August 28, 2026 — 5:00amQueensland’s population growth is evident from the Gold Coast, through Brisbane and up to the Sunshine Coast, with new apartment buildings, housing and ever-widening highways.Long-term population figures show the Brisbane LGA increased by 55 per cent since 2001, while the Gold Coast LGA’s population rose 82 per cent.Surfers Paradise is a popular destination.Dan PeledBut where are all the people coming from? Here’s who is interested in four sought-after areas.Palm BeachThe pristine white sands of the Gold Coast’s Palm Beach come with a median house price of $1.95 million or $1,245,000 for an apartment, on Domain data.Selling agent Andy Hogarth from McGrath Palm Beach said: “The secret’s out now. The Gold Coast going back 30 years ago was just basically tourism and retail.”Hogarth said the infrastructure available now has transformed the region into a “proper city.”While many buyers are local, others come from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.“Melbourne’s probably the biggest influx of people,” he said. “There’s more and more people who get up here for the lifestyle and are getting out of the rat race.”Hogarth recently sold a four-bedroom “nicely renovated” house at 77 Palm Beach Avenue for $2.35 million to a buyer from Melbourne.He said buyers are drawn to the lifestyle and ease of living, and the suburb is more laid-back than nearby Burleigh Heads.For the $1.95 million median, he said buyers should expect a “pretty original home”.He added interstate buyers tend to be drawn to higher-end turnkey properties. “They don’t want to do any work, but the local buyers are more inclined to.”Surfers ParadiseIn Surfers Paradise, the median price for a house is $2,375,000, while a unit is $800,000.Selling agent Penelope Nicholls from Coastal said: “The main driver is still from Victorian buyers moving up here for the lifestyle.”“I was surprised. I thought it would have slowed down, but there’s still a lot of people from Melbourne moving up here,” she said. “We are seeing [people] from Sydney as well, and there’s always … Brisbane buyers for the weekenders to come down onto the coast to enjoy their weekends.”Nicholls said, “I wouldn’t say it’s cheap on the Gold Coast, but we still represent fantastic value.”“You can still buy something on the beachfront … between $1 [million] and $2 million. And there are some one-bedrooms that are under a million still, that are absolute beachfront.”She has a one bedroom on the market now for offers over $795,000 on The Esplanade in Surfers Paradise.A resident for over 20 years, she felt there were more owner-occupiers living in Surfers than in the past.She believes that is due to the “great value for what you get, for the lifestyle that here brings”.BrightonJust within the boundaries of Brisbane LGA, in bayside Brighton, the median house price is $1.25 million.Selling agent Kristy Kelly from Image Property North Side said most of her buyers are downsizers coming from inland areas such as Cashmere, Joyner and the Samford area. “People leave land to come to the water and vice versa,” she said.Kelly said she has noticed a decline in interstate migration compared to five years ago.“We were probably dealing with 20 to 30 per cent of migration buyers that were coming through open homes in attendance back then, whereas now it’s more local, coming from outer suburbs.”Kelly recently sold a three-bedroom house for $1.1 million on behalf of an investor who was offloading his investment property.While there has been a slowdown in recent months, she said, “It’s a very stable suburb to purchase into.“It will continue to be stable here. It always is.” She said there are “good schools, good infrastructure, [and] lots of money being poured into the hub”.She said buyers are drawn to the family orientated suburb for its schools, public transport and the water.“It’s got a very big neighbourhood community feel.”MooloolabaOn the Sunshine Coast, Mooloolaba has a median house price of $1.71 million, while the median unit price is roughly half that, at $880,000.Selling agent Brent Higgins from Ray White Mooloolaba said the suburb was a hidden gem 15 years ago.“But over the last decade, Mooloolaba’s really grown up, and it’s one of the key identities on the Sunshine Coast.”Higgins has noticed that while current buyers are mostly Queensland residents, they are new to the state in the past few years.“We’re just seeing people taking a more measured approach before they purchase on the Sunshine Coast,” he said.“People have actually started to take more time to settle into the coast, live first, test out suburbs, employment, schools, and then purchase.”While buyers flocked from Sydney and Melbourne, he said more came from Victoria overall.He recently sold a two-bedroom unit for $810,000. The vendor was a Sydney investor who was selling to move into a waterfront house in Mooloolaba.“This is very typical … people getting a foothold in the Mooloolaba market prior to becoming future residents.”More:Queensland residential propertyProperty marketProperty pricesSurfers ParadiseSalesProperty listingsFrom our partners