Which streets command the highest prices in Noosa, and which pockets could buyers be overlooking?

Reed & Co. Founder and Director Adrian Reed joins The Property Baron’s On the Ground podcast to share his perspective on the Noosa property market, from the locations commanding premium prices to the pockets presenting opportunity for buyers.

Drawing on his experience across the Noosa market, Adrian discusses the properties, buyer behaviour and market movements he is seeing firsthand, and what they reveal about the current state of Noosa real estate.

Click here to watch the full conversation.

Or explore the highlights from the conversation below..

On the Ground with Adrian Reed: Inside the Noosa Property Market

Reed & Co. Founder and Director Adrian Reed recently joined Jason Barron on Property Baron’s On the Ground podcast for a conversation spanning his connection to Noosa, the evolution of the local property market, waterfront living and the areas he believes deserve a closer look.

Born and raised in Noosa, Adrian’s knowledge of the area extends well beyond his career in real estate. From growing up around the river to watching Noosa Waters develop from its earliest days, his perspective is grounded in a lifetime spent in the region.

Here are some of the highlights from their conversation.

You were born and raised in Noosa. What led you into real estate?

Adrian: I was born and bred in Noosa. My father was born here, my mother lived here her whole life and my grandfather was a fisherman here, so Noosa through and through.

I was very lucky and blessed to grow up here. I was a bit of a free-range kid in Noosa, living a river and surf life, and really enjoyed it.

My father was a real estate agent growing up, so I had quite a lot of exposure to the game and a lot of learning through osmosis. I always wanted to do it, but maybe I just wasn’t sure whether that was the right path for me.

I ended up doing a double degree in marketing and international business and started in fast-moving consumer goods. I worked for Kellogg’s for a decade and Carlton United Breweries for five years.

Through all the moves we did, we bought, renovated and sold houses over that same period of time. I always loved it — loved the game and loved the opportunity around it. It was really a natural intersection at that point.

We wanted to start a family, and it was an opportunity to move back to Noosa. We had some property there that we wanted to develop, so we took the plunge, walked away from that corporate career path and took a lunge into real estate.

I started in Noosa, went from a standing start to one of the top agents in three years, and then embarked on launching Reed & Co., which has been here eight years now.

You have a particular connection to waterfront property. Where does that come from?

Adrian: I do love waterfront. I grew up on the water, and I think for anyone who is thinking about their career in property, or where they want to be an expert and focus their efforts, when you’ve got a genuine connection to something, it just comes naturally.

For me, I live on the waterfront in Noosa Waters. I grew up on the Sound and lived there for 20 years in Cooran Court.

I’ve lived around the river my whole life, through childhood and my adult life, and it provides a pretty awesome lifestyle.

For me, it’s a little bit about sharing that with people and helping people make great decisions when they’re looking at that lifestyle.

How do Noosa Sound and Noosa Waters compare?

Adrian: There are two areas in Noosa where you can live on the waterfront. Really, Noosa Sound and Noosa Waters would be the most logical two places. There is the North Shore as well, but there are fewer homes there.

There are about 450 waterfront houses in Noosa Waters and 150-odd in Noosa Sound. They’re slightly different markets, but they do have a tendency of running in correlated growth and performance.

They’re both really tight markets. The average time held in Noosa Waters is about 10 years. The average time held in Noosa Sound is probably more like 11 or 12.

Forty per cent of houses in Noosa Sound have been held for more than 20 years. It’s a very tight market.

What are the most important things buyers should consider when looking at Noosa waterfront property?

Adrian: I think there’s a hierarchy that exists in Noosa Sound, and there’s a hierarchy in Noosa Waters as well.

The hierarchy in Noosa Sound is largely defined by very few north-frontage or north-facing orientations with natural outlooks, and Noosa Parade probably carries the king of the streets.

If you’re close to Hastings Street on Noosa Parade, land value will climb to north of $15 million per block. Then if you go to Witta Circle, which is the next closest to Hastings Street, there are certainly some wonderful outlooks there, whether you’re looking east into Lions Park or south back along the natural riverbank.

As you move further away from Hastings Street, the price does diminish a little bit, although that variation has tightened over time.

It really depends on what you’re trying to achieve out of a lifestyle. If you’re going to winter in the home, northern orientation becomes a little bit more important. If you’re looking for more privacy, a natural outlook to the riverbank is definitely of value.

Long views closer to the river entrance, if you’re in a canal, obviously add value. Wider waterfronts add value and, where possible, northern orientation adds value.

There’s definitely a matrix around understanding exactly where fair market value lies in Noosa Sound.

Does the same thinking apply to Noosa Waters?

Adrian: That exact same framework or theory exists for Noosa Waters as well.

A fair to good block of land is around $4 million. There have been homes that have been purchased and knocked down where they’ve paid $6 million for them.

You can see a north block on a road that carries a little bit more traffic probably in the low fours. But then if you took that to one of the best streets, with a nice outlook on a larger block, you could see up to $6 million in land value and everything in between.

