Nerang Suburb Review

As far as Gold Coast suburbs go, Nerang might never make the ‘glamour’ list that is featured in the glossy tourism or real estate brochures, but the simple fact remains that in the present day – as a place to live – it makes for a pretty damn solid choice.

This is an example of a suburb whose name has been a little “tainted” in the eyes of many long-time Gold Coast locals based on a past reputation that really, in the present day, no longer exists. I even remember growing up as a kid in school, kids would mock those who lived there as “Nerang-utans”, a supposed dig at the suburb’s ‘poorer’, working-class roots.

Well, if you’d bought into Nerang back in those days, you’d certainly be the one having the last laugh in the present. That’s because these days it boasts each of: a low crime rate, and a very comprehensive & convenient array of amenities and services – all while still retaining a ton of the original greenery that made it appealing to many in the first place.

Sure, Nerang by its nature is still very tradie-heavy – expect to have a loud speeding or tailgating ute or American truck in your rearview mirror on a regular basis here – but that is also changing over time. This has become even more rapid in recent years, as a host of interstate movers with no prior preconceptions of Nerang have moved in, and the suburb continues to gradually change and intermix over time as a result.

Layout-wise, Nerang is very much a suburb with two faces. Much of its central ‘retail’ portion closest to the M1 highway is oriented around a very solid range of services and amenities that, while not the sexiest area to look at, is highly useful.

One of the best things about Nerang from a practical perspective is how self-sufficient it is in terms of stores & shopping. The suburb is extremely convenient for daily needs, with all the major supermarket brands covered here (including Aldi), as well as a range of bigger-box stores such as Bunnings, OfficeWorks, Pet Barn, and various other warehouse-style retailers.

This central section is also something of a takeaway ‘haven’, with all the typical brand names you’d expect (McDonald’s, KFC, Hungry Jacks, Subway etc.) along with smaller stores offering sushi and some other smaller choices. 

Meanwhile its ‘My Center’ Nerang shopping centre is this portion of the suburb’s main hub of stores, where Coles can be found, and Woolworths lies just across the road.

Further up Station Street where this area clusters around, additional services such as multiple chemists, various medical, op shops, and this part of Nerang’s signature watering hole the Hinterland Hotel can all be found. It’s not a flashy shopping strip, sure, but it certainly is functional if sometimes a little hectic with lots of people coming-and-going and all the highway noise nearby.

This array of amenities continues on elsewhere throughout Nerang, too. It’s not simply this one highway-adjacent section; Nerang has multiple ‘hubs’ for small-scale retail & services dotted throughout, so no matter where in the suburb you live (unless you’re truly up in its western hills) you’ll have one in reasonable distance nearby.

In fact, Nerang is home to the greatest concentration of shopping centres/plazas/micro-malls of any suburb you’re likely to come across. And this doesn’t even mention the still-recently-upgraded Nerang Fair either. It’s also absolutely blanketed by multiple oldschool little shopping villages; some of them are a little older/80’s-style-Australia still – its separate cluster of stores around Nerang Street are very much this ‘vibe’ – but still offer even more choice. 

One such area lies across from the nice greenery of Bischof Pioneer Park (with some decent little playground equipment for the kids), and offers various services along with several cafes and some decent Japanese and other Asian restaurants as well.

It’s also where the Nerang Cinemas can be found; a cute little oldschool cinema complex which is one of the cheapest of its kind on the Gold Coast for going and catching a movie or two.

Elsewhere nearby, both the Nerang RSL (a great spot for families & oldies, and with a lovely little veterans’ tribute/memorial garden) and the Commercial Hotel (a solid choice for a meal, a drink, or even a stay) offer two more pub-style locations for even more added choice. 

Nerang’s public library can also be found here for any reading/study needs; add it all up and it’s another feather in Nerang’s cap as far as amenity offerings go.

Meanwhile, Nerang’s eastern slice on the other side of the highway is more industry/business focused. 

