![Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The crowd during the 2025 Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro which was held at Burleigh Heads instead of Snapper Rocks due to Cyclone Alfres impacts. (Photo by Beatriz Ryder/World Surf League)
Living close to one of only three World Surfing Reserves in Australia commands a property premium that standard market metrics cannot measure.
As the World Surf League Championship Tour returns to the southern Gold Coast’s Snapper Rocks this weekend, one Queensland real estate boss says there is a huge link between surf culture, community, and long-term property value.
An aerial view looking at the famous Snapper Rocks. Picture: Getty Images
“The southern Gold Coast has always commanded a premium that the standard market metrics don’t fully account for,” said Dane Atherton, founder and managing director of Coastal Property Agents.
“You can’t put a number on waking up 200m from a World Surfing Reserve, or on being part of a community that has produced more surf world champions than almost anywhere on earth.
“But buyers feel it and they pay for it.”
MORE NEWS: It costs $14k to own a square metre in this one-bedroom unit
$3k hit ‘at once’: Inflation crushes any hope of rate relief
View of Coolangatta beach and Snapper Rocks.
PropTrack data supports this with house prices up over the past 12 months in Coolangatta (9.3 per cent), Bilinga (46.6 per cent), Currumbin (8.8 per cent) and Palm Beach (12.5 per cent).
Bilinga’s holds the biggest median house price at $3.05m, followed by Palm Beach at $1.5m, Currumbin at $1.795m and Coolangatta at $1.694m.
Hotposts including Rainbow Bay, Kirra continue to attract large buyer demand with limited supply.
Huge crowds gather at the 2025 Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro, held at Burleigh Heads instead of Snapper Rocks due to Cyclone Alfres impacts. Picture: Andrew Shield/ World Surf League
But it’s not just property — the Gold Coast Pro attracts more than 14,000 spectators while broadcasting to 190 countries and injecting $2.9m into the local economy.
The beachfront suburbs line a 16km sweep of protected coastline that produces some of the longest, most consistent waves on the planet.
Among the famous surfers from the southern Gold Coast are Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson and Stephanie Gilmore.
“Surfers who grew up in these streets, surfed these breaks from childhood, and went on to define what the sport looks like at its highest level,” Mr Atherton said.
Mick Fanning at Snapper Rocks. Picture: Annette Dew
A World Surfing Reserve protects outstanding waves and their surrounding environments with only three in Australia — on the Gold Coast, Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, and Manly-Freshwater in NSW.
Mr Atherton said he believed the Gold Coast surfing stretch, from Burleigh Heads to Coolangatta, had shaped one of the most distinct community identities on the east coast of the country but argued the more significant economic story didn’t show up in event spending reports.
“World Surfing Reserve status is the coastal equivalent of a heritage listing,” Mr Atherton said.
“It protects the very things that make people want to live here.
“That has long-term implications for how this market behaves, implications that most buyers are only beginning to understand.”
Founder and managing director of Coastal Property Agents Dane Atherton.
The World Surf League was forced to move the Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro away from Snapper Rocks in 2025 due to Cyclone Alfred impacts but this year, the event returns to Snapper Rocks.
Coastal Property Agents has recently announced an expanded partnership with the WSL ahead of the 2026 Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro which kicks off on May 1.