Queensland is just $50 away from its first $3 million suburb, with new data revealing there are now 88 suburbs across the Sunshine State with a median house price of $1 million or more.
Following a record year of growth and high-profile sales, house prices across the quiet village of Sunshine Beach reached a median price of $2,999,950 by December 2021, according to the latest Domain House Price Report.
The prestigious pocket, tucked away over the hill from Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast, has been a break-out property star in recent years. During 2021, house prices there rose by a massive 50 per cent.
But it’s over the past five years where the full scope of Sunshine Beach’s growth is clearest: since December 2016, house prices have soared by 209 per cent, and it’s now the third-strongest property market in the entire nation.
What used to be Noosa’s best-kept secret is now well and truly out in the open, said Rachel Sellman of Century 21 Conolly Hay Group.
“Anyone who sold in Sunshine Beach I bet now wishes they hadn’t,” she said. “And my team has made some sales in January that would’ve tipped us over the $3 million mark by now I’m sure.”
Ms Sellman said Sunshine Beach had become more popular as Noosa got busier.
“People with a lot of money don’t want to be in that rat race,” she said. “For a while, people were almost finding Sunshine Beach by accident. They would find themselves walking through the national park from Noosa, popping out the other side, and not even knowing where they were.
“They’d come to us and say, ‘I’ve never seen this place before; I want to stay here next time I come.’ Then they’d come back, they’d tell their friends, and all of a sudden it became the place everyone wanted to be.”
Sunshine Beach has chalked up a slew of record-breaking sales in recent years, including last year’s $34 million trophy-home sale that obliterated the Queensland property price record – that deal was linked to Gina Rinehart – and the $17 million sale of what was once Pat Rafter’s beachfront mansion to Therese Rein, businesswoman and wife to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, in 2020.
Pat Rafter’s old house at Sunshine Beach, which Therese Rein and Kevin Rudd purchased in 2020 for $17 million.
“We used to say ‘don’t tell anyone else’ to people when they came here, but as soon as someone high profile buys, it’s on everyone’s radar,” Ms Sellman said.
“They come and experience Sunshine Beach and realise what the hype is all about. Ultimately it’s still the same beautiful, quiet little village where everyone is relaxed. And if you want to go to Noosa it’s only a three-minute drive or a walk through the national park.”
Famous faces and high-profile names aside, the meteoric rise of Sunshine Beach as one of Australia’s most sought-after property markets can also be attributed to its unique topography – it slopes upwards away from the beach, which means the stunning beach views are enjoyed by more properties than just those at the front – as well as the great COVID migration to coastal locations while people work from home.
“COVID has changed the amount of people who actually reside here rather than invest here,” Ms Sellman said.
“A lot of people have realised they can work from home. Fifteen years ago you could go for a run along the beach in the afternoon and a lot of the lights were off. Now, most of them are on.
“People are selling their smaller investments in Sunshine Beach and buying a bigger home to spend most of the year in. And the elevation of the land keeps house prices high here because the price doesn’t tend to drop if you’re a street or two back.
“You can be behind the beach and a few streets back and still get a great view. And everything faces east.”
While Sunshine Beach will be the first Queensland suburb to break the $3 million median house price barrier, it’s unlikely to be the last.
Queensland’s annual net interstate migration is at its highest level in almost 20 years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The lure of working from home with more space and sunshine, coupled with its relatively affordable house prices, helped drive more than 30,000 people to the Sunshine State in the year to June 2021. That figure accounted for more than 90 per cent of Australia’s net interstate migration.
“Prior to the pandemic there was a drain of residents [in Queensland] but since the pandemic, they’ve seen a net gain of people choosing to live there. That changes the housing market,” said Nicola Powell, chief of research and economics at Domain.
Greater Brisbane saw its house prices rise at their steepest rate in 18 years last year. Suburbs that had once drawn gasps for their million-dollar medians have sailed well past that point into the $2 million club.
Following Sunshine Beach, which tops the list of Queensland’s most expensive suburbs, are luxury postcodes like Mermaid Beach ($2.375 million), New Farm ($2.15 million) and Teneriffe ($2,077,500).
