composer create-project not installing Laravel 5.3

I have been trying to no avail to install Laravel 5.3 but keep getting 5.2 installed. Here's what i have done.

composer create-project laravel/laravel laravel53

This should pull in the latest version of laravel which is 5.3 right? Well, i thought so but i keep getting 5.2 installed

Then i felt it may be a problem with composer so i ran composer self-update

composer self-update

And still get 5.2 installed when i run create-project

I'm pretty sure i am getting something wrong because i ran this same command on a friend's laptop and 5.3 got installed

I am using a mac book pro BTW

Any ideas why this is so and how it can be solved?

Much thanks

via Chebli Mohamed