the property you are purchasing is free of encumbrances and defects and is as described on the contract of sale.
The conveyancing process in Queensland varies significantly depending on whether you are buying or selling a property. The sale process is much simpler than the purchase process, which is why your conveyancing solicitor charges much less, however there are still important steps to follow and complete as part of the sale process.
If you are looking to purchase a property on the Gold Coast, or in Brisbane, the first thing you will do after finding a property you’d like to purchase is to make an offer to the seller. In Queensland this is done by way of signing a contract of sale containing your offer and providing this to the seller for their consideration. The real estate agent will in most cases act as the intermediary in this process, delivering your offer to the seller.
As part of the conveyancing process your solicitor will calculate a settlement amount, which is the amount the buyer must pay for the property at settlement, taking into account adjustments for things such as, rates, water charges and body corporate fees. Your solicitor will provide you with a settlement statement prior to settlement that details how the settlement amount has been calculated.
As a specialist property law and conveyancing law firm we deal with a lot of buyers, some who are experienced investors, whilst many are new to the property market and very unsure about the process. Our job is to make the buying process as easy as possible for you, so we thought we’d put together a few tips on making an offer on a property.
We’ve written before about the different searches a solicitor will undertake as part of the conveyancing process when you purchase a property. One of these searches that must be undertaken as part of the process is a land tax clearance search. If you are taking out a mortgage to finance your purchase your mortgagee will require this prior to settlement, but in most cases your solicitor will undertake this search even if you are not taking out a mortgage in order to avoid you taking on a land tax liability.
You only have to open a newspaper, turn on the TV, or do a quick Google search to see the latest news on the growth of property prices along the east coast. While Sydney is grabbing the headlines, more recently the Gold Coast has streaked ahead, with a huge growth in prices being attributed to the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
