Palm Beach Liveability Snapshot
Palm Beach, at a glance
Position: southern Gold Coast, beachside suburb between Burleigh Heads and Currumbin, backed by the Tallebudgera Creek corridor
Distance to Brisbane: approximately a 1-hour 20-minute drive, traffic dependent
Commute to Gold Coast Airport: approximately 15 to 20 minutes, traffic dependent
Vibe: laid-back beach suburb with a strong local feel, less polished than Mermaid Beach, more everyday than Broadbeach
Best for: buyers who want genuine beachside living, walkability to sand and cafés, and a suburb that still feels like locals live there
Day-to-day: early beach routines, café runs, school drop-offs, creek walks, and a relaxed coastal pace
Walkability: good in the beachside and café pockets, more mixed as you move inland towards the motorway corridor
Transport: car first, regular buses on the Gold Coast Highway, easy access north and south
Schools: catchment depends on the exact address; you must check EdMap for the home you are considering
Hazards: property specific; some low-lying pockets can have flood overlays; always check overlays and insurance early
If you want the investor view as well, including how the house, unit, and duplex market behaves and what drives price movement in different Palm Beach 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
Palm Beach is a long, beachside suburb in the southern Gold Coast with a classic coastal layout: the surf beach on one side, the Gold Coast Highway running through the middle, and quieter residential streets and waterway pockets stretching back towards the M1 corridor. It is popular with lifestyle buyers because it feels genuinely local, has a strong café culture without being a nightlife centre, and offers a very liveable beach routine.
Housing is mixed, with renovated beach cottages, contemporary rebuilds, duplexes, townhouses, and a meaningful unit market along the highway and closer to the beachfront. Liveability varies by pocket, particularly depending on how close you are to the highway, major intersections, or lower-lying areas near the creek system.
Who Palm Beach suits best
Palm Beach suits buyers who prioritise beach access and a walkable daily lifestyle over a highly curated prestige feel. It works well for downsizers, professional couples, small families, and lifestyle-led buyers who want a suburb with personality and a strong owner-occupier presence, with enough amenities close by that you do not need to drive for everything.
If you want a quieter, more uniform prestige streetscape, Mermaid Beach can feel more polished. If you want higher-density resort-style living and a major dining precinct, Broadbeach will feel more like a “destination.” Palm Beach sits in the middle, coastal and convenient, but still grounded and local.
Why choose Palm Beach
Palm Beach is often chosen because it delivers a true coastal lifestyle without the “tourist suburb” feel. You can live close to the water, keep a simple routine, and still access major employment, hospitals, and retail north or south without feeling like you live inside a commercial core.
It is also a suburb where good properties can hold long-term scarcity appeal, particularly in the quieter beachside streets and the stronger owner-occupier pockets, but due diligence matters because the suburb includes multiple housing types and very different micro-locations.
Housing and streetscape feel
You will see a blend of older beach houses, significant renovation activity, duplex stock, and pockets of higher density units, especially closer to the Gold Coast Highway and key activity spines. Some streets have a strong, settled owner-occupier feel, while others have higher turnover and more rentals.
Pocket selection matters. A property that is a short walk to the beach on a quiet street can feel completely different day to day compared with a similar property a few blocks back near heavier traffic or dense unit strips.
Getting around and commute reality
Palm Beach is easy to live in if you drive, but it also supports a more walkable lifestyle in the right pocket, particularly near the beach, café strips, parks, and everyday services. The Gold Coast Highway keeps the suburb connected north and south, and the airport commute is one of the most convenient on the coast.
Noise and traffic are property specific. If you are sensitive to road noise, you want to check the street at different times of day and be realistic about how close you are to the highway or key intersections.
Schools and education
State school zoning in Queensland is address-based, not suburb-name-based. Palm Beach can sit across more than one catchment boundary depending on the exact street, so the only reliable way to confirm eligibility is to check the exact address in EdMap for the relevant year level and enrolment year.
Primary schools your Palm Beach address may be zoned for:
Palm Beach State School
Currumbin State School
Burleigh Heads State School
Secondary schools your Palm Beach address may be zoned for:
Palm Beach Currumbin State High School
Miami State High School
When researching schools online, you will often see mixed reviews. That is common in coastal catchments with varied housing and student populations. Online commentary usually reflects individual experiences rather than the overall day-to-day environment. Visiting the school, understanding catchment rules, and considering your child’s needs will give you 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
Palm Beach lifestyle is built around the ocean and the creek. The beach and foreshore support daily walking, running, and surf routines, while the nearby creek and park corridors add a more nature-based lifestyle option than some central suburbs.
You have a strong mix of casual dining, wellness services, and everyday amenities without the suburb needing to function as a major shopping hub.
Convenience and day-to-day essentials
Palm Beach is highly practical day to day. Supermarkets, medical services, gyms, cafés, and everyday retail are close, and most errands can be done quickly without driving across the city. It is also positioned well for larger retail and service hubs nearby when you need them.
Dining and cafés
Palm Beach has a strong café culture and a steady flow of casual local dining. It is more about everyday quality and routine than destination dining or late-night venues, which helps it retain a more residential feel.