Old-money suburb Ascot is on the verge of the $2 million club, recording a median price of $1,938,500, with Paradise Point on the Gold Coast not far behind with a median of $1.9 million.
Minyama, also on the Sunshine Coast, is well on its way to cementing its place as one of the most expensive suburbs in the state, following a phenomenal period of growth.
The median house price in Minyama jumped by a massive 88 per cent last year – the highest percentage rise of any suburb or locality in Queensland in 2021 – and over the past five years, prices have risen by a staggering 212.9 per cent.
It was one of only two suburbs in Australia to pip Sunshine Beach’s five-year house price growth – the other was the master-planned community of Aintree in Victoria, up by 250.5 per cent – but its astonishing rate of growth is for different reasons, said Jordan Lund of Elite Lifestyle Properties.
“The appeal of Minyama is because of the direct ocean access. There’s nowhere else like it on the Sunshine Coast,” Mr Lund said.
“We do get a couple of the holidaymakers or people wanting a long-term position to hold their boats but mainly our clients are local people upgrading from their place on the Sunny Coast that isn’t on the water.
“What we are finding here is even people from Noosa are starting to recognise the position and how good the ocean access is here – you can store up to a 100-foot vessel.”
Minyama is a suburb situated on the Mooloolah River, located just south of popular beach holiday spot Mooloolaba and surrounded almost entirely by water.
Mr Lund said there was nowhere near enough housing stock to sate buyer demand.
“Most properties are selling prior to hitting the market. I’d say only 50 per cent hit the market,” he said. “The problem has always been for buyers that no one leaves. When they do leave it’s to downsize, when they’re not using the water as frequently as they used to, and they transition to a unit. There’s no other reason.
“So with turnover of property that low, stock is extremely limited and the key positions in Minyama just don’t transact.”
Mr Lund said there was still plenty of room for Minyama’s house price to grow further still.
“Even since December, there are transactions that haven’t settled yet that will show the true extent of the growth we’ve had in this suburb. This has been such a quiet, hidden part of the coastline for so long but those days are over,” he said.
| Region | Region | Median | Annual change | 5-year change |
| Sunshine Beach | Sunshine Coast | $2,999,950 | 50.0% | 209.3% |
| Mermaid Beach | Gold Coast Central | $2,375,000 | 42.6% | 73.4% |
| New Farm | Brisbane North | $2,150,000 | 30.7% | 59.3% |
| Teneriffe | Brisbane North | $2,077,500 | – | 158.1% |
| Ascot | Bayside North | $1,938,500 | 36.5% | 53.2% |
| Paradise Point | Gold Coast North | $1,900,000 | 58.3% | 89.1% |
| Surfers Paradise | Gold Coast Central | $1,830,000 | 16.2% | 51.9% |
| Minyama | Sunshine Coast | $1,815,000 | 82.0% | 212.9% |
| Hawthorne | Brisbane East | $1,700,000 | 37.9% | 41.7% |
| Highgate Hill | Brisbane West | $1,695,000 | 34.5% | – |
| Hamilton | Bayside North | $1,650,000 | 3.1% | 43.5% |
| Noosa Heads | Sunshine Coast | $1,645,000 | 19.6% | 93.5% |
| Pullenvale | Brisbane West | $1,600,000 | 25.4% | 49.5% |
| Bundall | Gold Coast Central | $1,590,000 | 49.3% | 73.8% |
| St Lucia | Brisbane West | $1,570,000 | 16.7% | 60.4% |
| Tallebudgera Valley | Gold Coast South | $1,550,000 | – | – |
| Fig Tree Pocket | Brisbane West | $1,550,000 | 30.1% | 61.5% |
| Broadbeach Waters | Gold Coast Central | $1,530,000 | 19.8% | 42.3% |
| Sunrise Beach | Sunshine Coast | $1,520,000 | 44.8% | 125.1% |
| Doonan | Sunshine Coast | $1,487,500 | 38.4% | 103.8% |
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