Varsity Lakes Suburb Review

Summary: Originally created mainly to service its university and medical services demographics, Varsity Lakes on the central Gold Coast has expanded over the years into something of a more premium spot for both higher-density living spaces as well as a hub for jobs and business.

One of the denser suburbs on the Gold Coast in terms of population, ‘Varsity’ benefits from a more hand-crafted approach to suburban planning than some of the other more sprawling suburbs in the city. Its central hub on its northern side exemplifies this the most, with a high concentration of apartments, townhouses, and detached homes on smaller blocks that still have a layer of ‘newness’ compared to its more established, lower-density southern side which is more-typical Gold Coast suburbia.

In the present day it’s also become a good little hub for dining, while its manicured parks, nice footpaths/walkability & waterfront aspects that touch much of the suburb also give it obvious appeal. Its combination of train connectivity, quantity of amenities (and close proximity to others), and safety are all strong points, however it faces some issues around traffic and parking due to narrow streets & given all the people who now call it home. It’s also shot up in price, particularly for detached homes, with many of its newer houses also on smaller blocks versus other suburbs for similar prices.

Key stats

One of the more distinct suburbs on the Gold Coast, Varsity Lakes offers a little bit of everything in terms of living options, having had both newer planned areas constructed along with multiple other smaller, older sub-suburbs merged into it over the years.

Nowadays, it combines several quite different pockets of lifestyles together into a pretty varied package for living that’s all wrapped up in one of the more convenient and central locations in the city.

As a suburb that’s had different parts of it developed in multiple different ‘stages’, it offers two fairly different sections that are essentially separated north/south by its main arterial road of Christine Avenue.

And as a result, living in each part is basically a matter of choosing between a “pre-2000s” and “post-2000s” Gold Coast lifestyle, with both sets of the pros and cons (and pricetags) that each of those entails.

Regardless of which side you’re living on, however, you’ll still serve to benefit from its raw location when residing here. Varsity Lakes epitomises ‘central’ Gold Coast, and is a hub that allows you to enjoy most of the benefits of the city from a balanced position that makes pretty much all of them not too much of a hike away.

It’s central to pretty much everything you’ll need to access on the Gold Coast on a regular basis, regardless of where your interests or hobbies lie.

The airport is not far away, major shopping centres are very close by, there’s a ton of popular dining options nearby, and even the beach at spots like Miami or Burleigh Heads can often be reached in 20 minutes or so even during periods of heavier traffic. It makes accessing the scenic southern parts of the Gold Coast pretty easy, too.

So while Varsity itself may not actually contain any of these major highlights, it makes accessing all of them relatively straightforward.

The suburb was also master-planned in its latter stages, adding in a host of amenities across the water from its older & more established Burleigh-facing side. As a result, it now does one of the better jobs in the city of providing mixed-zoning and blending a mix of both residential & shops alongside one another.

This gives you the ability to access them on foot instead of driving should you live in its heart, as the newer part of the suburb was designed with ‘walkability’ in mind, which is a bonus – given the suburb’s overall traffic situation.

Traffic tends to be pretty heavy in and around Varsity Lakes in general; partly due to all its continued growth in density, and partly because the suburb is absolutely loaded with roundabouts. While these in theory are designed to help with traffic flow, in reality many of them are so close to each other that they still cause frequent congestion along Varsity Parade and Christine Avenue itself.

Likewise, Southport-Burleigh Road that runs along its eastern border also gets notoriously busy during peak times for work and school dropoffs. Combine these, and if you don’t have the luck of actually living/working in Varsity Lakes itself (one of the suburb’s main selling points), then commuting in and out can be quite a daily grind just like other busy parts of the Gold Coast.

Many of Varsity’s residential streets also have the issue of intentionally limited parking. While this was a decision to encourage walking, it can be frustrating for both multi-car households & visitors alike as its various apartment complexes and gated communities have strictly-enforced visitor parking as well.

One of Varsity’s other major strengths is its addition to the Gold Coast’s train line system some years back. This is a boon to those who can work nearby to any of its other stations further up the line, as well as providing an option of working in Brisbane for more job opportunities too – at least in theory.

