10 Apr 2020

Southport Property Market Data 2019

A Brief History of Southport

Cast your mind back a little over a century ago and you can almost picture the Southport of old; one of the Gold Coast’s earliest and most fashionable seaside destinations. This area has a rich and romantic history, which in the 1890s, attracted the well-heeled for its sideshow theatres and pier. Now home to the Gold Coast’s bustling CBD and with more permanent residents than any other part of this coastal strip, Southport is a suburb in two parts – business at the front and party at the back.

Parts of Southport are affordable and less built-up (a combination that is tough to find on the Gold Coast). Students come from all over the world to study medicine and dentistry at Southport, where there is a University Hospital and health education precinct run by Griffith University.

Southport overlooks the Broadwater and the Southport Spit (a long sandbar that divides the Broadwater from the ocean). The Broadwater is home to the Southport Broadwater Parklands with playgrounds, parklands, footpaths, bikeways, a magnificent water park, the Southport Pier, the Southport War Memorial and the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre with six pools, a fully equipped fitness centre and the Café Catalina (for when the ocean just isn’t enough for your swimming needs), a produce market on Saturdays and Sea World theme park on the Spit.

While you can swim at the beach at Southport, locals tend not to. With Surfers Paradise only six minutes away, it’s the preferred option for a dip. And if you are still looking for things to do (or if it’s raining), the major shopping centre and cinema complex, Australia Fair, is located on Marine Parade or you can stroll the streets to discover some fantastic eateries and boutique shops.

At night, the precinct transforms into a food mecca with authentic multicultural restaurants dotted throughout the glowing streets – with Korean and Vietnamese to Italian and Turkish, plus the new China Town precinct it truly is a foodie explorer’s heaven.

Some streets of Southport are so quiet, it’s easy to forget that you are this close to the glitter strip. Homes here range from new single-storey brick houses in walled estates, to modest wooden seaside shacks – and just about everything in between.

East of the Gold Coast Highway you’ll find the beginning of this region’s iconic high-rises. The towers here, in what is traditionally the Gold Coast’s CBD, tend to be home to businesses rather than holiday makers – but this quickly changes as you head south where you’ll find holiday apartments and luxurious hotels.

Southport is an iconically Gold Coast-style mix of the bright lights of multi-storey development and quiet seaside streets. But, as with many parts of The G.C., whether you love a house with a yard or high-rise living, life by the ocean has never been more fun.

(Information destinationgoldcoast.com, Wikipedia (Southport), realestate.com.au 28th October, 2019)