Ashmore Suburb Review

If there was any single word that sums up Ashmore as a potential place to live, ‘versatile’ would probably be it.

This is a suburb that – due to its combination of convenient physical location and varied housing profile that runs the gamut from low through to high end – can serve as a useful hub for a pretty wide proportion of Gold Coast residents of all income levels, work locations, and life stages.

Essentially the only real age group who it doesn’t cater particularly well to are the young adult/university student bracket due to its lack of any kind of real ‘hang out’ scene; other than that, pretty much anyone can find at least one pocket of Ashmore that suits their needs and come away content.

Demographic-wise, Ashmore is quite an ‘old’ suburb, with its median age of 43 years significantly above the Australian average of 38. However this number is artificially skewed somewhat, as the suburb plays home to a cluster of retirement and aged care centres dotted throughout which drag this number up significantly higher than what actually plays out in daily life.

While Ashmore does not have any real kind of mainstream image as a ‘wealthy’ or ‘prestige’ suburb as a whole (as most people who pass through it on a regular basis are only exposed to its main arterial roads, or perhaps visiting its fairly wide array of stores, services & shops), this is somewhat deceptive.

Simply zipping through the suburb via the likes of Southport-Nerang Road, Cotlew Street, or Currumburra Road as a hefty proportion of the Gold Coast’s population frequently do likely leaves a less favourable impression than what’s actually on offer within the rest of Ashmore. Such a surface-level glance belies much of the actual beauty, greenery and pleasant streetscapes that occur elsewhere throughout.

This ‘thoroughfare’ nature of Ashmore as a suburb is one of the main aspects that serves to make it both annoying and useful at the same time.

On the one hand, living here means you’re easily able to jump on one of these main connector roads and access various key spots of the Gold Coast in short order – whether that’s Southport for shopping/dining/work, the M1 highway for north/south travel elsewhere on the Coast, or Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach, Pacific Fair etc. for beach/leisure/entertainment purposes.

On the other hand, it makes the suburb quite busy & traffic-prone, and contributes to ambient noise as many others from elsewhere are continually passing through the very suburb you live in.

Roads like Cotlew Street are perpetually busy, with large double-lane roundabouts that can be a chore to get around and result in some frustrating wait times. However the government has recently been performing roadworks and substituting more intersections with traffic lights in their place instead.

It’s fairly hilly in a lot of its topography with a very up-and-down aspect in many of its central streets, making it a not-great suburb in terms of walkability or for the likes of bike riders.

Its disconnect from any rail connections means you’re otherwise reliant on the Gold Coast’s universally-unreliable buses, and while Ashmore sees fairly frequent services and boasts quite a lot of bus stops, it’s still not a desirable choice in terms of public transport for internal Gold Coast travel.

On the plus side, Nerang‘s train station is only a fairly short drive away, making it a potential option for those willing/able to endure a rail-based commute for working up in Brisbane. 

You also don’t have far to go to access the M1, but you’ll still be subjected to the same traffic nightmare as soon as you hop on it during peak hours as you would be anywhere else on the GC. However at least with coming from Ashmore, you’ll be entering the highway far north enough not to have to deal with the worst focal points of M1 traffic congestion around Burleigh & the like (assuming you’re heading north).

Ashmore itself is also fairly rare versus many other residential-heavy suburbs on the Gold Coast in that it offers a pretty decent array of potential job opportunities within the suburb itself.

It’s quite amenity-heavy in terms of general retail stores, including both smaller local businesses and chains of bigger-box retailers (think Spotlight, Beacon Lighting, Bunnings, Anaconda, etc.) which are both convenient from a shopping perspective as well as offering potential jobs.

Ashmore’s also home to several decently-sized hubs of offices, warehouses and other back-of-street type businesses, including a handful of industrial parks that branch off the likes of Wardoo Street, Currumburra Road, and just outside its northern border in general.

It also lies relatively close to Gold Coast University Hospital & Gold Coast Private Hospital for medical workers due to its proximity to Southport. Each of these provide the chance at a job for both blue & white collar workers alike.

This means you potentially have the chance to live in a suburb where you can either work very close to home, or at least minimise your commute as much as possible which – given the Gold Coast’s increasingly deteriorating road traffic situation – is highly desirable.

Ashmore’s amenities are also obviously not just potential workplaces, but handy for residents as a whole. The suburb’s quite well-equipped for both daily shopping needs and services such as auto repair, medical, home and business renovation and the like.

Medical is particularly well-serviced relative to the suburb’s size, with the new-ish ‘Our Medical’ medical complex for various treatments & specialists, as well as decent proximity to the Southport hospitals and each of its small hubs of shopping likewise populated with at least some kind of doctor/dentist/specialist.

The suburb comes with several little shopping centres located throughout that cover both consumer staples – such as supermarkets – as well as basic takeaway & no-nonsense restaurant dining in each of its north, central, and eastern portion.

In its northern slice, you can find the still fairly-newly-updated Ashmore City shopping centre that comes with a decent array of parking for its fairly-small size & a pretty rare (for the Gold Coast) Drakes supermarket, chemists, bottle shop and various other basics as well as adjacent gym.

