Someone Paid $360,000 for This Highland Park Home in 2016. It Just Sold for $1,180,000.

9 Jabiluka Drive, Highland Park, sold for $1,180,000 in August 2026, ten and a half years after it last changed hands for $360,000 in January 2016.¹ Both prices come from public sales records. The sale went through in the same months that Gold Coast homes began taking noticeably longer to sell, which makes it a useful piece of evidence: it shows what one Highland Park seller achieved in this market, not the market of a year ago.

The market around it has changed since the autumn. Across 22 Gold Coast postcodes, homes that had been listed for 60 to 180 days without selling rose from 1,288 in March 2026 to 2,707 in September, the latest month published. A year earlier, in September 2025, the figure was 1,479.² The median Gold Coast house that sold in the three months to September had been on the market for 40 days, across 708 sales, up from 26.5 days for the three months to March.³ And on 29 September 2026 the Reserve Bank raised the cash rate to 4.60%; its next decision is due on 3 November.⁴ I set out what these indicators have historically been associated with in Unsold Gold Coast homes have doubled since March. This article looks at one sale inside that picture.

How the result compares with the suburb

The fairest yardstick is what Highland Park house prices did over the same stretch. On the Fields rolling twelve-month median, the typical Highland Park house sold for $492,000 in the twelve months to March 2016, across 118 house sales. In the twelve months to September 2026 it was $1,248,500, across 58 house sales.⁵ That is a rise of 153.8%.

Source: public sales records (9 Jabiluka Drive); Fields market charts, Highland Park houses, rolling twelve-month median sale price for the windows ending March 2016 and September 2026. The purchase sits inside the first window and the sale inside the second.

This home outran the suburb by a wide margin. It was bought for about 27% less than the typical Highland Park house in 2016 and sold for about 5% less in 2026, closing most of that gap. The records point to the likely reason, which is what happened to the house in between.

What changed in between

When it sold in 2016, the listing described a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home on a quiet street, with open-plan living, a good-sized kitchen, air conditioning, a separate laundry, a large yard and a big outdoor entertaining area. It was pitched to first home buyers and empty nesters.⁶

The 2026 listing describes the same three-bedroom home updated throughout: a renovated kitchen with a butler's pantry and laundry, a renovated bathroom, a brand-new pool area, a large covered patio, a storage or work shed, and a fully fenced block with an electric gate.⁷

So the 227.8% is not a pure market figure. It combines ten years of Highland Park price growth with a renovation the records do not cost. If the house had simply kept pace with the suburb, $360,000 in 2016 would correspond to roughly $914,000 at today's median. The sale came in about $266,000 above that. That difference is not a measure of what the renovation cost or what it was worth on its own, because other things also changed over ten years. It is the part of the result that ordinary suburb growth does not explain.

What the records show about the home

Our property record holds a 701 m² block and a house of about 92 m² built around 1985, with three bedrooms and one bathroom.⁸

In the twelve months to September 2026, Fields records hold 25 three-bedroom Highland Park house sales. Their median price was $1,167,700, and this sale landed $12,300 above it. Their median block was 819 m², and 5 of the 25 sat on less land than 9 Jabiluka Drive.⁹ So this is a modest-sized house on a block smaller than most three-bedroom sales, and the renovation carried it to just above the going price for a three-bedroom Highland Park house. For a buyer, that combination carries its own value: the pool, kitchen and bathroom already done, on a block with less to maintain.

The sales around it

Source: Fields sales records and public sales records.¹⁰ All are three-bedroom houses within about 290 metres of 9 Jabiluka Drive. Block sizes are cadastral lot areas; bedroom counts are from our property records.

Four three-bedroom houses within about 290 metres sold between $965,000 and $1,210,100 over the past year or so. 9 Jabiluka Drive's $1,180,000 sits near the top of that range, just below 38 Quigan Terrace and above 36 Jabiluka Drive on the same street, which sold for $965,000 in June. We cannot see inside these homes or their contracts, so the table shows what each sold for, not why.

