Gold Coast at a glance

At a glance

The business base

There were 83,266 actively trading businesses in the City of Gold Coast local government area at 30 June 2025, up 2,493 businesses (3.1 per cent) over 2024-25 from 80,773 at 30 June 2024. That is 15.9 per cent of every actively trading business in Queensland, on 0.077 per cent of the state land area, in a council area of 1,333.386 square kilometres. Measured against population, it is 118.6 businesses per 1,000 residents at 30 June 2024, against 62.6 in the City of Moreton Bay. The Gold Coast carries close to twice the business count per head of the largest outer metropolitan council in the state.

What is over represented

By business count, no single division dominates. Fourteen of the twenty divisions sit between an index of 0.87 and 1.18 against Queensland. The largest genuine over representation is rental, hiring and real estate services at 11,832 businesses, 14.6 per cent of the base, an index of 1.25 and 19.9 per cent of every such business in the state. Information media and telecommunications indexes at 1.38, arts and recreation services at 1.27 and financial and insurance services at 1.25. Agriculture is the lowest index in the state at 0.10.

Where the businesses are

The Yatala Enterprise Area at Yatala and Stapylton is the region’s major industrial estate, and it is inside the City of Gold Coast rather than Logan. Southport is the central business district and holds the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct. Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach carry the hospitality core along Cavill Mall, Broadbeach Mall and the Oracle Boulevard. Robina is the southern commercial centre, Nerang, Molendinar and Arundel form the central trade services belt, and the Gold Coast Marine Precinct sits on the Coomera River. Burleigh Heads trades on James Street and Coolangatta on Marine Parade.

Who the buyers are

A resident trade buyer exists in almost every division, because the base is diversified rather than tied to one industry cycle. The constraint is size. At 30 June 2024, 61.7 per cent of businesses were non employing, 88.6 per cent employed four people or fewer, and only 2,205 in the whole council area employed 20 or more. Only 6,481 businesses (8.0 per cent) turned over $2 million or more a year. In 2023-24 the 5 to 19 employee band went backwards by 81 businesses on net, and every turnover band above $2 million lost businesses on net.

The local friction

One council covers the whole region and it is also the water and wastewater business, so the trade waste approval and the food licence sit with the same body. The trade waste approval does not transfer: council states that if you change property ownership or lease a business establishment, you will have to reapply for a new approval. Footpath dining is charged per square metre per day, at $0.90 in Cavill Mall, Broadbeach Mall and Surfers Paradise Central for 2026-27. Food business licences run up to three years with an annual expiry of 31 August.

What decides the price

Seasonality first, and how honestly it is presented. Accommodation and food services carries 63,243 employee jobs, 11.8 per cent of every employee job in the council area against 9.4 per cent for Queensland, an index of 1.26, so demand moves with the visitor calendar well beyond the businesses that call themselves tourism. After that, owner dependence, because 88.6 per cent of the base employs four people or fewer. Where the sale includes freehold, the property often outweighs the goodwill: the median established house transfer price in 2024 was $1,135,000 against $785,000 in Moreton Bay.