This section of the suburb contains a heavy proportion of warehousing & industrial estates featuring mostly business-to-business suppliers, or home-oriented trades (think cabinetmakers, auto electricians, print/design, etc.) although there’s the occasional direct-to-consumer retailer for regular people mixed in.

This is also where another of Nerang’s more unique entertainment options – its ‘Slideways’ go-karting complex can be found. And, while this part of of the suburb is fairly conventional/unappealing, it still culminates in a decent park – Glennon Park – home to a sporting complex oriented around footy (rugby).

And this is typical of Nerang as a whole – even its more mundane areas still manage to sprinkle in a fair bit of greenery, and that applies even moreso the further away from the highway you go. 

Nerang is an exceptionally green and leafy suburb as a whole, although it can also be a little overgrown & unkempt in spots. Much of its residential streets have great tree cover, with a combo of native Aussie bushes/gums as well as a host of signature Gold Coast palm trees dotted throughout.

It’s full of countless parks, both large and small, and when combined with the generally decent-sized blocks most of its houses are on (the suburb leans detached-house-heavy), it’s one of the better suburbs for pet owners on the whole as well.

This is highlighted by its dedicated fence dog park within the Kamholtz Family Park, but really applies to most of the parks in Nerang anyway, as most of them are pet-friendly and decent enough in size for the dog to run around.

Nature-wise, the suburb also benefits from being wrapped around the Nerang River itself. The waterway can not only be fairly pretty to look at, but offers some opportunities for cooling off (both for animals & people) on a hot day, as well as a number of extra waterfront parklands & reserves nearby for enjoying a picnic or a walk along one of its many walking tracks.

Walking in Nerang in general can be quite pleasant, but the suburb suffers somewhat in this regard from its hilly nature.

Many of its residential streets are quite steep, and this only gets more & more exaggerated the further west you go, as the suburb basically sprawls down a hillside towards the highway.

As a result, it’s a pretty car-centric suburb (as is much of the Gold Coast); you wouldn’t want to live here without having a vehicle to rely on.

Its residential streets – even those further out – are technically serviced by buses, however the services aren’t particularly frequent and you wouldn’t want to rely on them on a regular basis.

Nerang does benefit pretty well connectivity-wise in general, however. Its combination of pretty immediate highway access to the M1, plus its central location geographically on the Gold Coast, gives it a good balance for commuting to Brisbane, or accessing other ‘key’ areas such as Robina Town Centre, Surfers Paradise or Gold Coast Airport.

The M1-based drive up to Brisbane is a notorious slog of a morning though, however this is hardly unique to Nerang and is something the Gold Coast suffers from as a whole.

One of its other pluses is being a ‘train station suburb’. Nerang Station has a decent amount of commuter parking on either side of the station and offers a commute to Roma St in Brisbane of just over 1 hour in the mornings, which isn’t too bad. 

The station itself used to be quite dodgy in the past & host to some crime issues, but it’s been fairly recently renewed and along with general gentrification of the suburb is now far less so (although it still remains the primary ‘crime hotspot’ in the suburb statistically). 

This station-adjacent area is also where you can find some of the (fairly limited) medium-density housing/apartments in Nerang.

There’s relatively little choice of units in the suburb outside of this area & some limited other pockets; housing-wise Nerang mostly consists of fully-detached housing and a number of complexes of townhouses/villas dotted in a number of spots throughout. This includes several cheaper older but decently-maintained townhouse complexes for those after cheaper housing accommodations.

Much of Nerang’s housing inventory is fairly old, original-condition stuff that’s been upgraded over time.

There’s some construction and subdivision around its station, along with newer housing complexes with all the mod cons, however the general rule in Nerang is “the newer the house, the smaller the block of land its on”, and these tend to be two-storey houses that attempt to maximise land use. 

As mentioned, the further out into the greenery you go, the bigger properties you get. This extends all the way up until you reach the level of multiple massive, estate-level homes spread out around areas like Crane & Country Crescents, which come complete with horse stables, and their own lakes/ponds, windmills and fountains along with houses with long, sprawling driveways.

