Pacific Pines Suburb Review

Summary: One of the greenest and most nature-rich of the ‘newer’ batch of suburbs on the mid-north Gold Coast, Pacific Pines is a highly pretty and well-maintained suburb encircled by forest & bushland. Consisting almost entirely of residential housing and with only a fairly small smattering of amenities, it’s nonetheless a suburb that serves one specific demographic almost perfectly: families.

With its range of self-contained schools and childcare centres, a wide array of great parks packed with playground equipment, general peace & quiet, and a safe overall environment courtesy of its low crime rate, ‘Pac Pines’ does family-friendly better than most other suburbs on the Gold Coast in general.

Those who fall outside of this category may find the suburb lacking however, as it lacks any semblance of nightlife or much of a cafe/dining scene. It also faces all the same traffic/commute issues of any suburb dependent on using the M1 highway on a regular basis for access to the rest of the Gold Coast or Brisbane. It’s shot up fairly substantially in terms of house prices in recent years as well, although is still ‘reasonably’ affordable by current-Gold-Coast standards – especially given the generous sizes of many houses here.

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If there was ever a single Gold Coast suburb that was designed to fulfil one specific purpose, and do that to the best of its abilities, it’s Pacific Pines.

There are few other spots across the city that so obviously cater to a single demographic – families, and a shot at reasonably quiet family life in general – that aren’t ridiculously expensive price-wise, yet ‘Pac Pines’ remains a particular standout in this regard. It’s one of the few that remains which ticks this combination of boxes in the present day.

The suburb lies geographically in these days what could be considered the ‘mid-north’ region of the Gold Coast, given how much the city has continued to sprawl up and down the coast. It sits in a spot that in the past might have been considered a little too far away from the action for some, but nowadays is not so much the case as a result of all the added development nearby that has taken place in recent years.

Pacific Pines sits on the west of the M1 highway and is a fairly self-contained, incredibly tidy & well-kept little pocket of almost purely-residential streetscapes.

It’s a suburb that popped up and mostly developed in the previous ‘new wave’ of the Gold Coast’s expansion, with the area starting to be developed in the 90’s and early 2000’s, so has had plenty of time to establish itself as things stand today.

As a result, it still scraped in at a time when housing estates were being built without skimping on land/block sizes or adopting a more cookie-cutter nature of design, and feels far less ‘generic’ than many of the newer suburbs further north up the coast.

This applies in terms of both housing that has stood the test of time, and a mix of streetscapes & tree cover that nowadays combine to make it remarkably green. This contributes largely towards many of the positives that now make present-day Pacific Pines a pleasant spot to live.

Fundamentals such as some actual breathing space between your house & your neighbour’s, plenty of nice roomy footpaths for walking and cycling, generally wide roads and back streets that don’t feel cramped, and ample sections of parkland dotted throughout all add up as pluses for lifestyle purposes.

Such basics are all well and good on their own, but they don’t mean much in a suburb if both residents & local authorities don’t make the efforts to maintain them. Fortunately in Pacific Pines, this is definitely not the case; there’s simply a high level of ‘house pride’ on display here, with the suburb full of largely well-maintained lawns, parks and nature strips in addition to its ample amounts of tree cover.

It makes for a much more pleasant environment compared to suburbs where many of the locals simply don’t really bother to keep things up to scratch.

The suburb’s physical location and layout also contributes to this somewhat. Most of Pacific Pines juts in a fair way back from the highway so it’s largely sheltered from noise, and there are plenty of quieter back streets and cul de sacs to choose from as a result. 

It’s also essentially encircled by forest and bushland on multiple sides which adds to the ‘green’ aspect in general, and gives it a bit of a ‘tucked in’ feel.

This makes for a suburb that allows you to live ‘amongst the trees’ to an extent, while still being close to a decent amount of suburban amenities, as opposed to living further out somewhere like Mt Tamborine in order to achieve a similar effect.

Pacific Pines itself has a solid, if unspectacular, selection of amenities inside the suburb’s borders that are more than enough for daily living.

Its centrepiece Pacific Pines Town Centre is a decent little semi-modern shopping centre with most of the essentials, including a Woolworths, couple of little cafes, medical centre, gym, chemist, newsagent, bakery and the like covering the majority of the basics.

This complex also adjoins onto the neighbouring pub of the Pacific Pines Tavern, the suburb’s token watering hole.

It’s a large, roomy, if fairly generic ‘working folks’ tavern with all the usual suburban features one would expect and a decent spot for a drink or a bite to eat. It’s also kept reasonably clean, and has a spacious outdoor balcony area that provides a decently pretty outlook over its neighbouring parkland.

Meanwhile around the corner on main thoroughfare Pitcairn Way multiple other additional mini-complexes of services and dining can be found.

