Queensland families looking for room to grow are being hit with the biggest upsizing bills in the country, with the cost of adding just one bedroom in some suburbs outstripping even Sydney’s most expensive enclaves.
Exclusive new REA Group data reveals Main Beach, Surfers Paradise and New Farm are among the toughest places in Australia to upsize, with families needing to find as much as $2.3m extra simply to move to a home with one more bedroom.
Main Beach has the biggest price gap in the nation between a two and three-bedroom house, with buyers needing an additional $1.9m to make the move.
Surfers Paradise and New Farm aren’t far behind, with a third bedroom commanding a $1.4m premium — putting all three Queensland suburbs ahead of anywhere in Sydney.
And for families needing even more space, the price jump can be greater again.
Surfers Paradise is the most expensive suburb in the country to upgrade from a three to four-bedroom house, with the additional bedroom coming with a staggering $2.3m difference in median prices.
In New Farm, moving from three bedrooms to four costs an additional $793,500.
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The figures expose the increasingly difficult choice facing families who outgrow their homes in some of Queensland’s most desirable neighbourhoods: find seven figures to secure another bedroom, compromise on space, or move out of the suburb altogether.
Realestate.com.au economist Megan Lieu said there was a clear trend across Queensland that having an additional bedroom added to the value of the home.
But she said enquiries for three-bedroom houses on realestate.com.au in the past 12 months had been higher than for those with four bedrooms.
“I think, generally, affordability is playing a big role in whether people are looking for bigger homes because they tend to cost more,” Ms Lieu said.
“We are seeing higher demand in the lower end (of price ranges), so it’s really difficult to say whether that is driving it… We have seen searches increase for granny flats.”
The biggest jump in price for an extra room when it comes to a unit in Queensland is $1.2m — the difference between a two-bedroom unit and a three-bedroom flat in Brisbane City.
Upgrading from a one-bedroom to a two-bedroom unit costs the most in Noosa Heads, where buyers can expect to pay an extra $670,000 for the additional room.
But the data also reveals an unlikely property-market quirk: in some sought-after suburbs, more bedrooms don’t necessarily mean a higher price.
In Burleigh Heads, the median four-bedroom house is actually $367,000 cheaper than its three-bedroom counterpart, while it could be $200,000 cheaper to go from three to four bedrooms in Greenbank, and $127,000 less in the Cairns suburb of Clifton Beach.
In Coolangatta, buyers could theoretically save $166,000 by moving from two bedrooms to three.
The smallest difference between a one and two-bedroom unit is in Beenleigh at just $1,250, while moving from a two-bedroom unit to a three-bedroom unit in the suburbs of Kippa-Ring and Strathpine will only cost you an extra $9000 to $12,000.
Ms Lieu said many of the three-bedroom houses sold in the past 12 months in Burleigh Heads were closer to the beach.
“So, I guess there’s a premium attached to that, compared to the four-bedroom houses located a bit further away,” she said. “So, I think that is more based off location rather than the number of bedrooms.”
Brisbane buyer’s agent and Happy Buyers Club co-founder Chayse Jones said the current market downturn presented some good opportunities for families looking to upgrade.
“Good quality, fundamentally sound family homes in good suburbs are standing strong amidst the downturn and continue to sell well,” Mr Jones said.
“For existing homeowners, we actually think this creates an interesting opportunity. If you’ve been waiting to upgrade your primary residence, a more balanced market can make that move considerably more attractive.”
Raine & Horne executive chairman Angus Raine also believes the softer market “is giving upgraders a rare opportunity to narrow the gap between the sale price received for their existing home, and the price they pay for their next property”.
“The current market is working in favour of buyers, who are benefitting from less competition and greater negotiating power,” Mr Raine said.
“The long term fundamentals that underpin Australian real estate have not changed. We continue to experience strong population growth driven by overseas migration, coupled with a chronic undersupply of new housing. This will put a floor under any price falls and continue to drive values higher over the long term.”
The research analysed the cost of an extra bedroom by suburb over the 12 months ending July 2026.
Originally published as Revealed: The Queensland suburbs where an extra bedroom costs over $2m