“Out of control” building approvals on the Gold Coast could lead to a major unit oversupply, says expert.

Residential building approvals have soared to record numbers in southeast Queensland with the Gold Coast making up the biggest increase of almost 51 per cent over 12 months, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The bulk of the numbers are coming from high rise and unit approvals with 6702 residential dwellings which have been granted on the coast in the past 12 months.

Former Gold Coast City Council architect Phillip Follent said approvals are being over-generous to “lazy” developers and needs to be re-evaluated.

“There is a culture of being over-generous to lazy developers in regards to the density of floor space which is soaking up the room for other, smaller, quality-focused developments,” Professor Follent said.

He said the 88-storey Iluka site tower approved in Surfers Paradise was questionable due to its over-generous floor area being 40 times the size of the land.

“There will be significant changes to the character of the region and increased traffic congestion,” he said.

“It appears there is no awareness of the knock-on effects of this kind of over development.”

He said the end result will be a major unit oversupply.

“If any number of the buildings approved were to go up at once, we’d see an instant oversupply in units.”

However, Real Institute of Queensland CEO Antonia Mercorella said tight vacancy rates show the Gold Coast is in need of more residential dwellings.

“The vacancy rate on the Gold Coast is 1.7 per cent, which is officially classed as tight, and it has been in the tight range for nine consecutive quarters,” Ms Mercorella said.

She said coupled with strong housing demand, which will increase during the Commonwealth Games, additional housing construction is needed.

“It is anticipated that while this demand for dwellings will increase during the Commonwealth Games, there is sufficient underlying demand to support additional housing construction, based on the data we are seeing.”

Master Builders manager of policy and economics Dyan Johnson said the number of approvals in the southeast were nothing short of incredible.

“We have some incredible numbers in southeast Queensland with inner city Brisbane and the Gold Coast clear hotspots,” Ms Johnson said.

Ms Johnson said Gold Coast building approval numbers would likely fall and eventually level out – but not in the short-term.

“They will eventually steady, but at the moment there is no sign of that happening,” she said.