Suburb Watch: Tallebudgera Valley, Queensland

Tallebudgera Valley, tucked away in Queensland’s Gold Coast hinterland may be compact but it has plenty of swagger when it comes to luxury properties and swoon-worthy scenery.

Sprawling mansions with ocean glimpses, trophy homes with knockout valley views and cute farm houses with horse paddocks overlooking emerald-green tree-covered hills and mountain tops can be found.

Nature in all her glory stars here, offering a relaxed lifestyle favoured by wealthy business leaders, investors, families, retirees and farmers. Tumbling waterfalls, ancient rainforest and the sparkling Tallebudgera Creek that flows from the plateau to the sea make it a nature lovers’ haven. Meanwhile, several health retreats and eco resorts sit on ridges overlooking bushland while white sandy beaches are just a 15-minute drive from the valley.

The International Gold Coast Airport is a 15-minute drive, and it is a one-hour drive to the International Brisbane Airport.

Boundaries

A Gold Coast suburb, Tallebudgera Valley is bordered by Tallebudgera to the southeast and is surrounded by the suburbs of Austinville, Bonogin, Burleigh Heads, Currumbin Valley, Dungay, Numinbah, Reedy Creek, Springbrook and Upper Crystal Creek. Burleigh Heads National Park is on the southwestern border.

Price Range

House prices begin at about $1.664 million and hike to $2.1 million on average, according to Eliza Owen, property data company CoreLogic’s head of research.

The median house value for the suburb was $1.477 million as of July, reflecting a rise of 40.9% year over year—higher than the appreciation across the broader Gold Coast. The 12-month growth rate is the highest rate of appreciation in more than a decade. In his current portfolio, John Fischer of PRD Burleigh Heads Real Estate, lists a five-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a pool on 3.61 acres in Tallebudgera Valley for $2.2 million.

Housing Stock

Unlike denser areas of the Gold Coast, Tallebudgera has fewer houses for sale.

Even though stock is relatively high (10.2% compared with a Gold Coast suburb average of 8.5%), there were only 13 listings counted on the market across the area in July, the latest data available, Ms. Owen said. This compares to a Gold Coast suburb average of 37 properties.

Tallebudgera Valley is known for its picturesque lifestyle properties ranging from 5 acres to 20 acres with sprawling five-to-eight-bedroom contemporary-style houses and multi-garages. They often feature large pools and extensive manicured gardens with stunning valley views.

Mr. Fischer said equestrian lovers are well catered for with some properties home to horse paddocks, stables and training areas.

There are also 2-to-4-acre properties with extensive houses and smaller house blocks can be found in the village.

“Some investors are buying properties with older style homes and knocking them down to rebuild modern dwellings,” Mr. Fischer said.

What Makes It Unique

Stunning scenery, plenty of space and a great sense of community, that’s the appeal of Tallebudgera Valley, Mr. Fischer said.

“It’s a beautiful part of the world and there is lots of camping, swimming, picnicking, kayaking, fishing and horse-riding and it is close to the beaches,” he said.

Ms. Owen echoed that sentiment.

“It’s a family-orientated area with bigger house properties where kids can have their horses,” she said.

“At a time when people in lockdown can’t access gyms, parks, bars, community pools and shared workspaces, large properties may inspire people to incorporate these kinds of spaces on their own property.

“For the money you pay in Tallebudgera Valley, I think interstate buyers in large cities, like Sydney and Melbourne in particular, would see the value in such properties, presuming the location was convenient through remote work,” she said.

Luxury Amenities

While Tallebudgera Valley has a small village, it is a short drive to great shopping and restaurants and a choice of excellent schools.

Tallebudgera State School, St. Andrews Lutheran College, All Saints, Silkwood, St. Hilda’s Girls School and Southport Boys School cover kindergarten through secondary school.

Pacific Fair Shopping Centre, on the Gold Coast Highway at Broadbeach, has luxury shops including Hermes, Givenchy, Gucci, Chanel and Bvlgari and multi-brand stores Billabong, Polo Ralph Lauren and Gant. Nearby Robina has a David Jones department store and Burleigh Heads’ James Street is known for its quaint boutiques, including Miss Brown Vintage and Maison & Maison.

Golosi Food Emporium on James Street offers artisan food and you can stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables at local farmers markets.

Dining options include the trendy beach-side Rick Shores at Burleigh Heads with waterfront views and wave serenades—the fried bug rolls have a following. Soak up the sunny vibes and watch keen surfers at Burleigh Pavilion and The Tropic with its open kitchen.

Renowned, former Sydney chef Alex Labart creates memorable feasts at the sleek Labart in Burleigh Heads.

Spy on kangaroos grazing nearby as you indulge in organic produce under giant 100-year-old fig trees at Pasture & Co in nearby Currumbin Valley.

Custard Canteen with its pretty red and white striped umbrellas, serves signature Portuguese tarts and other treats, just a few sandy steps from Tallebudgera Creek.

For cocktails, head to Lockwood Bar and Justin Lane Rooftop, while Iku Yakitori and Whiskey Bar serve Japanese-inspired cocktails and whiskeys.

Golf fans have the pick of three golf courses and a driving range in the region, plus world-class golf courses, RACV Royal Pines Resort and the Links Hope Island, a little further afield.

Right in town, the Tallebudgera Village has the Man on the Bike Pizza Cafe, supermarket and several shops.