You’ve got the Pines Health small-ish medical complex, Pines Point cluster of small fast food, bar, Indian restaurant, laundry etc., and Pinnacle Pines (sensing a theme here?) which offers another mixed collection of services along with takeaway joints such as McDonald’s, Zarrafas, Zambrero, NoodleBox and the like.

Throw in the standalone Coles/Liquorland complex on the suburb’s north-west (which comes with a decent shaded parking area), and with all of these you’ve got a decent stable of options for daily needs without having to leave the suburb.

In addition, for larger or more retail-based shopping trips, Helensvale Westfield is also located reasonably close by (a sub-10 minute drive in clear traffic situations) by hopping over the highway.

Pacific Pines’ proximity to Helensvale train station on the other side of the highway also makes for a viable potential rail-based Brisbane commute. However while it’s technically got easy access to the M1 distance-wise, this remains a bit of a hassle to actually do so during peak morning commute times, due to everyone bum-rushing to do the same thing.

This can then add an extra ~10 minutes or so onto the already-fairly-painful journey that comes with anything M1-related these days on the Gold Coast. Public transport within the suburb itself is also not particularly great, due to fairly infrequent bus services and their associated early-finishing running times.

In addition, other than the Coles, pretty much all of Pacific Pines’ amenities are clustered around this single fairly concentrated location on its eastern side, one of several reasons that the suburb as a whole remains pretty driving-heavy. This driving-required aspect is exaggerated even more given many parts of the suburb slope quite steeply uphill, so many roads and driveways here can be steep – although they also offer a chance at some nice views in return should your house be located up high.

This means that Pacific Pines is not really the type of suburb where you can just easily stroll around the corner to a little cafe or corner restaurant, for example; so if that’s the type of lifestyle you’re looking for there are certainly other, better choices of suburb elsewhere.

As with many other ‘boring suburbia’ suburbs, it’s lacking much of a restaurant or cafe scene internally, and has essentially zero nightlife, with most opting to go further onwards to Helensvale or look for more action in other suburbs. It’s therefore not a place young adults or singles will likely want to spend much time in, as there’s not much to do in general for these age groups and demographics.

On the other hand, one of the benefits to being ‘boring’ is Pacific Pines’ exceptionally low crime rate. In the present day, given its more established nature & family-friendly leanings, the suburb is highly safe. Other than the occasional deadbeat angry teenager around the shopping centre, there’s relatively little to worry about in terms of break-ins, theft or any kinds of violent crimes to speak of in modern-day Pac Pines.

There are many, many other suburbs on the Gold Coast with both more expensive house prices yet also with higher crime rates, so if safety is a major concern then Pac Pines makes for a highly viable choice for the money you’re spending.

Much of this is due to most of Pacific Pines “attractions” simply being oriented around the outdoors, and not having many reasons for ‘dodgy’ people to visit in the first place. Simply put, Pacific Pines is one of the greenest and most pleasant semi-new suburbs on the entire Gold Coast purely from an environmental perspective.

The “Pines” naming thing they go for might be a little overdone, but they’ve chosen it for a reason. Tons of pine and other trees are dotted everywhere throughout its streetscape, and it provides plenty of long, sprawling walkways and footpaths on which to enjoy them all. Greenery thrives everywhere here, and is almost universally well-taken-care-of; even its roundabouts are well-groomed, green and often hedge-laden.

The prime example of this is Pacific Pines’ simply-named Central Park. The flagship one of many parks in the suburb, this is a spacious and roomy public space that has basically everything one could want from a suburban park, and scores top marks in this regard.

Large sporting fields, a big wetlands component, BBQ facilities, modern toilets, huge sandpit and playground equipment for the kids, and all kept in good condition, this is overall one of the best centrally-planned suburban parks on the Gold Coast. Perhaps its only real downside being that for pet owners, as dogs need to stay on-leash while here.

Even outside of this central hub, there’s simply a ton of wide, roomy greenery throughout for a semi-built-up residential suburb and it remains quite visually appealing as a result. Whether it’s from other bigger “hub” parks elsewhere in the suburb like Waterstar Park, or simply the no-name little mini sections of parkland that have been placed beside most clumps of residential housing, they all contribute to this aspect.

You’ll basically never have to travel far within Pacific Pines to have a nice little park or playground of some description too far out of reach.

And it’s not only the littlest kids who can benefit from these amenities, either; it also offers other outdoor activities such as a pretty solid skate bowl, and multiple sporting facilities for the likes of soccer, footy, basketball and the like as well.

Pacific Pines’ physical location also means it’s easier than some other suburbs to access the ‘green’ side of the Gold Coast (such as Mt Tamborine/Gallery Walk etc) in a shorter timeframe, although it suffers somewhat in terms of increased distance from the beaches.

This reduces one of the key ‘benefit of living on the Gold Coast’ factors for many a little, essentially sacrificing proximity to the beach in return for a shot at a more reasonably-priced, bigger house.