This hub on the busy Southport-Nerang & Currumburra Road intersection bleeds across to its neighbouring “Pit Stop” collection of takeaway joints and low-key dining, and its aforementioned bigger-box retailers across the road as well as a standalone Aldi supermarket for more variety in grocery choices.

Elsewhere, central Ashmore’s Ashmore Plaza feels like stepping back in time several decades to 1980’s Australia.

It’s one of those old-time-feeling, single-storey Aussie mini shopping centres with a Woolworths, various long-time Asian restaurants, token Mister Minute-style repairs, newsagent and all the other type stores you’d expect to find in these dated shopping arcades. Meanwhile across the road, you’ve got various fast food chains, sushi, and other options for a quick bite to eat.

Lastly on its eastern portion, the updated mini-strip style complex of Bronberg Plaza provides a Flannerys, general grocer, mixed medical & more smaller restaurants as well.

One of the other pretty unique ‘shopping’ aspects Ashmore offers is its cluster of Factory Outlets providing a range of discounts on clothing, pharmaceuticals and various other brands at ‘warehouse’ prices, as well as bulk-style butchers and other stores nearby in its adjacent complex.

Add it all up, and it’s a more-than-respectable array of amenities for a suburb that’s not really that large in size, and ensures most pockets of residential housing won’t have to go far for their daily needs. While none of these store hubs or shopping centres are particularly beautiful or trendy & the type of spot you’d want to “hang out” in (rather than simply grabbing what you need and leaving) they’re still highly functional as a whole.

In terms of entertainment, Ashmore is a bit of a mixed bag, and again feels like one of those ‘legacy’ suburbs that provides a bit of a line-walk between kitschy charm and simply needing an update or fresh coat of paint.

This is exemplified by entertainment spots such as its oldschool ‘Go Bowling‘ complex for some good old-fashioned entertainment, one of those fun, throwback bowling alleys with dated arcade machines and score monitors…

… and no-nonsense, friendly and fairly bare-bones watering hole the Central Park Tavern, a lowkey and relaxed spot to have a drink and a standard pub-style bite to eat.

Contrast this with the newly-renovated and suddenly-upmarket Ashmore Tavern – with its modern interior, live music and updated, airy decor & design, and you’ve got a summary of the ‘transition phrase’ going on in Ashmore in a nutshell. The suburb doesn’t really offer anything in the way of fancy, high-end dining or swanky/boutique cafes, so if that’s something you place a high priority on then you’ll likely want to choose another (likely more expensive) suburb that caters better to “foodies”.

Part a little unkempt, part modern/expensive and sleek – just in different spots within the suburb – is a theme that carries over to pretty much all aspects of current-day Ashmore living.

This applies to much of the suburb’s public parkland and green hubs as well. While Ashmore does not have one single true ‘flagship’ park, it boasts a pretty decent assortment of little to mid-sized ‘pocket-parks’ spread throughout. Most of its individual slices of residential housing have at least one decent-to-good park within walking (or, at most, short-driving) distance, although they do vary in terms of size/quality/upkeep/equipment somewhat.

Its biggest by raw size within the suburb’s borders that actually have equipment are Bob Huth Park towards its Benowa-facing side, which comes with a solid amount of playground facilities good for kids, and Girral Park even bigger with sand playground and nice big mature trees within its major western residential housing cluster.

While these are both fairly well-maintained, its numerous other little parks vary in both quality and location pretty widely; from pretty little waterfront green spaces overlooking the water, to bog-standard, semi-neglected parks with overgrown grass & the occasional dumped shopping trolley.

Add in the fact that Ashmore sits close to the Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens (one of the best dog-friendly areas they can go off-leash in this part of the Gold Coast) as well as the larger Musgrave Ave Park not far away in Southport, and there’s a good selection of green spots overall in this area.

One other, fairly random factoid relating to this greenery is that Ashmore is pretty much ‘Lorikeet central’ – they’re cute birds, but can be verrrryyy noisy around sunset as they cluster in various tall trees throughout the suburb and their screeching is surprisingly loud.

There’s no beach here obviously given Ashmore’s land-locked nature, or even a signature lake or similar body of water, so waterfront property is mostly non-existent outside of its handful of elite riverfront houses.

As a result, those who are after the stereotypical ‘waterfront lifestyle’ of the Gold Coast likely won’t have these things on your doorstep by picking here as a place to live. However the relatively short drive to the beach (takes around ~15 minutes to Surfers Paradise’s beach in times of reasonable traffic) cancels this out somewhat.

While Ashmore’s parkland areas are good for dogs & kids to run around in, it also caters to children/families fairly well in other aspects.

Ashmore’s got a solid “family scene”, both in terms of schooling options and other public amenities that help support socialisation.

It boasts a pretty strong selection of schools for a suburb of its size, with four to choose from including both secular and religious options.

These include Ashmore State School & Bellevue Park for primary, and Aquinas & Trinity Lutheran colleges for education up to year 12.

