A “tidal wave of buyers” were looking to invest, including cashed-up Baby Boomers, immigrants and families frustrated by spending $500,000 for a block of land in Sydney’s west where they face an hour-and-a-half commute to work.

A recent aerial photograph of Pimpama and its cleared land for estates, on the western side of the M1 looking south to Surfers Paradise. Photo: skyepicsaerialphotography

The latest data on the development industry shows:

• City Planning estimates more than $6 billion of actual buildings on its books which includes mega projects like Jewel, the Pacific Fair upgrade, the Coomera Town Centre and four tower Ruby project.

• The number of building applications so far this year already totals 1469 which compares to 9998 in 2015. Only 3215 were received three years ago.

• 15 major projects are due to the 2018 Commonwealth Games with that infrastructure to costed at $950 million and the event itself expected to inject $2 billion into the local economy.

• Some suburbs like Southport and Ashmore have recorded average median growth in the past 12 months of 11 per cent and 10 per cent with market forecasts suggesting the increases will “continue up to 2018 and beyond”.

• The final quarter of 2015 recorded the highest sales rate for new apartments since mid-2008 with some of this older stock being picked up by buyers.

Council planning committee chairman Cameron Caldwell said he believed the interstate-driven boom was not just about building super towers.

“High rises and land subdivisions (particularly in the north) are seen by southern investors as being important,” he said.

Sydney-based developer William O’Dwyer who, with his Ralan Group is planning the Ruby project at the old Paradise Resort site, admits to being caught up in the positive vibe about the Games.

“The thing that attracted me was obviously the upcoming Commonwealth Games … the ingredients for growth on the Gold Coast are better than they have ever been,” Mr O’Dwyer said.

By Paul Weston and Andrew Potts, Gold Coast Bulletin