Miami Liveability Snapshot
Miami, at a glance
Position: central–southern Gold Coast suburb between Mermaid Beach and Burleigh Heads
Distance to Brisbane: approximately a 1 hour 15 minute drive, traffic dependent
Commute to Gold Coast Airport: approximately 20–25 minutes, traffic dependent
Vibe: relaxed coastal, community-focused, a mix of beachside energy and residential calm
Best for: families, professional couples and lifestyle buyers wanting proximity to the beach, schools and cafés without full beachfront pricing
Day-to-day: school runs, beach walks, local cafés and parks, with a strong neighbourhood feel
Walkability: moderate to good, especially closer to the beach, schools and local café strips
Transport: car first, bus services along Gold Coast Highway, short drive to tram access in Broadbeach
Schools: catchment dependent; see Schools and education section below
Hazards: property specific, some flood and coastal considerations in low-lying pockets; always check the address
If you want the investor view as well, including how the house, unit, and duplex market behaves and what drives price movement in different Miami pockets, email me and I can give you a quick, plain-English summary tailored to your budget and property type.
If you are moving over from NZ, start here, at my Moving from NZ hub, with checklists, early admin steps, and Gold Coast suburb guidance.
Overview
Miami is a well-established coastal suburb on the central–southern Gold Coast, sitting between Mermaid Beach and Burleigh Heads. It offers a more relaxed, community-driven feel than its northern neighbours while still benefiting from strong amenities, beach access, and transport connections.
The suburb combines residential streets with a growing café culture and lifestyle focus, particularly around the beach, parks, and school precincts. Compared with Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach, Miami generally feels more local and less polished, which is part of its appeal.
Who Miami suits best
Miami suits families and lifestyle buyers who want proximity to the beach and strong schooling options without the density, pricing, or tourist intensity of beachfront suburbs. It is popular with professionals, young families, and long-term owner-occupiers who value community and walkable pockets.
Buyers seeking luxury beachfront living or high-rise apartment amenities may find Miami less suitable. Those buyers often look to Mermaid Beach, Broadbeach, or Burleigh Headland locations instead.
Why choose Miami
Miami is chosen for balance. It offers a coastal lifestyle, reputable public schools, and improving café and dining options, while still feeling grounded and residential day to day.
For many buyers, Miami represents a “liveable coastal suburb” rather than a prestige or tourism-led location, with a stronger focus on long-term living.
Housing and streetscape feel
Miami has a diverse housing mix. Detached houses dominate much of the suburb, ranging from original post-war homes through to renovated family houses and contemporary rebuilds. Duplexes and townhouses are common in some pockets, and there is a modest amount of low-rise unit stock closer to the highway.
Street feel varies by location. Areas closer to the beach and parks tend to feel more lifestyle-oriented, while pockets near the Gold Coast Highway and major roads are busier. Liveability is pocket dependent.
Getting around and commute reality
Miami is primarily car-based, but many daily activities can be handled locally. Access north to Broadbeach and south to Burleigh is straightforward, making it well placed for work, schools, and lifestyle travel.
Bus services run along the Gold Coast Highway. Most residents still rely on a car for commuting, school, and shopping.
Schools and education
Queensland state school zoning is address-based, not suburb-name-based. The only reliable way to confirm eligibility is to check the exact address in EdMap for the relevant year level and enrolment year.
Using Queensland Government catchment boundary files and a suburb-wide grid check across Miami, the state school catchments that touch the suburb include the following.
Primary schools your Miami address may be zoned for:
Miami State School
Burleigh Heads State School
Mermaid Beach State School
Secondary schools your Miami address may be zoned for:
Miami State High School
Merrimac State High School
When researching schools online, you will often see mixed reviews. That is common in central coastal catchments with diverse student populations. Visiting the school, understanding catchment rules, and checking your exact address in EdMap will give you far more useful insight than review sites alone.
If you are relocating with kids and want help shortlisting schools and aligning catchments with your housing search, I offer a Family Relocation Concierge option; details are on my services page.
Parks, sports and lifestyle amenities
Miami benefits from excellent access to beaches, the Oceanway, and local parks, supporting walking, cycling, and outdoor routines. The suburb also has good access to sporting facilities and recreational spaces in neighbouring Burleigh and Mermaid Beach.
Convenience and day-to-day essentials
Day-to-day convenience is strong. Local shops, schools, medical services, and supermarkets are easily accessed, with larger retail and specialist services close by in Burleigh, Broadbeach, and Robina.
Dining and cafés
Miami’s café and dining scene has grown steadily and is more local and understated than nearby destination precincts. Residents also draw heavily on Burleigh and Broadbeach for broader dining options.
Shopping and everyday services
Miami offers practical local shopping, with large retail centers nearby. This supports everyday living without the suburb being dominated by heavy retail traffic.
