High-Rise Approved for Maroochydore CBD: What the New Tower Means for Sunshine Coast Buyers

A 20-storey residential tower has cleared the Sunshine Coast Council planning hurdle, with development approval granted last month for a mixed-use building on Duporth Avenue in Maroochydore's emerging CBD. The project, which will deliver 187 apartments across studio, one, two and three-bedroom configurations, is the tallest residential structure yet approved for the new city centre precinct, and it's landing at a complicated moment for the local market.

The timing matters because the Sunshine Coast is caught between two competing pressures. Supply of new dwellings has lagged well behind demand for the better part of four years, pushing the Queensland coastal median to around $880,000 as of mid-2026. At the same time, affordability stress is biting. Would-be buyers stretching to enter the market are now also absorbing stamp duty bills that have ballooned alongside property values, a dynamic hammering household budgets up and down the eastern seaboard. A tower of this scale, bringing nearly 200 dwellings online in a single project, is the kind of supply injection the council's ShapingSEQ regional plan has been calling for since its 2023 update.

What the CBD Footprint Means Locally

Maroochydore's purpose-built city centre, still very much a construction site along First Avenue and Sixth Avenue, was always designed to carry density. That's the bargain: concentrate height in the CBD, protect the low-rise character of suburbs like Buderim, Bokarina and Coolum Beach. The Duporth Avenue site sits inside the City Centre Master Plan boundary administered by SunCentral Maroochydore Pty Ltd, the state-backed entity overseeing the 53-hectare greenfield development. SunCentral has been selective about approvals, favouring projects that activate ground-floor retail and contribute to a walkable street grid, and this tower reportedly includes 800 square metres of commercial tenancy at podium level, fronting the proposed Cornmeal Creek waterway corridor.

For buyers priced out of detached housing, the project represents a real, if qualified, opportunity. Noosa Heads medians have blown past $2 million for houses, and even more modest coastal suburbs like Mooloolaba and Alexandra Headland are regularly recording sales above $1.4 million for freestanding homes. Apartments in the new CBD, by contrast, are expected to be pitched from roughly $620,000 for a one-bedder to just over $1.1 million for a three-bedroom configuration, prices that, while hardly cheap, put owner-occupier entry back within reach for dual-income professional households. That's the demographic the Sunshine Coast has been haemorrhaging to Brisbane's northern suburbs.

The Investor Question, and What Buyers Should Watch

Investors will also be watching closely. The rental vacancy rate across the Sunshine Coast local government area sat at 0.8 per cent in May 2026, according to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland's most recent quarterly data, a figure that has barely budged from the historic lows recorded during the post-pandemic migration surge. With the University of the Sunshine Coast's Moreton Bay campus drawing additional enrolments and the Sunshine Coast University Hospital precinct at Birtinya continuing to expand its workforce, demand for smaller, well-located rentals is not going away.

That said, anyone considering an off-the-plan purchase in this tower, or in any of the other three mixed-use projects currently in the Maroochydore CBD pipeline, should move carefully. Off-the-plan valuations have come in short of purchase price on several recent Sunshine Coast projects, leaving buyers scrambling to cover the gap at settlement. Engaging an independent buyer's agent and commissioning a separate valuation before signing a contract is essential, not optional. Construction timelines on projects of this scale routinely stretch 12 to 18 months beyond initial estimates, which means anyone banking on a 2028 settlement should plan for 2029. The Maroochydore CBD is genuinely transforming, the cranes on First Avenue are proof enough, but patience, and a forensic read of the contract terms, is the price of getting in early.

This article is general information only and is not personal financial or investment advice. Consider your own circumstances and seek licensed professional advice before making financial decisions.