QLD Best suburbs - Gold Coast v southside Brisbane

Hi everyone

We will be moving from interstate to Brisbane/Gold Coast in January and are just trying to sort out where to live. We are flying to Brisbane for a few days next week specifically to check out where we might live and schools in the area. We will most likely rent for the first 6-12 months and then look to buy a PPOR. At that stage we would be looking at $550k-$750k, with the upper end of the price bracket requiring no major renovations. House wise we require a 4x2x2 (plus study if possible) and would look at the suburb’s investment potential.

The difficulty is that work will be in Tweed Heads for 6-12 months and then based in Brisbane city after that. However, we have two sons in secondary school going into year 10 and the all-important year 12, so we won’t have the luxury of renting near Tweed initially and then moving again. We need to choose our location carefully to be a good balance between changing work needs (in particular travelling times), access to a good secondary school for the next 3 years and a desirable lifestyle.

We are after a suburb to suit a family with teenagers and and easy access to local services/shops. We would like to be near to a good independent or Catholic secondary school but would also consider a state high school – it really comes down to individual school’s reputation. Proximity to a university for our eldest son in 12 months time would also be a bonus, as would a local junior football club for our younger son.

The best we have come up with so far is possibly central or northern Gold Coast or southside of Brisbane, but we are very open to feedback, as we don’t know the area well or the reputation of various suburbs/locations or schools. We are hoping to drill down to a few select areas ready to explore when we fly over. Coming from Perth we think we may prefer the more relaxed coastal lifestyle of the Gold Coast versus big city living.

Any suggestions for suburbs to look at (or avoid) would be hugely appreciated. Thanks.

Angela

 

Thanks Rolf. I did look at that part of the GC initially but decided that once he was working in Brisbane hubby would just spend too much of his life in traffic after his typical 10-12 hour day (great for Tweed Heads access early on though). I personally prefer the housing stock in that area though versus the more standard 4x2x2 project home style product in Pimpama.

Having grown up in NSW I’m only really familiar with the tourist areas around Burleigh Heads/Surfers/Broadbeach from our family holidays to Qld, but would obviously avoid the touristy areas for our needs. Looking at the map I thought that GC suburbs in a line from about Broadbeach going north might suit better for the longer term. It looks like a typical trip from the GC to Brisbane city via the M1 is around an hour give or take. This assumes no accidents, road works etc, of which I’m sure there are plenty that cause travelling times to blow out! Is this about right?

 

Have you considered buying something near a train station? This way you could potentially get a great place in the middle and avoid the traffic. Preferably something with an express train station.

 

I didn’t take GC to Brissie but I took the peak hour train from Bald Hills to Brissie and from Ipswich to Brissie. Both were nowhere near full. No seats, but plenty of standing space....

 

I could only assume GC is not much different to the other two

 

If the Tweed work is only for 6-12 months, I would focus on Southside Brisbane.

As @wylie said, maybe start with the school.

Hubby commuted from Southside Brisbane to Bundall for around eight months some years ago. Most of the commute on the M1 is from the Gold Coast to Brisbane, so he was going against the main traffic flow.

Griffith Uni has a major campus at Parkwood near Southport. Bond Uni is at Robina.
Marg

 

Hi all

Thanks for the great replies, really appreciate it. We have taken on board your comments (especially re the long term impact of travelling times) and are starting to accept that south of Brisbane is the more logical choice. The travel to Tweed Heads won’t be fun, but at least it’s only 6-12 months.

Compared to Perth living in a busy location like Brisbane will be a big change for us, so would love any feedback on areas to target that match our OP. We may increase our budget to $800k when the time comes to buy just due to the higher cost closer to Brisbane.

Would love a leafy suburb with a bit of green space or perhaps even near the river (minus the flood risk ). Having said that hubby found this website and after looking purely at travelling times (which understandably have him nervous) and aiming for about one hour to Tweed Heads he came up with a suburb called Springwood. I think it also appealed because there are some bigger house blocks in the area, so more space and not so much the big city feel. His approach is a bit like sticking a pin in a map really.
Brisbane peak hour: when the gridlock starts and ends

It looks like the closer you get to Brisbane the better the public transport options, and travel times to the CBD are only about 15-20mins, which is great, but travel to Tweed blows out. Areas like Sherwood, Chelmer, Coorparoo, look great but then the Tweed factor kicks in and I get confused! Ignoring the Tweed issue, good access to the CBD for work, close to a great school and uni, good public transport options for the boys and good local services would have us covered. But Tweed is a factor. Argghh!

Schools are still a sticking point. Also eldest son will be going to uni in 2020 and it looks like QUT will be best for his chosen course. As we lack local knowledge (big time!), if there are areas/schools that we should definitely avoid please let us know. The Logan area sounds like one of those. Back to my research...

Angela

 

You probably need to come over for a visit and drive about suburbs ! Have a look at Ormeau but on the left side of motorway I was surprised there are nice acreage properties there and is ok commute to brisbane and GC. I can help you with GC schools. Can your partner drive outside peak hour? If yes I would live on GC . All of Brisbane is pretty bad for traffic in peak hour. You should try and stay working in Tweed can have a lovely lifestyle down there

 

There are plenty of nice places up near the Springwood Conservation Park on Plateau Drive that fit the leafy and quiet criteria. I think you'll be looking at around 550-750 for a good to great place in that area.

 

if I was you, I would be looking for a house inside a catchments of those high school, Mansfield, Cavendish or Mount Gravatt SHS, I came from Perth too and I reckon you will love Brisbane. ( still I prefer Perth)

 

Thanks for all the great replies. After further research the past couple of days, hubby and I have decided we are definitely only looking at southside Brisbane for our move. Thanks for helping us decide!

We are still very keen to get some feedback on secondary schools and suburbs in the area. However, as I named this thread Gold Coast v southside Brisbane I thought it might be best to start a new thread just focusing on southside Brisbane. Thanks again for all the replies.

 

Hello - my pick would be Gold Coast. On the QLD bandwagon!