Who Lives There

Mr. Fischer said business leaders, IT specialists, investors, artists, retirees and families favoured living in the valley. Tallebudgera which means “good fish” is often shortened to Tally Valley by locals.

Notable Residents

Global real estate tycoon Riyu Li has his 10-bedroom, six garage sumptuous mansion dubbed Bellagio La Villa on the market for A$33 million with Amir Prestige Real Estate.

Outlook

It will be hard for this market to sustain the current rate of price growth, but values will continue to rise, Ms. Owen said.

“The region could still see value increases, just not at such a strong rate, driven by ongoing demand against the underlying scarcity of housing in the area,” she said.

“Covid has forced a lot of firms to accept remote work, and this has amplified demand for lifestyle properties in more secluded areas.”

Lifestyle markets that offer large properties have been the highest-performing regions in the past 12 months in terms of capital growth, and house markets have vastly outperformed apartment markets.

“Alongside that, Covid has stimulated housing demand more broadly through low interest rates (a global phenomenon), high levels of savings accumulated during lockdowns, and remote work prompting a lot of people to seek their own home,” she said.

Eliza Owen said persistently low mortgage rates have put most Australian housing markets into a broad-based upswing.

“The enablement of remote work, coupled with many regional populations ‘staying in place’ amid lockdowns in cities, has amplified the usual internal migration trends in Australia,” she said.

Comparing ABS migration data for the March 2020 quarter with March 2021, there has been a 36.8% uplift in departures from Melbourne to regional Queensland.

As Mr. Fischer said, the beautiful Tallebudgera Valley looks set to sizzle for the next couple of years, in all its natural glory.

OTTAWA–The nascent recovery in Canada’s housing market has become a casualty of the trade dispute with the U.S.

The latest national home-resale data are due out Tuesday, but early indications from several big regional real-estate boards suggest March was overall another down month as many prospective buyers exercised caution.

The recent weakness in home sales has dimmed the previously brighter outlook for the property market coming into 2025, when buyers were encouraged by the Bank of Canada’s aggressive interest-rate cuts.

“The chills the U.S. trade war has sent through participants in the housing market are getting frostier,” said Robert Hogue , assistant chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.

Hogue said resales are down materially in a number of markets two months running, and home prices in several markets are coming under pressure as inventories rise. And although Canada was spared additional levies when President Trump unveiled so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries earlier this month, no meaningful rebound is likely so long as trade uncertainty lingers, he said.

Home buyers in Toronto, Canada’s most populous city and the country’s financial hub, aren’t turning up for the usual spring pickup in property-market activity.

Sales in the Greater Toronto Area slumped 23.1% in March from a year earlier, as new listings for the region jumped close to 29%, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. That marked the worst month of resales since 1998.

The board’s chief information officer, Jason Mercer , said many potential home buyers were likely taking a wait-and-see approach given the economic worries as well as a pending federal election. “Homebuyers need to feel their employment situation is solid before committing to monthly mortgage payments over the long term,” he said, adding that ownership has become more affordable and prices in the area fell about 3.8% year on year in March.

Uncertainty is also weighing on the housing market in Calgary, the biggest city in oil-rich Alberta. The city’s real-estate board said realtors reported a 19% drop in sales of existing homes from last year, with a similar trend of improving supply and a sharp increase in the average number of days that homes were on the market.

On the West Coast, home sales registered in the metro Vancouver area of British Columbia were the lowest for March since 2019, falling 13.4% on a year earlier and coming in close to 37% below the 10-year seasonal average, while active listings continued to rise.

There are some areas of resilience. The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers said total sales in the province were up 9% year on year in March. Still, RBC’s Hogue estimated Montreal sales in March were down about 15% from December seasonally adjusted, effectively rolling back the advance since the end of last summer.

The most recent national data for the country, from the Canadian Real Estate Association, showed resales dropped 9.8% month over month in February, when homebuyers may also have been put off by harsh winter storms in parts of the country. That marked the sharpest fall since May 2022 and brought the level of sales to their lowest level since November 2023, snapping signs that activity had been picking up in recent months.

Rishi Sondhi , an economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank, in a recent report estimated the country was tracking toward a double-digit quarterly decline in Canadian home sales and a mid-single-digit drop in Canadian average home prices for the first three months of 2025. That is much weaker than a pre-Trump inauguration forecast made in December that projected a loosening in federal mortgage rules, lower interest rates and continued economic growth would fuel a modest gain in sales and prices.

Central-bank officials are set to decide Wednesday on monetary policy, but they have signaled a cautious approach to rates as they balance the prospect of tariffs stoking price pressures against the likelihood that they will dampen demand and weigh on the economy. That could mean the Bank of Canada will pause after seven straight cuts to its policy rate.

Housing is a hot topic for party leaders campaigning ahead of the April 28 election, with both the incumbent Liberal Party and opposition Conservatives proposing tax cuts and incentives to encourage buyers and builders.

The outlook for new homes has also dimmed with the tariff threat. The value of residential-building permits issued in February fell 2.9% from a month prior, adding to a retreat in January that took back some of the surge in intentions in the final month of last year, Statistics Canada data last week showed.

Suburb Watch: Tallebudgera Valley, Queensland

Outside Queensland’s Gold Coast — a relaxed, leafy lifestyle.

Early indications from several big regional real-estate boards suggest March was overall another down month.