There are definitely more prestigious streets from a market perspective, but the reality is that Noosa Waters is interesting because it was developed in the early nineties.

You actually remember Noosa Waters before much of it was developed. What was it like?

Adrian: When the initial homes were released in the early nineties, they were sold for not much more than $100,000. The houses that were built were pretty humble.

It was a pretty gutsy move in 1992 to go and buy a block in Noosa Waters. The lock wasn’t built. The canal wasn’t full. It was a hope and a dream that the developer would actually come good on completing it.

I used to ride my pushbike almost directly over the top of where my own house is. It was a little sandy track and melaleuca paperbarks, and we used to ride our bikes through there to get to school.

It was a different time.

By the time they released the blocks of land on the eastern side, like The Anchorage and The Promontory, those blocks were selling for nearly $1 million or more, depending on the block.

There were properties that were bought and amalgamated into multiple blocks and really significant homes built at that time in the early 2000s. There was wonderful architecture and wonderful architects and builders involved in some of those homes.

The Anchorage and The Promontory have traditionally been regarded as two of the premium streets. Do you see that changing?

Adrian: The Anchorage and The Promontory are widely regarded as the most prestigious two streets.

But it’s almost a function of time. Those two streets were the last streets developed, therefore they had more significant architecture and bigger homes.

What’s uniquely different now is that, over time, if you’re looking to develop a new home, buy a house, knock it down and build, you’re probably looking in some of these older areas, like Mermaid Quay, Seamount Quay and The Peninsula.

When you look around those streets now, that’s where a lot of the brand-new houses are being built.

With some vision, in 10 years’ time Mermaid Quay is probably going to be the most prestigious street in Noosa Waters because they carry the opportunity to knock down their houses and build these brand-new homes.

There are some really awesome builds going on there at the moment.

Is there a pocket of Noosa you think buyers may be overlooking?

Adrian: An area that I really like, always have liked, and I think is probably not fully understood by most is a little pocket that’s close to the yacht club down on Noosa River.

It’s Laburnum, Cloudsley and Janet Street.

In that Noosa River precinct — Elizabeth Street, James Street and all of those streets that are close to Gympie Terrace — there’s a lot of medium-density zoning, a lot of duplexes and units, and that attracts a lot of short-term holiday letting and a lot of urban intensity.

A lot of people have a desire to downsize or stay close to the river and get engaged in that precinct, but you also have to buy and live in an area that’s quite dense.

What I’m noticing now is that in Laburnum, Janet and Cloudsley, which is low density, you can’t build medium-density duplexes in there and you can’t short-term holiday let.

It’s becoming a really highly desirable place if you want to be close to the river and walking distance to everything, but you don’t want to be in a medium-density environment.

Long term, I’m long on Laburnum, Janet and Cloudsley. I think they’re currently undervalued.

There have been fives and sixes in there so far, but I think long term, as people fully develop it and some of the old original river cottages go and new homes get developed, you’ll see really good architecture going in there.

How do you think Noosa itself has changed as a property market?

Adrian: Noosa has definitely matured as a market, and I think it’s much more owner-occupier dominant.

It’s got limited investment inventory, certainly in houses, probably a little bit more in units and holiday units.

If you looked at the percentage of owner-occupiers, we’ve been massively over-indexed, making us quite a robust market.

It’s certainly proving to be that.

When you look at a slightly tougher market environment now, the demonstration of resilience in our market surprised me.

I was expecting a little bit more downward trajectory on price and a little more vacuous market, but we’re seeing a really steady, methodical, cautious but motivated buyer base that still wants to engage in the marketplace and transact.

Where do you see the Noosa market heading in 2027?

Adrian: It could be really interesting.

I think there’s definitely some uncertainty. I think we’ll be in a relatively high interest-rate environment and certainly a level of uncertainty around the economy and some of the pressures that we’ll be facing.

I think it’s going to be a test to see how our resilience is.

I think there’s still going to be an underlying positive momentum that exists for South East Queensland and especially Noosa because it’s such a desirable place to live.

But it’s not going to be without its headwinds.

I think it’s also probably a period where it’s going to present some of the best opportunities for buying for people who are looking to upgrade their position.

If they’re in that fortunate position where they’re trying to walk up the ladder, or they’re trying to secure blue-chip assets to park their wealth, then it’s probably going to present some of the best opportunities of a decade.

What do you love most about what you do?

Adrian: My job now is split into obviously being an agent, but also being the leader of this business. So I get a lot of reward out of two different facets of my working life.

I enjoy listing and selling houses, but that’s partly to do with taking people on a journey and helping them achieve their dreams, in a lot of cases.

We’re really lucky. A lot of people are moving here, or they’ve got aspirations of living particular lifestyles and seeing out some of their dreams, and we get to be a small part of that.

We get to help them find that perfect house.

It’s such a joy to follow them on that journey as well.

Watch the full episode of On the Ground with Adrian Reed to hear more about Noosa’s waterfront market, the areas Adrian is watching and his perspective on where the market is heading.