Varsity Lakes Station is on the end of the train line, meaning getting a seat even during peak hours is possible, and it’s also a bit of a transport hub in itself with multiple bus connections, taxi and pickup/dropoff zones. It also has a large carpark and spillover area with pretty solid parking, making for one of the better park-and-ride options in the city.

You can get from Varsity Lakes to Roma Street in Brisbane in just over 75 minutes of train journey of a morning; a bit of a hike, but not too bad seeing you can choose this & then don’t have to deal with the stress of battling the otherwise hectic M1 traffic slog.

On the downside, the station itself is located in a bit of an awkward spot relative to where most people in the suburb live. It sits on the suburb’s south-western fringe, and thus not realistically walkable or even bikeable for a fair chunk of local residents.

Having to drive or get another connection there does defeat the purpose a little bit. As a plus, however, Varsity as a whole is a mostly flat and walkable/cycleable suburb, with little elevation outside a few residential pocket areas.

Overall, if you can instead snag the ability to both live and work in Varsity’s own northern commercial hub and its various offices or business parks, you’ve basically unlocked the secret to a less-stressful Gold Coast life.

It’s this denser, northern hub to the north of Christine Ave that most people typically envision when picturing ‘Varsity Lakes’ in the present day (despite it only comprising about 33% of the suburb physically).

While it was originally driven by expansion of the Bond University precinct (the city’s most prestigious private uni), it’s since become less student-heavy as additional business and residential growth has gradually crowded this out somewhat.

The suburb’s overall demographic has also aged as prices increased, and now it leans older than the uni-centric suburb that it used to mostly be in the past.

This part of the suburb is still quite visually-pretty from a natural perspective despite its density; just in an entirely different way to most other Gold Coast suburbs.

This isn’t a place of sweeping golden coastal beachfront or untamed greenery. Instead, living in ‘Central Varsity’ is more akin to a manicured and well-serviced-by-body-corporate area. It’s somewhat similar to living on a well-kept golf course, complete with pretty water hazards – its namesake lakes.

There’s continual lines of pine & other trees, nature strips are wide and mowed; it’s all simply very orderly and tidied. Plenty of neat parkland and now-mature tree cover also help to offset a lot of its otherwise concrete-and-glass offices, modern townhouses & apartments that populate most of this part of Varsity Lakes.

It’s also exceptionally well-maintained in this area, with both residents and body corporate doing their best to keep nature strips, parks and other parts of the streetscape impeccably mowed and litter-free. And even though both its main & back streets are quite narrow, they’re almost universally well tree-lined as well.

As mentioned, in this part of the suburb, density is the name of the game here, and that extends to more than just its high quantities of units/apartments. Houses in this part of Varsity Lakes tend towards a bit narrower blocks, with smaller gaps between yourself and your neighbours in return for the houses themselves generally being nicer and more modern.

They’re also less ‘cookie cutter’ than the newer housing estates on the northern Gold Coast, but still trend towards a larger house size-to-yard ratio. This compact aspect – combined with Varsity Lakes’ generally flat terrain – makes them ideal for those who want less of a draining amount of yard upkeep, or for older people/retirees who prefer a bit more of a low-maintenance garden.

There are of course a handful of larger (and more expensive) exceptions dotted throughout its streets, and also a trend toward double-storey homes in order to better take advantage of the sometimes-limited land size.

There’s also quite a lot of subdivision and mid-density spread throughout, with a mixture of duplexes as well as gated townhouse and higher end apartment/unit complexes to choose from.

This makes for a suburb with quite a flexible and diverse range of living accommodations (and budget levels) to select depending on your own personal lifestyle and financial requirements.

There’s simply far more variety to pick from compared to many other detached-home heavy or purely apartment-centric suburbs on the Gold Coast that tend to lean heavily one way or the other.

This is a pretty nice aspect in itself, and opens things up to a wider range of age groups and demographics to potentially live here too (assuming you’re OK with apartment or perhaps townhouse living).

Varsity’s central hub around Varsity Parade and Lake Street has also gradually become a sneaky-good place for dining over the years.

