Suburb overview
Surfers Paradise is a coastal suburb in Queensland, Australia, with a population of approximately 26,412, making it a sizeable community. Located approximately 71 km from the Brisbane CBD, Surfers Paradise is a coastal area in Queensland. The median household income is $68,796 per year.
Location
Key indicators
Postcode
4217
Postcode for Surfers Paradise, from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. A postcode may cover multiple suburbs.
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Population
26,412
Usual resident population at the most recent census.
Median weekly rent
$750/wk
Median weekly rent — as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld) (CC BY 4.0).
Distance to CBD
71 km
Straight-line distance from the suburb centroid to the nearest capital city CBD. Actual driving distance will be longer.
Housing
Median monthly mortgage
$1,606/mo
Monthly median mortgage repayment for households currently paying off a mortgage.
Home type
7% houses
Proportion of separate houses versus units, townhouses, and other home types. Useful for investors assessing rental demand mix.
Why people like living in Surfers Paradise
- Regional location about 71 km from Brisbane.
- High-density unit mix (93% non-house dwellings) — urban, low-maintenance living.
- Beach lifestyle with coastal walks and outdoor recreation on the doorstep.
Who Surfers Paradise suits
Pros and cons
Pros
- Mortgage costs are lower than the Queensland median, improving cash-flow margins.
- Coastal lifestyle attracts renters and owner-occupiers alike.
- Established infrastructure and existing community base.
Cons
- Long distance to the CBD (71 km) — plan for commute time or local employment.
- Traffic can build during peak hours, especially on arterial roads.
Investment insight
With 26,412 residents, Surfers Paradise is one of Queensland's more populous suburbs — roughly 4.8× the state median of 5,474 — giving it a deep buyer and tenant pool that typically supports higher transaction volumes and shorter average days on market. Surfers Paradise's median household income of $68,796/year is 24% below the Queensland suburb median ($90,298) — this is an affordability play where returns lean on yield and patient capital growth rather than demographic premium. Median rent of $750/week (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)) equates to roughly $3,250/month — about 202% of the $1,606/month median mortgage repayment recorded at the 2021 Census. On those figures rental income covers most or all of the recorded repayment, but repayments on new loans have risen with interest rates since 2021, so re-run the coverage at today's rates before treating this as a cash-flow suburb. Surfers Paradise is 71 km from Brisbane, so the local market tracks regional employment and lifestyle drivers more than CBD-driven commuter demand. Only 7% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 77% state median), so this is a unit-heavy market where body-corporate decisions and strata supply meaningfully shape investor returns.
Investment tip
Coastal markets benefit from lifestyle appeal but require a buffer for higher insurance and occasional weather-driven vacancies. At the 2021 Census, local rents consumed roughly 31% of household income — a dated but useful sanity check on tenant affordability.
Surfers Paradise vs Queensland median
How Surfers Paradise stacks up against the median of all Queensland suburbs in our dataset. Positive values mean Surfers Paradise sits above the state median; negative means below.
| Metric | Surfers Paradise | QLD median | Δ vs state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 26,412 | 5,474 | +382% |
| Median household income | $68,796/yr | $90,298/yr | -24% |
| Median rent (weekly, 2021 Census) | $410 | $385 | +6% |
| Median mortgage (monthly, 2021 Census) | $1,606 | $1,733 | -7% |
| Distance to CBD | 71 km | 62 km | +15% |
| Separate houses | 7% | 77% | -70pp |
Investor checklist
Pre-inspection briefing for Surfers Paradise — every item is derived from public datasets, with full citations in our data sources page.
- Market depth: 26,412 residents — 482% of the QLD suburb median (5,474).
- Purchasing power: median household income $68,796/year (-24% vs Queensland suburb median of $90,298).
- Cash-flow coverage (2021 Census): $410/week rent (≈ $1,777/month) covered ~111% of the $1,606/month median mortgage at the 2021 Census — verify against current rents and rates.
- CBD access: 71 km straight-line from Brisbane (state suburb median 62 km).
- Dwelling mix: 7% separate houses — unit-heavy market (vs 77% state median).
- Rate stress-test: budget ~$161/month extra for a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise on top of the $1,606/month median repayment.
- Tenant rent burden: 31% of the median household income is spent on rent — within normal range.
Investment strategy
Limited buy-and-hold upside: household incomes 24% below the QLD median ($68,796 vs $90,298) means liquidity is thin and capital growth tends to lag the wider Queensland market over full cycles.
Strong rental coverage at the 2021 Census: $410/week (~$1,777/month) covered 111% of the $1,606/month median mortgage, a shortfall of just $0/month. Both rents and repayments have moved since 2021 — verify current figures, though this suburb has historically leaned cash-flow-friendly.
Only 7% of dwellings are separate houses (vs 77% QLD median) — this is a unit and townhouse market, where cosmetic flips struggle against body-corporate restrictions, thinner after-reno uplift and competing new supply.
