Gold Coast City Guide

The Gold Coast is a coastal city in Queensland, Australia, about 70 km south of Brisbane, famed for 57 km of surf beaches and the entertainment hubs of Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach. Australia's sixth-largest city, it has shifted from a holiday destination to a permanent lifestyle-migration magnet, drawing interstate movers (chiefly from Sydney and Melbourne) for its climate, beaches and relative affordability. Investor appeal rests on sustained population growth, chronic housing undersupply, sub-1.5% rental vacancy and the Brisbane 2032 Olympics infrastructure pipeline; a current catalyst is Light Rail Stage 3 to Burleigh Heads, due to open mid-2026 (the airport-bound Stage 4 was cancelled in September 2025). Foreign-buyer rules are restrictive: all foreign buyers need Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval and are generally limited to NEW dwellings or off-the-plan, not established homes, and a temporary ban on foreign purchases of established dwellings runs 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2029. Queensland also levies an 8% Additional Foreign Acquirer Duty plus a 3% land-tax foreign surcharge.