While in the past it was mostly concentrated around providing medical services (and still is, to a great extent), nowadays there’s plenty of reasons to visit Varsity for a bite to eat, and something residents and workers here alike can take advantage of.

There’s some very solid little cafes and restaurants here now, all of which you can simply walk to if you live nearby, including Asian restaurants that tend to be more reasonably-priced for quicker meals.

They also don’t tend to be as crowded as in ‘trendier’ name-brand Gold Coast dining districts, making it easier to get a seat/table even during busier periods. Most of them tend to peak during lunch hours on weekdays, given the suburb’s office-worker-centric nature and with students coming to eat there from the university at lunch.

It’s also here where you’ll find Hotel CBD, this part of the suburb’s local watering hole; a nice little semi upmarket spot with shaded outdoor seating areas, etc.

Parking, again around here is a little painful however, marring the experience for visitors somewhat.

General-amenity-wise, Varsity Lakes is packed with medical services of all kinds. Most of these stemmed off from its Bond University influence originally, and help service the diverse medical needs of its local and visiting populations.

There’s an array of GP clinics, specialists, dentists, physios and other medical amenities here, which again can come in handy for downsized retirees in particular who opt to live in a nearby house or apartment.

This part of Varsity is also home to multiple mini business-parks dotted throughout, each of which are home to numerous small and medium businesses.

These provide a pretty wide range of opportunities for employment for white-collar workers in particular, and cover a diverse mixture of sectors and professions such as tech, law, education and various other major industries.

As mentioned, this means there’s a fair bit of potential to both live and work in the same suburb, and merely walk or bike to work, particularly if you are content with apartment living and can live in one of its denser residential buildings right nearby to these office hubs.

For daily use, Varsity Lakes’ “The Point” adjacent complex comes with a decently-sized IGA for groceries, bottle shop, and various surrounding little takeaway eateries as well as an array of service-based businesses.

Add it all up, and there’s all the essentials you’d need for daily life without needing to venture outside of this one hub.

For bigger-scale retail needs, Varsity has its own separate larger-sized complex in its ‘Home Space‘ centre on its eastern side for homewares/appliances and the like which covers most of what you’d need to furnish your home or provide items for those with kids.

This is also where its other main spot to enjoy a drink, the Varsity Lakes Tavern can be found.

Varsity Lakes also again benefits location-wise by being so close to major shopping centre Robina Town Centre, one of a small handful of flagship shopping centres on the Gold Coast. 

You can either hop in the car & drive to Robina Town Centre in under 10 minutes, or also have the privilege of hopping on the train and travelling up one stop then walking over too; a luxury people in most other Gold Coast suburbs don’t have.

Lastly, Varsity Lakes also has its own large Aldi supermarket along Christine Ave as well, opening up another opportunity for buying decently-priced groceries right nearby.

Add it all up, and you’ve got a suburb that’s hard to criticise as far as the mix of amenities and sheer convenience goes.

There’s not much nightlife to speak of in the suburb outside of its couple of pubs/taverns, however, with most of its restaurants closing fairly early and minimal party or live-music aspects for example.

As a result, present-day Varsity Lakes can be pretty ‘dead’ at nights, which contrasts a bit ironically with its ‘Varsity’ college-inspired name. Burleigh Heads being nearby with all its busier and more buzzing dining areas does help offset this somewhat, though.

Much of Varsity’s “entertainment” then instead is oriented around simply enjoying its outdoor green and blue areas, either walking/jogging them yourself or taking the kids (if applicable) out to play in them.

Water plays a large role in this, as you’d expect given the “Lakes” part of the name. Varsity is built around Lake Orr and has great, flat walking tracks throughout most of the suburb, and is decently set up with bike lanes as well.

Its Waterfront Promenade walk is very pretty, especially on sunny days, as is its track along the Foreshore that gives views across to the other half of the suburb.

You can also cross from the north side to the south side of the suburb on its interconnecting bridge that is separated into two parts with a small speck of an island in the middle.

This makes for a pretty solid and lengthy yet non-taxing stroll for walking yourself or the dog.

