Homeowners in select lifestyle suburbs have kicked off the new year with six‑figure gains, as house prices in some pockets surged by up to $340,000 in just three months.
It’s part of a broader trend that has driven Australia’s median house price towards $1.3m after 12 straight quarters of growth, with big capitals hitting fresh highs and affordability continuing to erode.
Australia’s most sought‑after lifestyle belts have raced beyond more buyers’ budgets, with house values in several suburbs leaping by hundreds of thousands of dollars over the December 2025 quarter.
Domain figures show the Surfers Paradise region on the Gold Coast posted the strongest national increase, with the median house price across Surfers Paradise, Bundall, Benowa, Main Beach, and Chevron Island soaring by $339,500, a 17.7% jump in 90 days.
On the same coastline, the Broadbeach–Burleigh area – spanning Broadbeach, Miami, Burleigh Heads, Burleigh Waters and Mermaid Beach – booked a $250,000 gain in its median (up 13.5%).
In Sydney’s north‑west, the Dural–Wisemans Ferry corridor, which covers Dural, Wisemans Ferry, Glenorie, Kenthurst, and Rouse Hill, also recorded a $250,000 rise in the house median (up 11.6%).
Lifestyle‑driven Gold Coast markets have firmly crossed into prestige territory. Surfers Paradise’s median house price now sits at $2,252,500, while Broadbeach–Burleigh has reached $2.1 million. In Sydney’s Baulkham Hills–Hawkesbury region, the median has climbed from $2.15 million to $2.4 million over the same period.
South East Queensland is in a league of its own for quarterly gains, but it is not alone in moving higher. Strong five‑figure median increases are appearing in more affordable parts of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia, across houses and, in some pockets, units.
The upswing is being powered by overlapping forces: demand for coastal living, the spread of hybrid work, a robust resources sector, government infrastructure projects, the ongoing shift from capitals to regional centres, and steady interstate migration.
Ray White Surfers Paradise agent Josh Logan‑Pye says big‑city buyers from Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane remain a constant presence.
“There are a lot more opportunities for people to work from home, giving them the chance to say, ‘Okay, let’s live a lifestyle and choose where we want to be’,” Logan‑Pye told Domain.
Tight listings are keeping competition fierce, but new projects are reshaping the skyline.
“When you’re driving around Surfers, there’s so much construction happening, which I think builds confidence among buyers that they’re investing in a good marketplace,” Logan‑Pye said.
Gold Coast buyers’ agent Jacqueline Dwyer, director of Savvy Fox, says interstate purchasers often lose out before they can even inspect.
“They might see a listing on the Gold Coast pop up on a Wednesday, they book a flight on the Thursday, and then they find out that it sold on the Friday,” Dwyer said. “Things can go very quickly, and it is just frustrating. They come to me with the frustration of missing out, and they can’t quite understand why there’s that much competition for one property.”
Architect‑designed luxury duplexes are also shifting who is buying.
“That’s attracted the Bondi types who wouldn’t have considered the Gold Coast,” Dwyer said.
In Sydney and Melbourne, she notes, a property’s desirability is often measured in kilometres from the CBD. On the Gold Coast, it’s counted in minutes’ walk to the sand.
Most of the regions in Domain’s top 20 for quarterly house price growth are coastal.
In Victoria, Geelong’s Barwon–West region – home to Torquay and Ocean Grove – continues to lure surfers and sea‑changers, while in Western Australia, Bunbury, which includes family‑friendly Dalyellup and Eaton, is also on the move.
Beyond the beachfront, resource‑reliant and agricultural hubs with strong labour demand are seeing rapid gains.
In Queensland, Mackay–Isaac–Whitsunday (including Bowen, Airlie Beach and Proserpine), Central Queensland (Biloela, Calliope and Thangool) and the Darling Downs–Maranoa (Toowoomba, Gatton and Laidley) have each registered solid five‑figure price rises.
Mackay–Isaac–Whitsunday has the lowest unemployment rate in regional Queensland and was singled out for a hospital expansion and improved police facilities in last year’s state budget, further shoring up buyer confidence.
Big quarterly jumps, but many markets still under $1m
Despite some eye‑watering three‑month increases, many of the standout regions remain within reach compared with the capitals. Seventeen of the top 20 regions still have median house prices under $1 million, with the cheapest sitting at $255,500.
On Tasmania’s South East Coast – covering the waterfront towns of Bicheno, Swansea, Triabunna and Orford – house prices jumped $70,500 in the quarter, pushing the median to $620,500.
Paul Whytcross of Roberts Real Estate in Bicheno says the recent gains reflect a familiar pattern, with the typically strong end‑of‑year market amplified by favourable economic conditions.
“There’s no denying that the interest rate drops around the middle of last year and then into that final quarter had an effect,” Whytcross told Domain. “We’ve seen increased inquiry, increased calls, increased inspections, and as a result, increasing offers coming in.”
Different townships cater to different buyer profiles.
“Swansea is generally a little bit cheaper, and the blocks tend to be flatter and a bit more usable, whereas Coles Bay has those magnificent views of The Hazards mountains and the Freycinet National Park, which is always desirable," Whytcross said. “Bicheno is the sunniest place in Tasmania. We tend not to get cold, and frosts here are very rare.”
He says the COVID‑19 pandemic transformed Bicheno’s demographic virtually overnight.
“There’s a lot more young people in the community now, and first thing in the mornings, you see all the young mums and dads out pushing prams and taking their kids to school," Whytcross said. “There’s lots of work here as well, so people don’t just come for a bit of a lifestyle change – it’s also a career change.”
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