Community profile
Miami has a diverse but settled community profile. You will find families, professionals, long-term locals and renters, with less short-stay accommodation than in northern beachside suburbs. The suburb generally feels stable and community-oriented.
Crime and safety, relative to the Gold Coast
Miami is not a CBD, but it is a central coastal suburb with higher activity along the Gold Coast Highway and around retail and dining strips. That activity can lift opportunistic crime compared with quieter, low-traffic family suburbs. Based on 2024 data, Miami records higher crime rates per capita than both Queensland and Australia overall, driven mainly by property offenses rather than elevated violent crime.
Headline figures (2024):
Crime rank – 18/100
Higher score indicates higher overall crime relative to populationTotal offences – 818
Crimes per 1,000 residents – 109.87
Queensland – lower
Australia – lowerViolent crimes – 39 total
Violent crime rate – 5.24 per 1,000 residents
Queensland – ~8 per 1,000
Australia – ~11 per 1,000Property crimes – 460 total
Property crime rate – 61.79 per 1,000 residents
Queensland – ~44.75 per 1,000
Australia – ~38.29 per 1,000
Most reported offence groups: The majority of crime in Miami is opportunistic and property-related, concentrated around busier corridors and convenience areas rather than quiet residential pockets.
Top reported offence categories in 2024
Theft – 283 offences
Drug dealing and trafficking – 140 offences
Burglary and break and enter – 94 offences
Likelihood of being affected:
Chance of being a victim of violent crime – 1 in 191
Queensland – 1 in 123
Australia – 1 in 89Chance of being a victim of property crime – 1 in 16
Queensland – 1 in 22
Australia – 1 in 26
This reinforces the pattern in the data: Miami’s higher overall rate is primarily linked to property crime and activity corridors, while violent crime sits below broader Queensland and Australia averages.
Trend direction:
Crime in Miami decreased by 3.31% from 2023 to 2024.
Long-term trends show moderate variation aligned with population and activity changes, rather than sharp spikes.
Bottom line: Miami is a high-amenity, central coastal suburb, but it carries a higher property crime profile than many quieter residential areas. For buyers and renters, the practical takeaway is to choose the pocket carefully, prioritise secure parking and lighting, and use street-level tools to check the immediate area around any shortlisted address.
Data source: RedSuburbs, 2024. Based on Queensland Police Service offence data and ABS Census population figures. For street-level detail by offence type and time period, the Queensland Police Online Crime Map allows address-specific filtering.
Socioeconomic context, SEIFA
SEIFA provides area-level context rather than insight into individual households. A lower score indicates greater relative disadvantage, and a higher score indicates less disadvantage.
For Miami (SA2 Miami), the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) score is 1044, placing it at decile 7 out of 10 nationally (higher decile indicates less disadvantage).
Miami’s result reflects its mixed but generally well-established housing and community profile. There are higher-value owner-occupied areas and renovated homes, as well as more units and higher rental rates near busier corridors. This can make suburb-wide measures look worse than in premium, house-dominant suburbs.
Plain English takeaway: Miami trends relatively advantaged on SEIFA overall, but lived experience still varies by street, housing type, and proximity to main roads and higher-density pockets.
Price and rental context
Miami generally sits below Mermaid Beach and Broadbeach in pricing but above many inland suburbs, reflecting its coastal proximity and strong schooling appeal.
Median house price, around $1.73 million
Median unit price, around $1.1475 million
Median 4 bedroom house rent, around $1,500 per week
Median unit rent, around $810 per week
Medians sourced from realestate.com.au, for 12 months to December 2025.
Pricing varies materially by pocket, proximity to the beach, renovation level, and street exposure.
Plain English takeaway: Miami offers coastal proximity at a more accessible price point than beachfront suburbs, with value driven by street and housing type rather than suburb averages.
Flood, bushfire and natural hazard considerations
Flood and hazard overlays are property specific. In Miami, considerations are generally limited to low-lying pockets and stormwater management rather than bushfire risk. Always check the specific address and obtain insurance quotes early.
Quick take: pros and trade-offs
Pros:
Strong public schools, coastal lifestyle, improving café scene, family-friendly, more accessible pricing than beachfront suburbs
Trade-offs:
Car dependent in many pockets, busy roads affect some streets, housing quality varies by area
Helpful links
These tools are address-specific, so always check the exact property before relying on suburb-wide assumptions.
School catchments, EdMap
Queensland Police crime map RedSuburb crime statistics Median sale and rental pricing realestate.com.au ABS SEIFA index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage at SA2 level City of Gold Coast flood planning map
FloodCheck Queensland
City of Gold Coast bushfire overlay mapping
Helpful note
Miami is a suburb where street selection really matters. Proximity to the beach, schools and major roads can significantly change the day-to-day experience.
If you want, I am happy to sanity-check a specific street, school catchment, or property against how you want to live day to day - Lets Talk
