PHOTO: Ray White Insights | Featuring Chief Economist Nerida Conisbee. FILE
The glamorous coastal market that flipped the script on Australia’s property hierarchy
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📈 A Historic Milestone
The Gold Coast, once marketed as the sun-kissed affordable alternative to Sydney, has pulled off the ultimate plot twist. New data reveals:
| City | Median Unit Price |
|---|---|
| Gold Coast | $956,000 |
| Sydney | $927,000 |
👉 Sydney still tops house values, but unit buyers are officially paying a premium to live beachside in the Sunshine State.
🚀 What’s Driving the Surge?
A perfect cocktail of demand drivers keeps pushing prices upward:
✔ Population growth and lifestyle migration from Australia and overseas
✔ Lower interest rates boosting borrowing capacity
✔ A chronic shortage of newly built homes
Analysts are now pricing in a possible fourth rate cut in November, which could crank buyer activity even higher.
👥 Migration + Not Enough Homes = Price Pressure
The Gold Coast is one of Australia’s fastest-growing regions. But construction simply hasn’t kept up.
🏗️ The last time Australia delivered enough new homes: 2007.
Today we face:
• Stretching construction timelines
• High build costs
• Fewer completions each year
Luxury development is filling the skyline instead of attainable housing.
🌊 Prestige Coastline Powers the Boom
The city’s transformation into a world-class beachfront destination is rewriting valuations:
| Suburb | Median Unit Price | Price Growth in 10 Years |
|---|---|---|
| Main Beach | $1.73m | +$880k |
| Burleigh Heads | — | +$760k |
| Palm Beach | — | +$740k |
| Currumbin–Tugun | — | +134% / +$740k |
Other upward stars: Miami, Coolangatta, Mermaid Waters, Paradise Point.
The premium coastal corridor has become the heartbeat of upward momentum.
🏢 Who’s Buying All These Apartments?
The buyer mix has shifted right along with the skyline:
👑 Downsizers craving beachfront luxury without the maintenance
🧳 Interstate movers swapping Sydney/Melbourne stress for sun and surf
💼 Investors chasing rental growth and record yields
🏡 First home buyers snapping up smaller units thanks to grants and softened finance rules
Holiday-heavy suburbs are now increasingly full of permanent residents, reshaping community identity and squeezing short-stay accommodation availability.
🧩 The Big Constraint: Not Enough New Homes
Despite full order books and cranes aplenty, the delivery rate isn’t enough.
• Land is limited
• Construction is expensive
• Approvals move slowly
And here’s the kicker:
🛑 New homes under $750k are becoming almost impossible to build without substantial subsidies or planning flexibility.
This means affordability continues to drift further away.
🔮 Outlook: Gold Coast Still in the Lead
Economists expect:
• Continued price growth into 2026
• Possible moderation as new projects complete
• Ongoing demand-supply imbalance keeping values elevated
The Gold Coast now wears the crown for Australia’s most expensive units. With supply unlikely to catch up anytime soon, that crown seems secure.
🌅 The Takeaway
What was once the land of bargains and holiday apartments is now a luxurious global coastline, reshaped by wealth migration and undersupply.
Sydney may have the Harbour Bridge.
But the Gold Coast has a market that refuses to stop rising.