Building approvals, live development applications and major projects across the Gold Coast Hinterland statistical area — covering Scenic Rim and Gold Coast.
These four figures are deliberately not added together. An application, an approval and a project under construction are often the same building at three points in its life, measured by three different bodies with three different lags. Read them as a sequence, not a total.
What councils and certifiers have formally permitted — the ABS series, published about four months in arrears.
Dwelling approvals a year per 100 existing homes, with Queensland and Australia for comparison. This is the same activity as the totals view, divided by the size of the area — which is the only fair way to compare a large SA3 with a small one.
Dwelling approvals a year per 1,000 residents, each year divided by that year’s estimated resident population (ABS ERP at 30 June), not by today’s — which matters most in fast-growing areas, where a fixed denominator can understate the early years by half. The most recent periods use the latest published ERP, as the population series runs a year behind approvals. Read it alongside the per-100-homes view: the two differ wherever household size does.
Dwelling units approved each financial year. The dashed line is the five-year average of 109.
Dwelling approvals a year per 100 existing dwellings.
Detached houses as a share of existing homes, against the share of recent approvals.
Share of each year’s approvals.
The same approvals, measured against the population they have to house.
People added for every new address verified, against the size of an average local household.
A bar longer than the household average means the area gained more residents than its new housing could hold, and the extra had to be absorbed by existing homes.
Dwellings a year: what is currently being approved, against what the 2041 population projection implies.
Implied need assumes the average household stays at today’s 2.9 people. Approvals are not completions, and not every approval is built.
What is funded and moving — the projects large enough to change how Gold Coast Hinterland works, ranked by committed value and how close they are to delivery.
Queensland Government project to replace and raise the Mudgeeraba Creek Causeway on Gold Coast-Springbrook Road at Austinville, improving flood immunity for the Austinville, Neranwood and Springbrook…
The project involves a substantial revamp of Mount Tamborine's primary shopping hub, featuring the retrofitting and extension of the existing supermarket-anchored centre. The development aims to optimize site…
Stage One works are underway on Long Road, Eagle Heights to deliver an off-road car park east of Long Road, easing traffic congestion on the Gallery Walk shopping and hospitality precinct. Works commencing…
Denotes AI-based impression for illustrative purposes only, not to be taken as
definitive under any circumstances. Please follow links and conduct other
investigations from the project’s source for actual imagery. Developers and
project owners wishing us to use original imagery please Contact
Us and we will do so.
Estimated value of tracked projects by the year they are due to complete, stacked by how certain they are. The dark band is money already being spent; the pale band is still an intention. Estimates are indicative and mix infrastructure cost with whole-of-precinct development value, so read the shape rather than the totals.
Applications and major projects plotted where they are actually proposed, with the 4 projects AreaSearch tracks here on their own tab — filterable by type, delivery stage, area and committed value. To search every application on record rather than this sample, use the section above.
Each area below opens a map builder on its own page — a tool for putting a map and a table into a report. Pick the place types you want plotted (schools, supermarkets, medical, child care, transport and the rest of what AreaSearch holds), add development applications as their own layer, drop your own points, then recolour, renumber and export the result as a table or CSV. A this area only toggle clips everything to the boundary you are looking at. Searches are charged against your credit balance — 1 credit per 40 results from AreaSearch data — and setting filters costs nothing until you search. The builder works on one suburb-sized area at a time, which is why it opens per area rather than across the whole of Gold Coast Hinterland.
| Local government area | Share of Gold Coast Hinterland | Applications on record | Register read to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scenic Rim | 78% of residents | 3 | May 2011 |
| Gold Coast | 22% of residents | 4 | June 2025 |
The same view of building approvals, applications and major projects for areas neighbouring Gold Coast Hinterland.
Gold Coast Hinterland is Statistical Area Level 3 30904 in the ABS Australian Statistical Geography Standard (2021 edition), made up of 2 Statistical Areas Level 2. It has an estimated 21,563 residents, +7.2% since the 2021 Census.
| Measure | Source | To |
|---|---|---|
| Dwelling approvals, five-year average | ABS / AreaSearch | June 2026 |
| House share of approvals | ABS / AreaSearch | June 2026 |
| Residents per approval | ABS / AreaSearch | June 2026 |
| Value per approved dwelling | ABS / AreaSearch | June 2026 |
| Commercial work approved | ABS / AreaSearch | June 2026 |
| Verified new addresses since the Census | Address register / AreaSearch | May 2026 |
| Major projects | Infrastructure Australia / state agencies / AreaSearch | Ongoing |
Figures on this page are read live from the AreaSearch database each time it loads, so they update as soon as a source does.
The ABS recorded 134 dwelling approvals across Gold Coast Hinterland in the 2024-25 financial year, against a five-year average of 109 a year.
AreaSearch tracks 4 current major projects in Gold Coast Hinterland, 2 of them under construction. The largest include Mudgeeraba Creek Causeway Upgrade (Austinville), Tamborine Shopping Centre Revamp and Tamborine Mountain Gallery Walk Precinct.
Gold Coast Hinterland is an ABS Statistical Area Level 3. It is covered by parts of 2 local government areas — Scenic Rim and Gold Coast. AreaSearch publishes development figures at ABS statistical boundaries rather than council boundaries, so they reconcile with the official ABS series.
On development approvals, Gold Coast Hinterland is adding new dwellings at about the same rate as Queensland as a whole — 0.70 approvals per 100 existing dwellings a year against the state figure of 0.77.
ABS building approvals are published with a lag of roughly four months; this page carries the series to June 2026. Development applications are collected from council planning portals and refresh continuously, with the most recent application here lodged in June 2025. Major project records are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Each section carries its own currency label so the four are never confused.
Development data is provided for general information. Estimated values, dwelling counts and delivery dates come from the lodging or delivering party and are not independently verified by AreaSearch. Confirm anything material with the relevant council or agency before relying on it.