In addition, its new and old areas both boast pretty decent parkland. Its northern hub is home to an array of neatly-groomed and well-planned parks with tons of equipment and amenities for the kids, and its south side boasts a couple of larger and more open slices of greenery as well.

The north side of Varsity has two major park areas that are both pretty great, just in different ways.

North Shore Park tucked into the middle of its main northern detached housing streets is an excellent, neat space with some unique touches such as a little kids signed ‘bike course’, half basketball court, shaded playground and other shaded areas. Its location means it’s basically walkable from most houses here.

Meanwhile, its flagship spot in terms of sheer size is the larger and originally-named Central Park, complete with multiple sports courts and fields, exercise equipment, circular walking track and other niceties for kicking the ball around or having a stroll.

As a whole, Varsity Lakes also leans fairly wetlands-heavy throughout. It’s home to some more ‘wild’ and ‘organic’ wetlands areas in addition to its more structured modern lakefronts, where various ducks and sea birds can be found in abundance.

These are mostly concentrated in the south, both in its actual dedicated Wetlands Reserve as well as simply as offshoots of its other main waterway Reedy Creek.

On the suburb’s southern side, its main public greenspace is the also-large Frascott Park, another nice, big open park on that comes with a pair of fenced dog parks (divided up for both small and larger dogs), basketball courts, and sports fields.

It’s also home to a pretty robust and sizeable adventure-style playground that kids will no doubt love. 

Varsity’s southern & eastern side where this park is found is quite different from ‘modern Varsity Lakes’. It existed as various micro-suburbs in the past that were gradually re-classified as part of Varsity Lakes itself, and was built far longer ago.

It features streets with much older buildings and houses, typically single-level homes & many of them that older brick and even fibro variety before 1990s-style rendered construction took over.

This section also leans much more heavily towards detached houses, and is a mixed bag in terms of home quality and affluence levels.

While it features dashes of higher-end houses on its streets that face the water, most of this is middle-class, standard older Gold Coast living exemplified. Compared to its modern north area, streets here are a little less tidy, grass a little more overgrown and such, but it’s otherwise still an upper-mid area with houses that now fetch a fairly high price in the present day.

Slices of this area on its eastern side facing Mattocks Road were typically fairly heavy with housing commission homes in the past, and while there are still some elements of this remaining today much of it has been sold off and gentrified over time.

While it’s a little lower socio-economically, there’s not really much drama to speak of in this area in current times.

The other main exception to this in terms of house quality and price on the south side is its “residential island” that rings around Cezaire Avenue Park. 

This is a singular, pretty self-contained pocket of both higher-end new townhouse & villa complexes, as well as large detached properties that set it aside from the other Burleigh-adjacent southern area.

It gets particularly upmarket with those handful of houses that sit on the waterfront, which are borderline huge.

As a result of all of the above and its residential-heavy leaning, in the present day Varsity Lakes is a highly safe suburb overall. It boasts one of the lowest crime rates on the Gold Coast, and doesn’t really even suffer the ‘crime uptick’ statistically that most other suburbs do around its train station.

Most of the dodgy “action” is more concentrated around Robina Station instead, as there’s little reason for troublemakers to hang around Varsity Lakes Station given its relatively isolated location and worker-centric rather than shopper-centric leanings.

Combine that with its lack of rowdy pubs/bars/other drawcards for drama, and nowadays Varsity its almost entirely crime-free when compared to most other more lively ‘GC’ suburbs.

This helps make it a suburb that in the present day is much more oriented toward and suitable for families than it is uni students.

While it’s not as school-centric as some other suburbs, Varsity still provides education options for those with kids, and this southern slice of Varsity is where its school Varsity College as well as adjacent kindy can be found.

The school spans prep up to Year 12, and is split across two campuses for both juniors & seniors. It’s also pretty well-regarded in terms of strong academic results, making being in its catchment zone a factor that buyers look for when purchasing here. Otherwise, you’re looking at schooling options in adjacent areas like Miami, Robina, Marymount etc.

And of course, for higher education Bond Uni itself literally lies within the suburb’s own borders. It’s an expensive private education facility, but one that churns out consistently high results as well.

