Retiree favourite Tweed Heads hits $1m median as house prices skyrocket by 63 per cent
It used to be known as the sleepy backwater to the Gold Coast and Byron Bay, but now the NSW-Queensland border town of Tweed has morphed from a favourite retiree destination to the country’s newest $1 million hotspot.
The median house price has shot up a startling 63.4 per cent in the past five years – and 8.1 per cent in the last year alone – to $1.005 million, just eclipsing that magical $1 million mark, according to the latest Domain House Price Report.
“It is pretty amazing, but prices have gone up so much on the Gold Coast that people have been thinking, ‘Why not go five minutes down the road on the other side of the border and buy a house 20 per cent cheaper?’” said agent David Stringer of DJ Stringer in Coolangatta.
“So we’ve had a lot of young families and first-home buyers going to the Tweed instead. So there’s a shift in the demographic now too, from those retirees to younger people coming in with a rise in the number of cafes and shops.
“Prices in Tweed – and it is a big area – are proving very very strong now, but the Gold Coast has just been crazy.
Even though houses in Tweed are more affordable than on the Gold Coast, which has a $1,125,500 median, its prices are rising so fast, many people are now being priced out of the market. Many are now opting for townhouses or apartments, particularly in duplexes, Stringer said.
He recently sold a house-like waterfront apartment at 51/7 Island Drive, Tweed Heads, for $1.45 million on its first day on the market.
Also snapped up fast was the three-bedroom townhouse at 2/32 Honeymyrtle Drive, Banora Point, which sold in the first week for just under $900,000
Apartment prices are rising steeply too. Domain data shows their median price rose 7.3 per cent in the past 12 months to $805,000 – above the Gold Coast’s median of $750,000.
Tweed Shire mayor Chris Cherry said she saw it as a worrying trend. She said many locals were now unable to afford housing, and younger people were moving out of the area to buy where they could.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” she said. “So many people discovered us during COVID, and while it’s good that we’re now so popular, it’s made it hard for local people and also local businesses to service the population when it’s so difficult to find affordable housing for key workers.
“We also have a problem with land-banking and while we have a lot of land planned for new residential towns, some of the developers aren’t releasing it to the market. That creates massive supply issues.
“We also have about 1400 entire homes that are listed permanently on short-term holiday platforms like Airbnb. Even if half of those came back to the long-term residential market, that would make a huge impact.”
Among the new developments planned are a rezoning in Terranora, 17 residential precincts with around 5500 dwellings in Cobaki, and a new master-planned community in Kings Forest, with about 4500 homes.
In the meantime, the rapid home price growth is startling many in the area.
Grant Dale of Sotheby’s International Realty sells mostly in Byron Bay, which sits 65 kilometres north and has a median house price of $2.28 million and a unit median of $1.39 million, but he also sells in the Tweed.
He has a three-bed apartment on the market at 4/18 Hill Street, Tweed Heads, with a price guide of $2.7 million.
“Tweed Heads’ price growth really is quite remarkable but it’s so close to the Gold Coast and all the facilities it offers,” he said.
“It’s a very different market to Byron, though, with probably 61 per cent still retirees, while Byron is quite a young demographic.”
The Tweed Shire population currently stands at 98,967, having grown 1.02 per cent over 2023, higher than the regional NSW average of 1.01 per cent.
It’s expected to grow to about 120,000 by 2031, on Tweed Shire Council forecasts, which will create a demand for around 16,000 houses and 10,000 units, depending on household size.
Correspondingly, there are many new, and refurbished, amenities on the drawing board, with the Tweed Mall shopping centre having more development nearby tentatively approved and other shopping centres going through a rejuvenation.
“More people are discovering it all the time, and they’re coming down from the Gold Coast or Brisbane, and up from Sydney, to buy homes here,” said Joel Leach of McGrath Coolangatta/Tweed Heads/Tweed Coast, who’s selling the three-bedroom unit at 187/1 Mariners Drive West, Tweed Heads, with a guide of $1.225 million.
“We’ve got so much more new infrastructure coming in and people are cashing in from other areas and coming to live here instead.
“It’s close to beaches and waterways, the airport and shops and schools. And there are new residential developments coming too.”
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