One thing that Pacific Pines does not sacrifice on is access to educational facilities. For a suburb that’s really not physically very large, it punches above its weight as far as schools go, with three separate schools (public and private) as well as a range of childcare/early learning centres all clustered within its borders.

This includes both Catholic and secular options, highschool and primary, covering the full array for parents of kids of all main age groups, and carrying on the overall theme of Pac Pines family-centric nature as a whole.

Perhaps the only downside is a common one in this scenario; many schools means many school zones for drivers, which also means some traffic & parking issues during those hours. However outside of these periods, Pacific Pines’ streetscape remains fairly traffic-free and quiet outside of the occasional heavy traffic or hoon on bigger through-roads like Binstead Way (where Jubilee Primary school sits).

Housing-wise, Pacific Pines is pretty homogenous in what it offers. This is a suburb almost exclusively of low-density, detached homes on anywhere from decent-to-pretty-large sized blocks.

There’s zero apartment density to be seen anywhere in the entire suburb; the densest it gets are its various segments of semi-detached, terrace-style modern homes and the odd townhouse/villa complex (around 20% of the suburb). This both helps keep internal traffic down, but also limits choice of housing for those on lower budgets somewhat.

As mentioned, most of the current housing stock in Pacific Pines walks that fairly good balance between being established-enough to not have foundational issues, while also not requiring major renovations due to being as outdated as some older Gold Coast suburbs – many of which have been around for decades longer.

As a result, it’s mostly that solid, 90’s/2000’s style of brick build that still looks relatively current design-wise, and means you likely won’t have to fork out tens of thousands of dollars extra bringing things up to date upon buying a place here.

Streetscape-wise, the general rule in Pacific Pines is “the higher up you go, the more extravagant the houses”. This trend tends to hold all the way up to the ‘peak’ altitude of homes here, culminating in some substantially larger houses up the top of the likes of more ‘premium’ roads such as Hillary Circuit, Salvado Drive and their various surrounding streets.

This area is steep to access but offers some sweeping views in return, and even has a dedicated lookout (which however unfortunately is currently mostly obscured by trees).

These higher-up portions of the suburb also keep up with the park-heavy theme, and boast a number of tidy little micro-parks which each tout their name as the different compass-degree direction that they’re facing.

Price-wise, Pacific Pines has climbed dramatically along with the rest of the Gold Coast in recent years. Not that long ago, it could have legitimately have been considered ‘cheap’ for the quality of lifestyle on offer compared to some of its peers.

It’s still ‘relatively’ reasonable value – median house price currently sits at $980,000.00 – which is around 15% below the Gold Coast median, and when factoring in price-per-square-metre it’s even better than that.

However that pricetag is still a pretty dramatic increase in a fairly short amount of time, and has likely priced out some people who were previously considering it as a place to live.

Its lack of unit stock also removes it from contention for those happy with apartment living in return for saving a chunk of money, so you’ll have to look elsewhere if that applies to you – although its townhouse complexes can offer somewhat of a compromise between space and price.

The Verdict

If the prospect of a quiet, neat and decently-made home with a solid land component for kids and the dog to run around on appeals to you, there’s a lot to recommend in present-day Pacific Pines. In many ways, its overall aspect combines to make for a sort of ‘Elanora of the northern Gold Coast’, except sacrificing some proximity to the water in return for inner-GC-greenery access… along with substantially cheaper house prices several hundred thousand dollars lower.

There’s a reason we mentioned the ‘family’ aspect multiple times to the point of repetition. It simply does a great job catering to them overall via its combination of easily-accessible schooling, safety and endless playgrounds and parks.

And it does this all while still keeping enough options open for parents who need to work in Brisbane (via train) or who ideally work somewhere along the east-west axis on the Gold Coast, rather than having to join the daily crawl up the M1.

If anything, Pacific Pines would be the ideal ‘Work from Home’ suburb for families who have the option, as you’d be able to make the easy school pickup and achieve most of what you want from within the suburb itself, without having to deal with the continually-busy roads elsewhere on the Gold Coast on as much of a regular basis.

It’s quiet, it’s clean, and it’s fairly decent value for money, and if you’re a family (or an aspiring family) it’s well worth considering. It’s also probably worth paying the extra price premium if you can afford it rather than settling for some of the not-quite-as-nice suburbs further north on the coast.

You’ll also likely be getting a better-quality street or house itself in return for the extra money as well, which may be worth it considering the price gap isn’t really THAT big these days until you get to the far, far north of the Gold Coast and prices start to get noticeably lower.

However if you’re a younger adult, a single, a frequent beach-goer or someone who likes to head to more frequent trendy nights out of wining & dining, Pac Pines’ distance and tucked-away nature will likely be the opposite of what you’re after – and there’s little reason to consider it over any number of alternative suburbs elsewhere across the city in any of these scenarios.