If you’ve got the coin and are after forming your own hinterland-style compound to live in, it’s certainly a viable option in this hilly part of Nerang.

You don’t need to be a multi-millionaire to enjoy such an atmosphere however; even many mid-tier homes are absolutely draped in greenery and boast a ‘hideaway’ type feel, and obviously if you have deeper pockets this can just scale accordingly. This is largely due to simply to Nerang being so big. 

The sheer array of nestled back residential streets on offer to choose from means its possible to find a spot that is quiet/peaceful without breaking the bank, as even the cheaper streets tend to boast quality levels of tree cover and lie a distance from major roads.

You’re simply sacrificing distance from the highway/amenities in order to do so, but at least the choice is there which many other suburbs don’t even offer in the first place.

One semi-downside to Nerang’s topography is that its hilly layout means you’ll often also have hilly rather than flat yards to deal with, as well as often steep steep driveways.

Couple this with cars in the area often approaching at high speeds around blind corners as you try to exit, and it can be a little bit of an annoyance.

For families, Nerang is a decent if unspectacular choice. If your kids are the outdoor-type then they’ll obviously benefit simply from all the space on offer. 

Most of the aforementioned parks have playground equipment, and there are a bunch of random little quirky nice spots in the suburb (such as its Sensory Garden/Playground up in the hills) that can provide entertainment, and the big ‘adventure playground’ in the Country Paradise Parklands the children will love.

Education-wise it’s a mixed bag; the suburb is home to a few schools to choose from, although not a huge array considering its size, and they’re only fairly mid-tier in terms of quality. The area surrounding Nerang is also home to suburbs with other schooling options not far away as well, however.

In terms of house prices, Nerang still represents pretty good value, even by recently-rising Gold Coast standards.

Part of this is likely due to out-of-date reputation, and partly because much of the housing demand has been fuelled by cashed-up older people who prefer to be closer to things like medical services & golf courses which Nerang is relatively lacking in. 

As a result, while it’s still risen pretty rapidly, the suburb median house price of $860,000.00 is still currently about 25% cheaper than the Gold Coast average.

That’s certainly not nothing to sneeze at, considering how pricey things have gotten, and the fact that you’re no longer living somewhere truly ‘dodgy’ by choosing Nerang like may have been the case years in the past. There are plenty of other suburbs on the Gold Coast that are more expensive than Nerang and yet have higher crime rates or a higher % of housing commission, for example.

Considering some of the suburbs further to the north on the Gold Coast (that most people priced out of the middle-area have been forced up towards in recent years) that offer worse quality of life/additional crime issues aren’t much cheaper these days, it’s a pretty good compromise price-wise. Especially if you’re after a decently-sized house as a high priority, and especially if you’re willing to sink some cash in to renovate over time.

The Verdict

When factoring in house prices into the equation, there’s simply a lot to like about Nerang as a choice of Gold Coast suburb to live these days. It’s an ‘all-rounder’ that, while it not may massively excel in any one specific category (except perhaps greenery/nature), it checks a lot of boxes for the price in terms of things that make for a more convenient and functional daily life.

As a potential buyer, you still benefit from some of its lingering reputational issues (a.k.a, it’s a bit cheaper because people think it’s still worse than it is) versus other suburbs that aren’t that much better in reality. All this while getting plenty of shops & amenities on your doorstep, a useful rail connection, plenty of room to move, and a handful of other positives. 

Add in the shot at a decent-sized house that at the very least you know has stood the test of time… as opposed to some of these ‘newer’ estates in other suburbs with build quality that no-one yet knows how they will hold up over the long-term.

If you don’t mind dealing with a little bit of grit & grime here and there, choosing Nerang you can end up in a place where your kids can own dirt bikes and have space to ride them on both roads and cycleways, you can plunge yourself into national parkland when you feel like it, and still have easy access to both bigger shopping centres and the beach still within striking distance… all for a well-below-Gold-Coast-median house price? 

That’s not bad.