Shopping and everyday services
You have good coverage of supermarkets, health and medical, personal services, and convenience retail. The mix supports a very liveable routine, especially for buyers who want a suburb that works Monday to Friday, not just on weekends.
Community profile
Palm Beach generally feels local and lived-in. It attracts a mix of long-term residents, professional households, downsizers, and renters, with a stronger everyday residential rhythm than the major tourism cores. As with much of the Gold Coast, the feel varies by pocket, but overall it is more “coastal community” than “visitor precinct.”
Crime and safety, relative to the Gold Coast
Palm Beach has a mid-range crime profile by Gold Coast standards. It is not a CBD-style hotspot like Southport, but it does have activity corridors and visitor movement around the coastal strip, retail pockets, and main roads, which can lift opportunistic property offences. The practical pattern is that outcomes vary by micro-location, quieter residential pockets tend to feel calmer, while higher-traffic areas and busier parking zones tend to record more incidents.
Headline figures (2024)
Crime rank – 20/100
Higher score indicates higher overall crime relative to population
Total offences – 2,768
Crimes per 1,000 residents – 105.29
Queensland – lower
Australia – lower
Violent crimes – 263 total
Violent crime rate – 10.01 per 1,000 residents
Queensland – ~8 per 1,000
Australia – ~11 per 1,000
Property crimes – 1,458 total
Property crime rate – 55.47 per 1,000 residents
Most reported offence groups
The majority of crime is non-violent and opportunistic, with a concentration around higher-activity pockets rather than quiet residential streets.
Top reported offence categories in 2024
Theft – 710 offences
Drug dealing and trafficking – 475 offences
Assault and related offences – 240 offences
Likelihood of being affected
Chance of being a victim of violent crime – 1 in 100
Queensland – 1 in 123
Australia – 1 in 89Chance of being a victim of property crime – 1 in 18
Queensland – 1 in 22
Australia – 1 in 26
This reinforces the pattern in the data: Palm Beach’s risk profile is more about opportunistic property offences linked to activity corridors rather than persistently elevated violent crime.
Trend direction:
Total crime in Palm Beach decreased by 13.2% from 2023 to 2024
Long-term trends show moderate fluctuations aligned with visitor activity and coastal movement patterns, rather than sharp spikes.
Bottom line: Palm Beach is a premium lifestyle suburb with a generally manageable safety profile by Gold Coast standards. The practical takeaway is to choose the pocket carefully, prioritise secure parking and sensible lighting and access controls, and check the immediate surrounds of any shortlisted address rather than relying on suburb-wide averages.
Data sources
RedSuburbs, 2024. Based on Queensland Police Service offence data and ABS Census population figures. For street-level detail by offence type and time period, use the Queensland Police Online Crime Map.
Socioeconomic context, SEIFA
SEIFA is area-level context, not a judgement on individual households, but it is useful for understanding whether a suburb is broadly more advantaged or more disadvantaged compared with other places.
Southport spans more than one SA2, so SEIFA results vary across the suburb.
For Southport (SA2 Southport – North), the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) score is approximately 943, placing it around decile 3 out of 10 nationally (higher decile indicates less disadvantage).
For Southport (SA2 Southport – South), the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) score is approximately 968, placing it around decile 4 out of 10 nationally (higher decile indicates less disadvantage).
Plain English takeaway: Southport trends more mixed and lower on SEIFA than many purely residential coastal family suburbs. Lived experience varies significantly by pocket, building type and proximity to the CBD core and transport corridors.
Price and rental context
Palm Beach sits in the premium coastal tier on the Gold Coast, supported by beach proximity, scarcity, and strong owner-occupier demand. Price behaviour varies by property type and micro-location. Standalone houses are tightly held and can be highly competitive, while units and apartments show wider variation depending on building age, density, and body corporate settings.
Median house price, around $1,765,000
Median unit price, around $1,110,000
Median 4 bedroom house rent, around $1,550 per week
Median unit rent, around $800 per week
Medians sourced from realestate.com.au, for 12 months to December 2025.
In Palm Beach, some dwelling types can show limited sales volume in a 12-month window, particularly larger family homes in certain configurations and tightly held pockets. That can make medians more jumpy year to year. Use medians as a starting point, then sanity-check with recent comparable sales and the specific pocket, land component, and renovation level.
Plain English takeaway: Palm Beach is premium and scarcity-driven. Medians give you a baseline, but the real pricing story is pocket selection and the land versus building value mix, especially for houses.
Flood, bushfire and natural hazard considerations
Palm Beach is a suburb where overlays are property specific. Low-lying pockets near creek systems and canals can attract flood mapping, and coastal exposure can also affect insurance pricing depending on construction, elevation, and proximity to water.
As with any suburb where overlays may apply, insurance premiums can vary by property, so it is worth getting an insurance quote early in your decision-making process.
Quick take: pros and trade-offs
Pros:
True beachside lifestyle, strong café culture, local community feel, good day-to-day convenience, and premium demand driven by scarcity in the best pockets.
Trade-offs:
Pocket-to-pocket variability, traffic and noise nearer the highway and busy intersections, a wide quality spread in unit stock requiring careful building selection, and overlay and insurance checks matter more near low-lying areas.
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
Palm Beach is a suburb where the lifestyle is easy to love, but the “best version” of Palm Beach is very pocket dependent.
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
