Queensland’s first $3 million suburb

Queensland is just $50 away from its first $3 million suburb, with new data revealing there are now 88 suburbs across the Sunshine State with a median house price of $1 million or more.

Following a record year of growth and high-profile sales, house prices across the quiet village of Sunshine Beach reached a median price of $2,999,950 by December 2021, according to the latest Domain House Price Report.

The prestigious pocket, tucked away over the hill from Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast, has been a break-out property star in recent years. During 2021, house prices there rose by a massive 50 per cent.

But it’s over the past five years where the full scope of Sunshine Beach’s growth is clearest: since December 2016, house prices have soared by 209 per cent, and it’s now the third-strongest property market in the entire nation.

What used to be Noosa’s best-kept secret is now well and truly out in the open, said Rachel Sellman of Century 21 Conolly Hay Group.

“Anyone who sold in Sunshine Beach I bet now wishes they hadn’t,” she said. “And my team has made some sales in January that would’ve tipped us over the $3 million mark by now I’m sure.”

Ms Sellman said Sunshine Beach had become more popular as Noosa got busier.

“People with a lot of money don’t want to be in that rat race,” she said. “For a while, people were almost finding Sunshine Beach by accident. They would find themselves walking through the national park from Noosa, popping out the other side, and not even knowing where they were.