The luxury Queensland suburbs where house prices doubled in five years

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Could Queensland’s priciest pockets soon rival Sydney’s elite suburbs? Property punters say yes, tipping the Sunshine State to soon produce its first $4 million median suburb, and even flirt with a $100 million sale, as money floods into Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

The state’s luxury leaderboard is topped by just two $3 million-plus suburbs – Mermaid Beach and Surfers Paradise – but Domain’s House Price Report for the June quarter has revealed that median house price in those pockets more than doubled over the past five years.

Surfers Paradise is one of Queensland’s most expensive spots to buy a house.

The only thing holding them back from even more growth is a lack of listings in the upper echelon of the market.

The report showed Mermaid Beach’s median house price soared to $3.36 million after 107.4 per cent growth in half a decade. Meanwhile, the Surfers Paradise median price for houses hit $3,187,500 after rocketing 120.2 per cent in that time.

The state’s third most expensive suburb, and Brisbane’s priciest, New Farm, now sits at $2.95 million for a typical house – up 90.3 per cent over five years.

It’s a far cry from Sydney’s trophy-home territory, where Bellevue Hill has a median house price of $9,925,000. Queensland’s top spots barely scrape into the top 50 suburbs nationally.

But property punters say prestige homes prices could surge in the lead-up to the 2032 Olympics, as elite buyers and developers transform key neighbourhoods.

Amir Mian, of Amir Prestige Group, said Mermaid Beach and Surfers Paradise were being propelled up the national ladder by high-end new builds, and a wave of off-market spending.

“There are new builds that people are spending an absolute fortune on,” he said. “Just look at the Culture King guys – they spent a fortune on their home.

“A lot of these new builds are incredibly expensive, and you will see one crack the $100 million sale price soon.

“It’s not that there’s not buyers willing to pay that here – it’s that there aren’t sellers.”

Mian has handled some of the Gold Coast’s highest-end deals, including the $28 million sale of a home at 41-45 Hedges Avenue, Mermaid Beach.

He said lifestyle was driving the new money migration.

“We’re in the era of wellness now, and that has massively played into the popularity of these suburbs,” he said.

And that’s where Mian believes the Gold Coast outstrips the rest of Australia.

“If you draw a map around the Gold Coast, Mermaid Beach and Surfers sit right in the middle, and they offer beach and river with the hinterland behind, and they are packed with lifestyle shopping precincts,” he said.

“Mermaid in particular is a very small precinct, but it’s one of a kind. Imagine putting Toorak in the middle of the city.

“It won’t be long until we get to a $4 million median there.”

In Brisbane, Heath Williams, of Place New Farm, is seeing similar momentum at the top end, particularly in the luxury unit sector.

Williams recently secured a $10 million off-market sale to professional golfer Cameron Smith for a penthouse at 5/60 Moray Street, New Farm, in a deal that sets a new benchmark for price per square metre at about $47,000.

“There’s a level of scarcity [for such apartments in Brisbane] and the rooftop on this one was just incredibly special,” he said.

“The thing is we’ve always been behind the southern states, but at the same time that makes Brisbane a good-value proposition. I mean for the same price as a terrace home here you would be lucky to get a car park in Sydney.

New Farm is one place that is coming to life with apartments, says a local agent.

“But now New Farm and Teneriffe are really coming to life with apartments, and then you’ve got places like Kangaroo Point that have gone through a radical upgrade – especially with the bridge connecting it to the city .”

Nearby Ascot was named Queensland’s fourth most expensive suburb by Domain. The price of a median house there is $2.4 million after 67.8 per cent growth over five years.

Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said the rising tide of prestige buyers from NSW and Victoria was helping reshape the high end of Queensland’s property market.

“We saw a whopper of an impact because of COVID, and that changed the price point quite dramatically in Queensland,” she said.

“Just look at Mermaid Beach, which is now 30th on the national list for house growth. I’m not sure we’ll see that type of growth again, but the desirability is there.”