Risk factors
- Interest-rate sensitivity: the $1,606/month median mortgage in Surfers Paradise means a 1-percentage-point RBA rate rise could add roughly $161/month to repayments, reducing buyer borrowing capacity and cooling prices.
- Income vulnerability: household incomes in Surfers Paradise are 24% below the Queensland median ($68,796 vs $90,298), which tends to compress rent growth and increases exposure to local unemployment shocks.
- Commute distance: at 71 km from the nearest CBD, Surfers Paradise depends on local employment rather than city-driven commuter demand, which amplifies the market's sensitivity to regional industry slowdowns.
- Strata exposure: only 7% of dwellings in Surfers Paradise are separate houses, so most investment stock is apartments or townhouses subject to body-corporate fees, sinking-fund levies and competing supply from new developments.
- Regulatory risk: changes to Australian tax settings (negative gearing, CGT discount, foreign-buyer surcharges, land-tax thresholds) could reshape after-tax returns in Surfers Paradise regardless of local market conditions.
Run the numbers on a Surfers Paradise property
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Start your journey near Surfers Paradise →2026 outlook
Capital-growth expectations for Surfers Paradise are modest for 2026 — incomes 24% below the QLD median of $90,298 suggest gains will lag headline metro markets. At the 2021 Census, rental coverage ran at ~111% of the typical mortgage ($1,777/month rent vs $1,606/month repayment), keeping cash flow in positive or near-neutral territory. Verify against current rents and rates. Overall investor sentiment for Surfers Paradise is balanced heading into the second half of 2026, based on its income, rent and mortgage profile relative to the Queensland median.
Frequently asked questions
Is Surfers Paradise a good suburb for investment?
Whether Surfers Paradise suits you depends on your strategy, but the fundamentals are concrete: a population of 26,412, a median household income of $68,796/year and median weekly rent of $410. Weigh those against your goal — cash flow, capital growth, or a value-add renovation — each of which we break down with suburb-specific ABS numbers elsewhere on this page.
What drives property demand in Surfers Paradise?
The main demand drivers in Surfers Paradise are a median household income of $68,796/year, a dwelling mix that is 7% separate houses. Together these shape both owner-occupier and tenant demand.
What is the population of Surfers Paradise?
Surfers Paradise has a usual resident population of approximately 26,412, compared with a Queensland suburb median of 5,474 — placing it in the upper half of the state's suburbs by size. Population is the clearest proxy for market depth: more residents mean more transactions and typically a shorter average days-on-market on resale.
How far is Surfers Paradise from the Brisbane CBD?
Surfers Paradise sits 71 km straight-line from the Brisbane CBD. This is a regional market where CBD distance is only indicative — local industry diversity and commute alternatives matter more.
What is the median rent in Surfers Paradise?
The median weekly rent in Surfers Paradise is $750 (as at Mar 2026, Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld)), equating to approximately $39,000/year in gross rental income. Confirm against current listings on realestate.com.au and Domain before making an offer.
What is the typical mortgage repayment in Surfers Paradise?
The median monthly mortgage repayment in Surfers Paradise is $1,606, or approximately $19,272/year (vs $1,733/month state median). Stress-test your own borrowing at rates 1–2 percentage points above today's to make sure you can still service the loan through an RBA tightening cycle.
Is Surfers Paradise cash-flow positive for investors?
A median weekly rent of $410 works out to $1,777/month, covering 111% of the median mortgage repayment of $1,606/month. That means rent exceeds the median repayment by roughly $171/month, so on these numbers Surfers Paradise leans cash-flow-positive before accounting for strata, council rates, insurance and maintenance. Actual cash flow depends on your deposit, loan terms, ownership costs and marginal tax rate — run the full numbers in our rental yield calculator.
What are the main risks of investing in Surfers Paradise?
The main risks are interest-rate sensitivity on the $1,606 median mortgage, below-median household incomes ($68,796 vs $90,298 state median), a unit-heavy dwelling mix (7% houses) where body-corporate costs and apartment supply affect resale, the broader Queensland market cycle. Each of these is covered in the Risk Factors section above with suburb-specific numbers rather than generic warnings.
How we built this Surfers Paradise profile
The population figure on this page comes from the ABS 2021 Census. The postcode comes from a community postcode dataset cross-checked against Australia Post. The dwelling mix is from the ABS 2021 Census. The median household income is the ABS 2021 Census median weekly household income, annualised. Distance to the CBD is calculated from the suburb's ABS centroid. The Census median rent and mortgage figures are 2021 figures and are labelled as such wherever they appear — they are five years old and have moved substantially since. The current median weekly rent in Key indicators is a genuine recent figure from Residential Tenancies Authority (Qld) (Mar 2026), published under a Creative Commons licence and dated on the page. We do not publish an investment score or school/park counts for this suburb. See our methodology and data sources for exactly what's measured and what's estimated.