Price-wise for housing, Varsity is pretty versatile due to its mixture of densities, as well as older and newer homes, on offer to buy and rent.

However, it’s now trending towards the upper-mid section of the pricing scale due to becoming more desirable for older people, decent-earning white-collar professionals & families rather than the younger crowd.

Detached house prices in particular have climbed pretty consistently year on year without any real breather, and given the area’s solid reputation and relative lack of freestanding homes, they’ve well outpaced apartments & other semi’s in recent years. It’s rare to get any kind of detached house for under $1 million other than the odd, old and dated build in the suburb’s south-east, and even then that’s uncommon.

Current median house prices sit at $1,200,000.00, which is now higher than that of the overall Gold Coast, and any kind of newer house in its northern half typically far exceeds this price. Varsity Lakes does provide an above-median lifestyle however, so you are at least “getting what you pay for” in most cases when spending the money.

As mentioned, there’s also plenty of choice in non-detached-homes here that can help keep the prices lower though, with more (larger apartment buildings in particular) being added seemingly all the time.

You can pick between a pretty wide helping of older & new apartments, modern or older villa complexes, townhouses on two levels, gated mini-complexes and more that will all typically chop several hundred grand off that ‘median house price’ figure. 

Its townhouses and duplexes in particular offer a pretty good compromise between getting something with a land component and not going full-downsize for an apartment. All this while still getting all the same benefits of Varsity Lakes’ mix of safety, location and amenities, making for OK value in that regard.

Rents have also scaled upward with house prices, though, and nowadays the median rent is also higher than the Gold Coast median, pricing out lower-income younger people in particular. It can be worth paying the price for renters who can afford it, given Varsity still does offer an above-average lifestyle, though.

There’s just quite a lot of non-house supply here, which means there’s almost always at least something on the market for those willing to compromise on dwelling size. Meanwhile those with more cash can also usually snag a house that’s in a pretty desirable area overall without too much of a wait time for something to pop up.

The Verdict

Varsity Lakes is one of those ironic suburbs in that what it is in the present day is still a quality place to live – just not one really as targeted at its original purpose.

It’s lost a lot of its original “vibe” of being a younger hangout place, and now is something mostly entirely different; perhaps outside of its one or two dedicated ‘student accommodation’ towers, which nowadays aren’t really representative of the overall suburb.

In the 2020’s and beyond, it’s not so much a spot that younger adults will really want to live in at all in most cases – unless you’re early in your professional career, get a job in the suburb itself, and are aiming for an apartment (which in that case makes sense).

Its various business parks that dot the suburb make this a possibility… although for those in the trades or other careers that require driving everywhere you’d potentially prefer living somewhere else instead, for greater ease in getting in/out, and more space to store your tools or truck.

Traffic and the price increases remain its only real black marks, given pretty much every other factor here is either above-average or better. So if you’re in a demographic where neither of those are a real concern (i.e: retired, can work from home so commuting isn’t as much of an issue, etc.) there’s otherwise plenty to like.

However, for families and particularly retirees, Varsity Lakes has tons of appeal and it’s not hard to see why it’s continually attracted these demographics over time.

It’s a clean, tidy, green, safe and pretty self-contained little suburb in its northern half, and provides bigger and more established housing in its southern half, which also continues to gentrify all the time.

And both sides are still situated in a pretty great spot, with all the amenities most people need at their fingertips within the suburb itself, and more lively entertainment options nearby.

So while Varsity might be a little ‘boring’ for the younger crowd on a daily basis, you can still get to non-boring places easily enough. This also means you don’t have to travel far to get a dose of entertainment, then can return swiftly to Varsity Lakes for peace and quiet and a decent night’s sleep.

And forking out an amount of money for a place to live that’s slightly above the city’s average – but provides a good-to-very-good living environment in return – is still a win on the present-day Gold Coast.

If you have an upper-mid amount of money to spend, Varsity Lakes is still a quality place to live unless you simply must have an absolute go-go lifestyle right on your doorstep. Its location, safety, transport connections and natural aspects alone make it worth the investment.