Elsewhere, the Ashmore Community Park and Youth Club complex caters for sporting and social events for kids and teens, dance clubs and the like while offering a large oval for various competitions.

Throw in a TAFE campus for older students looking to study or gain a certification, and it’s a pretty varied suburb in terms of educational opportunities that are all – again – solid-to-good, if unspectacular.

Streetscape-wise, present-day Ashmore is largely safe. Its lack of a train station nor any major shopping complex or strong bar scene prevents the existence of any main congregating points for mischief, and its crime statistics reflect this as a whole amongst all key categories (assault, robbery, break & enter, etc).

It’s also got multiple pockets of pleasantness to it, with many of its streets heavily lined with mature tree cover, wide nature strips, and roomy front lawns in general.

This is specifically prominent on the suburb’s western side which trends slightly more spread out & greener, with larger residential housing blocks and essentially zero density overall, however is fairly strong throughout the suburb as a whole. The west side of Ashmore also trends towards being more peaceful, typically fetches higher property prices as a result, and contains larger houses on said blocks in general.

Most of its residential streets branch back off one of the main thoroughfare roads and then splinter into various back streets and cul-de-sacs that provide both nicer, treelined streetscapes as well as quiet & seclusion. This culminates in some pretty exclusive/higher-end spots with large homes backing onto the Nerang River, sometimes complete with their own tennis/basketball courts and other such luxuries.

Ashmore’s detached homes lean towards the larger side of the scale on the whole (again, especially on the western side) and offer a pretty good balance of value in terms of price per square metre.

It also offers a decent range of duplexes and townhouse/villa complexes, which comprise around ~20% of the suburb’s housing supply and are mostly congregated around its central area, as well as its eastern portion towards Benowa.

These help keep the housing costs down and provide a bit more flexibility for those at earlier career stages, although they’re typically located on just or just behind some of its busier and “less premium” streets.

It’s also gradually had a slight injection of newer apartment/unit supply added to the suburb for some additional diversification, but this forms a clear minority clocking in at just under 10% of homes in Ashmore.

There’s still plenty of original-condition houses that make up a lot of Ashmore’s streetscape, also often with steep driveways and/or built on a slope given the suburb’s general hilly nature.

Many of its clusters of duplexes in particular trend toward the more neglected/less maintained end of the scale with some cracks starting to show, and will likely require at least some renovation if you’re looking to buy such a place.

In terms of price, Ashmore has climbed substantially just like every other suburb on the Gold Coast in recent years, however it still sits at a figure slightly under the median house price for the city (currently $1,050,000.00 for detached homes).

That’s not too bad given its central aspect and flexibility on offer, and also given the aforementioned larger size of some of the houses available here. And obviously, opting for a duplex/townhouse here can chop that housing price figure down substantially while still giving you the benefits of Ashmore’s conveniences anyway.

You’re essentially still getting an above-median quality of life for a below-median house purchase price, which is about as good as you can ask for these days on the Gold Coast before you start to branch out into the more ‘premium’ suburbs where housing costs quickly tick up several hundred grand.

So unless you’re the type who truly craves ocean views or plans to use the beach on a literal daily basis, it’s probably not worth the extra expense for the average person.

And for those with more cash to throw around, Ashmore still offers a decent helping of fairly large & prestige-type properties that occasionally come up for sale anyway.

The Verdict

These days, Ashmore’s simply a practical, useful and highly functional ‘upper-mid’ suburb of the Gold Coast that checks plenty of boxes, while – outside of its most elite pockets of homes – never going to blow anyone’s socks off. That’s also still a lot better than it was in the past when it was a fair bit more run down/dodgier than it is now.

While slight elements of gentrification are creeping in, it hasn’t yet been completely corrupted from this either, nor rapidly become truly overpriced as a result (as we’ve seen in some of the more ‘glamour’ suburbs in the city). 

And it’s important to have suburbs such as this that still exist, and which haven’t quickly transformed to being overly trendy, in order to simply have options for practical everyday living… before money floods in & completely changes their lifestyle, or prices even more people out.

The majority of the suburb itself is not particularly spectacular in any one way, but it still makes for a highly useful springboard to get to plenty of other parts of the Gold Coast in not too long a travel time – assuming you’re travelling by car, at pretty much all times. Ashmore’s still in a bit of a public transport ‘dead zone’, and its traffic situation isn’t great, but if you restrict most of your regular travel to neighbouring suburbs for work & play purposes this likely won’t be too big of a deal for most.

And given its mix of schools, shops, services, and potential jobs are all pretty self-contained, that’s something that’s actually an option here. You’re simply compromising on having raw ‘Gold Coast beauty’ on your doorstep in return for overall practicality and (slightly) reduced prices, without having to travel extremely far in order to access them when you need them.

Besides, pick the right street in Ashmore and you can still end up with a highly pretty & green little slice of life that you won’t want to leave too often anyway. No-one’s probably ever going to brag that they live in Ashmore, at least not yet… and that’s a good thing for the majority of people looking for a nice place to live without completely breaking the bank.