The Gold Coast: Australia’s Fastest-Rising Global City

WORDS: Steve Hunt, Founder & CEO, Media Hunt PHOTOGRAPHY Mitch www.unsplash.com - INSTA @FINNNYC

How a once-sleepy seaside town became a powerhouse of population growth, property demand and international appeal — and where it’s heading next

Back in 1954, the Gold Coast was barely a dot on the map. It was a quiet stretch of beaches in southeast Queensland, bordered by low-lying swampland and sugar cane farms to the north. It certainly wasn’t seen as important or influential. In fact, it didn’t even make the top 20 cities or towns in Australia at the time. Places like Kalgoorlie, Broken Hill and Bendigo were considered far more significant.

Fast forward 70 years and the story couldn’t be more different.

Today, the Gold Coast is Australia’s sixth largest city, home to more than 700,000 people. It’s bigger than our national capital Canberra and larger than Hobart. That kind of growth, in such a short time, has left demographers scratching their heads. Finding a comparable example anywhere in the world isn’t easy.

For a long time, the Gold Coast was seen as a cliché — all sunshine, surf and schoolies. And while the beaches and lifestyle are still a huge part of our identity, they no longer define us entirely. The city has grown into something far more complex and interesting. It’s now a vibrant, cosmopolitan place with a diverse economy led by tourism, property development, education and health.

If you look globally, the closest comparison might be Dubai. In the mid-1950s, Dubai had a population of fewer than 25,000 people. Today, it’s a bustling global city of around four million. The scale is obviously different, but the story is similar — a city built on sand that transformed itself into a global destination in just a few generations.

In human history, Dubai has very few equals. And in Australia, the Gold Coast stands alone.

So the big question is: where to from here?

Will the Gold Coast’s extraordinary growth continue at this pace? How do we manage the convergence of forces that have seen more than 60,000 people move here since the pandemic? Is there a risk we could be loved to death — strangled by our own success? And can our infrastructure keep up with exponential population growth?

According to Melbourne-based demographer Simon Kuestenmacher, the Gold Coast is a truly unique story.

“The Gold Coast is a remarkable city with no real comparison in Australia and only a handful globally,” he says. “Rapid growth always brings challenges, but it also brings enormous opportunity. The Gold Coast is incredibly well positioned for the future.”

One area where that growth is most visible is property.

Since the pandemic, waves of people have left Melbourne and Sydney and relocated to the Gold Coast. As a result, property prices have surged. In many cases, they’ve doubled. Despite this, demand hasn’t slowed. Buyers keep coming, and developers simply can’t bring new product to market fast enough to keep up.

Kuestenmacher believes the Gold Coast is in a “sweet spot” and expects prices to continue rising, supported by billions of dollars in infrastructure investment ahead of the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games.

“When I think about the Gold Coast, I don’t see it in isolation,” he says. “I look at it in the context of Australia as a whole. After World War II, Australia had just seven million people. Now we’re approaching 28 million. And in that time, the Gold Coast is essentially the only entirely new major city that’s been added.

“Australia doesn’t need one Gold Coast — it needs seven, eight or nine of them.”

He says the city is now an established brand that attracts people from all over the country and still offers relative affordability compared to places like Sydney.

“That affordability has played a big role in driving migration and investment into the Gold Coast,” he says.

The numbers support that view.

According to Colliers, house prices on the Gold Coast have grown faster than Brisbane over the past decade. Over the last five years alone, prices have risen by 84 per cent, compared to 81 per cent in Brisbane and 70 per cent across Greater Brisbane.

In 2023, the Gold Coast median house price sat at $1 million. By September this year, it had climbed to $1.25 million — a 25 per cent increase in just a short period.

Steven King, Gold Coast Director-in-Charge at Colliers, says the market is clearly maturing.

“Both markets are now almost level in terms of median house price,” he says. “That reflects strong demand colliding with a decline in building approvals over the past decade.”

Colliers’ research shows construction simply hasn’t kept pace with population growth. Building approvals peaked in 2015–16 and have steadily declined since. That imbalance between supply and demand is a major reason prices continue to rise so sharply.

Matt George from Urban Activation, a national sales agency that works with some of Australia’s largest developers, believes the Gold Coast has benefited from a fundamental shift in how Australians want to live.

“There’s been a massive change in lifestyle priorities,” he says. “And as Australia’s lifestyle capital, the Gold Coast has been right at the centre of that shift.”

While technically classified as a regional area, George says the Gold Coast has all the features of a global city.

“It’s Australia’s sixth largest city and has all the trappings of a cosmopolitan centre,” he says. “When you combine that with the ocean, waterways, national parks and climate, it’s easy to see why growth has been so strong and why prices keep rising.”

Looking ahead, Kuestenmacher believes two things are critical to the Gold Coast’s continued success: higher-density living and major infrastructure investment.

“The next two years are absolutely crucial,” he says. “If infrastructure projects aren’t budgeted for and underway within that window, they simply won’t be ready for the Olympics.”

He says the Games present a rare opportunity to fast-track projects that will benefit the region long after the closing ceremony.

“Connectivity between the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and the Gold Coast is essential,” he says. “If we get this right, Southeast Queensland becomes a truly integrated urban region — one that can compete with Sydney and Melbourne on liveability and economic opportunity.”

However, growth also means change. Because the Gold Coast is so linear and bounded by the ocean to the east and hinterland to the west, expansion options are limited.

“That means we have to go up,” Kuestenmacher says. “Higher-density living isn’t optional — it’s essential.”

He acknowledges that apartment living represents a cultural shift for many residents, but says it’s unavoidable.

“People move to the Gold Coast for lifestyle and proximity to water,” he says. “Densifying near the coast allows us to grow without endless sprawl — but it requires smart planning and community buy-in.”

Kuestenmacher offers a final warning.

“We have a narrow window to get this right,” he says. “Other cities failed to invest early and now struggle with congestion and gridlock. The Gold Coast has a chance to avoid those mistakes.

“Now is the time for the Gold Coast to shine.”