Nearly $20 million in property sold under the hammer in just five hours at Australia’s biggest auction event on the Gold Coast on Monday. On a picture-perfect hot and sunny day, more than 2000 people turned out to buy and sell and, by 4pm, the ripple of excitement that had kept the atmosphere charged with anticipation, translated to $19 million in sold property.

There was a wide cross-section of real estate on offer, from entry-level apartments to waterfront mansions, and even a multimillion-dollar charter boat. Bidding on the cheapest properties was especially spirited, including a one-bedroom unit at Mantra on View at Surfers Paradise. The crowd gasped as one punter threw out an opening bid of $80,000 but a quick succession of bids saw it sell for $118,000.

Similarly, a generously sized one-bedroom unit at Southport sparked a bidding frenzy when it started at $130,000. After being declared on the market at $190,000, the hammer fell at $195,000. Two rarely available duplex blocks at Burleigh Heads up for grabs in separate auctions were hard-fought over and won by the same buyers, a pair of local developers. Set on a total of 1148 square metres of land in the sought-after Koala Park precinct and directly across the road from Tallebudgera Creek, 6 and 8 Ikkina Road were described as a “developer’s dream”. With one block selling under the hammer for $1.04 million and the other for $925,000. The buyers are considering redeveloping and building new duplexes.

The highest price paid under the hammer was $1.1 million for a three-bedroom apartment at Rivage Royale, in Southport.

The event proceeded expectations and went 30 to 40 per cent better than expected. This year’s buyers were inherently more confident with the state of the Gold Coast market. What happened last year was the market was just switching and not everyone understood what was going on, so there was a bit of hold-back happening.

Twelve months down the track, bidders are more comfortable about the market, prices have come back a bit and this is bringing people back to the market and bring them it did: by 4pm, the clearance rate this was hovering at around 50 per cent. That rate is expected to rise substantially in the coming days as properties in negotiation are finalised.

Interstate buyers were out in force on Sunday, with many of them drawn to the Gold Coast’s steady market. The thing that was missing for a long time on the Gold Coast was stability. The Gold Coast was known for being hot and cold but we are seeing greater stability.

We’ve got quite a strong local economy, a low unemployment rate and people are saying, ‘yeah, I can live here now’. The latest data from Domain’s House Price Report showed house prices on the Gold Coast held strong in 2018, in spite of a declining national market.

It is important people understood the Gold Coast was not suffering from a “post-Commonwealth Games slump” but had slowed down simply due to the normal cycle.