The Gold Coast: innovation incubator for the real estate development industry?

Abstract

Property development is a volatile industry, reliant upon market demands and environmental conditions. Subject to significant cyclical economic trends, it relies on a high degree of strategisation to retain competitive advantage. It requires constant innovation to the extent that it needs products and services that are explicitly novel both to meet emerging market demands and to foster new markets. While innovation does not always benefit those who engage in property development, it has over time resulted in welcome housing and finance products, greater consumer choice and lower or more resource efficient production costs, not to mention lower prices. Hargroves and Smith (2005) astutely contend that innovation underpins an economically sustainable real estate development industry. The following pages explore innovations in real estate development on the Gold Coast, testing the accuracy of the sense pervading the city’s local history that the Gold Coast sustained a higher concentration of innovations than other cities in Australia and in the region.