The campaign

Our listing record shows the home first advertised on 7 May and, at one stage, priced at offers over $1,250,000. It sold by private treaty for $1,180,000, $70,000 or 5.6% below that figure, about three months after it was first advertised.¹ For context, across the twelve months to September 2026 the median Highland Park house that sold had been advertised for 18.5 days, across 20 sales. Across the five Nerang and Carrara area suburbs we pool for selling times, the median house sold in the June quarter of 2026 had been advertised for 19 days, across 45 sales, and in the September quarter 41.5 days, across 14 sales.¹¹ This campaign ran through the months when that figure more than doubled.

I have given the month rather than a date. The property's public sales history and our listing record date the sale 4 August 2026; a second sold record dates it 4 September. Both give the same price.

What this one sale can and cannot tell you

One sale does not set a market, and this result was agreed in winter, before the September rate rise. Since then the Gold Coast indicators above have continued to describe longer selling times and more unsold stock.

What the sale does show is narrower and firmer. A renovated three-bedroom Highland Park house sold in mid-2026 just above the suburb's three-bedroom median, and over ten years its owners' result ran well ahead of the suburb's, with a renovation the listing set out. Whether results like this continue as stock builds is something the next few months of recorded sales will show, and I will report them as they come in.

Fields Real Estate was not involved in either sale of this property.

1. Fields Real Estate sales records, 9 Jabiluka Drive, Highland Park. Compiled from public sale records: $360,000 (14 January 2016, private treaty, 22 days advertised) and $1,180,000 (August 2026, private treaty; first advertised 7 May 2026). ↩
2. SQM Research, total property listings by postcode. All dwelling types, homes listed 60 to 90 and 90 to 180 days combined, summed across 22 Gold Coast postcodes: 1,479 (September 2025), 1,288 (March 2026), 2,707 (September 2026); retrieved 29 October 2026. ↩
3. Fields Real Estate sold-property records, Gold Coast suburb panel. Median days from advertised date to sold date, houses, 64 Gold Coast suburbs, sales advertised three days or fewer excluded: 26.5 days for the three months to March 2026 (784 sales); 40 days for the three months to September 2026 (708 sales); recomputed 29 October 2026. ↩
4. Reserve Bank of Australia, Statement by the Monetary Policy Board: Monetary Policy Decision. 29 September 2026, cash rate target raised 25 basis points to 4.60%; next scheduled decision 3 November 2026. ↩
5. Highland Park property market, Fields Real Estate. Houses, rolling twelve-month median sale price: $492,000 for April 2015 to March 2016 (118 sales); $1,248,500 for October 2025 to September 2026 (58 sales). ↩
6. 9 Jabiluka Drive, Highland Park, 2016 sale campaign listing. Advertised listing description, paraphrased. ↩
7. 9 Jabiluka Drive, Highland Park, 2026 sale campaign listing. Advertised listing description, paraphrased. ↩
8. Fields Real Estate property record, 9 Jabiluka Drive, Highland Park. Cadastral lot area 701 m²; floor area about 92 m²; year built 1985; three bedrooms, one bathroom. ↩
9. Fields Real Estate sales records, Highland Park houses. Three-bedroom house sales October 2025 to September 2026: 25 sales, median $1,167,700, median block 819 m². ↩
10. Fields Real Estate sales records, Highland Park houses near Jabiluka Drive. Compiled from public sale records; three-bedroom houses within about 290 metres sold July 2025 to June 2026. ↩
11. Highland Park and Nerang–Carrara days on market, Fields Real Estate market charts. Median days advertised, final campaign, houses, sales advertised three days or fewer excluded: Highland Park 18.5 days for the twelve months to September 2026 (20 sales); Nerang, Carrara, Merrimac, Highland Park and Gilston pooled, 19 days for the June quarter 2026 (45 sales) and 41.5 days for the September quarter 2026 (14 sales). ↩