Queensland's first $3 million suburb is also the best-performing suburb in Australia
Sunshine Beach has become Queensland’s first ever $3 million suburb, with new data revealing house prices in the quiet Noosa village shot up by a massive $250,000 during the first three months of 2022 alone.
The median price for a house in Sunshine Beach this time last year was $2.087 million, but following a record year of growth and high-profile sales, it’s now hit $3.25 million, according to the latest Domain House Price Report.
The past five years show the full scope of Sunshine Beach’s growth: since March 2017, house prices have soared by an eye-watering 195.5 per cent – or, in dollar terms, by $1.59 million.
It’s now the best-performing suburb in the entire nation.
Tucked away over the hill from Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Beach is a private pocket that has quickly become a magnet for some of Australia’s wealthiest individuals.
Landmark deals include last year’s $34 million trophy-home sale that obliterated the Queensland property price record – a deal that was linked to Gina Rinehart – and the $17 million sale of what was once Pat Rafter’s beachfront mansion to Therese Rein, businesswoman and wife to former prime minister Kevin Rudd, in 2020.
Less than two weeks ago the owner of a house on prestigious Arakoon Crescent made a jaw-dropping profit of $15.5 million in the space of just four months, selling it in a quiet off-market deal for $28.5 million after purchasing it in December last year for $13 million, property records show.
Skyrocketing house prices have also put upward pressure on unit values in Sunshine Beach.
The median price for a unit rose by 46.9 per cent over the past year and 122.1 per cent over the past five years, to a record $1.42 million.
Domain chief of research and economics Nicola Powell described Sunshine Beach’s market as “phenomenal”.
“Getting a $3 million suburb is such a massive milestone for Queensland,” she said. “What it also does is place Sunshine Beach shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the most premium suburbs in Australia, those really well known suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne.
“Sunshine Beach has become a playground for the extremely wealthy.”
Dr Powell said while $3.25 million was a massive price, it still represented value for money when compared with premium locations south of the border.
“You’re talking about a beachside suburb with a community feel, that prime Queensland coastline, a stone’s throw from Noosa, quiet, private – this is prime square-footage beachfront,” she said.
Veteran Noosa agent Frank Milat of Richardson & Wrench said the demographic of Sunshine Beach had changed very quickly.
“It’s become an elite hideaway,” he said. “It’s the demand for that Palm Beach-type location – the private village with not many people around.
“The owners are all very wealthy and they know each other. They see their friends buying here and it makes them feel more comfortable: ‘If Gina Rinehart is here, it must be a secure investment.’
“Noosa’s demographic used to be like the Gold Coast’s but the people who are here now are successful end users, cash buyers. They don’t do holiday letting, they lock it up when they’re not using it; they do million-dollar renovations.”
Mr Milat said Sunshine Beach’s trophy-home market was unlikely to slow down, despite signs that property markets elsewhere were losing steam.
“The people who are buying in Sunshine Beach are not governed by what the market thinks. Interest rate movements don’t affect them,” he said.
“People in these trophy-home markets operate in a different market to everyone else. It runs on its own. These buyers buy for the long term, for their family.”
While house prices at Sunshine Beach recorded the largest percentage gain over five years of any suburb in Australia, there were a number of other areas close by that also posted massive rises.
| Suburb | Property | Median | Annual change | 5-year change |
| Sunshine Beach | House | $3,250,000 | 55.7% | 195.5% |
| Minyama | House | $1,860,000 | 36.1% | 186.2% |
| Sunrise Beach | House | $1,600,000 | 39.1% | 131.7% |
| Doonan | House | $1,702,000 | 54.7% | 126.9% |
| Sunshine Beach | Unit | $1,421,420 | 46.9% | 122.1% |
| Noosa Heads | House | $1,850,000 | 31.1% | 106.7% |
| Coolum Beach | House | $1,200,000 | 42.3% | 105.1% |
| Buddina | House | $1,465,000 | 42.9% | 103.5% |
| Noosa Heads | Unit | $1,195,000 | 17.6% | 102.5% |
| Noosaville | Unit | $850,000 | 30.8% | 102.4% |
| Cooroibah | House | $1,200,000 | 54.6% | 100.0% |
House prices in Minyama, located just south of the popular beach holiday spot of Mooloolaba, have risen by 186.2 per cent over the past five years, while Sunrise Beach, the next beach south of Sunshine Beach, has risen by 131.7 per cent.
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