Short answer
One in five occupied Gold Coast homes is a townhouse, terrace or semi-detached dwelling — the highest share of the eleven South East Queensland councils — and another fifth are apartments. Shared walls, attached garages and furnished lettings shape how a Gold Coast meth test is planned.
Tenure
- Rented
- 33.8%
- Owned with a mortgage
- 35.3%
- Owned outright
- 27.9%
Dwelling type
- Separate house
- 56.8%
- Townhouse / semi
- 20.6%
- Flat / apartment
- 21.7%
Share of occupied private dwellings. ABS 2021 Census QuickStats, Gold Coast (LGA33430).
Testing a townhouse with shared walls
A townhouse is sampled as its own dwelling, but the layout matters. Attached garages are worth including because they are a common place for someone to smoke out of sight of the rest of the house, and internal garage walls often share the air path with the living areas. Upstairs bedrooms and the bathroom exhaust above them are the other usual points.
Where a complex has several townhouses for sale or lease at once, each one needs its own result. Residue does not reliably cross a party wall, so a clear result next door says little about the unit you are buying.
Furnished properties and soft furnishings
Many Gold Coast properties change hands or are let fully furnished. Wipe sampling is designed for hard surfaces; sofas, mattresses and curtains cannot be measured the same way. A test of the walls and fittings around them is still the best indicator, and if those readings are high the furniture should be treated as part of the problem rather than assumed to be fine.
Investors and the cost of a rental gap
The 2021 median weekly rent on the Gold Coast was $450, among the higher figures in the region. When a property cannot be re-let while contamination is dealt with, the lost rent can quickly exceed the cost of the test that would have flagged it. A baseline at the start of each lease, and a vacate test at the end, keep that risk visible. The RTA notes the owner carries the cost of works on a contaminated rental; tenants are responsible for their own belongings.
Who regulates former drug-lab sites here?
Queensland Health says local governments regulate the health risks of former illicit drug laboratory sites under the Public Health Act 2005. For this area that is City of Gold Coast. Rental matters sit with the Residential Tenancies Authority.
Suburbs and towns in this council area
Southport · Surfers Paradise · Broadbeach · Robina · Nerang · Helensvale · Coomera · Burleigh Heads · Palm Beach · Coolangatta · Mudgeeraba · Varsity Lakes
Local questions
Should the garage be included in a townhouse test?
Yes, where it is attached. Internal garages are a common smoking spot and often share air with the house.
Can furniture be tested for meth residue?
Not reliably with standard wipe sampling, which is built for hard surfaces. Readings from the walls and fittings around the furniture are the practical indicator.
Sources
- Gold Coast (LGA33430) — 2021 Census QuickStats — Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Drug contamination in a rental property — Residential Tenancies Authority (Queensland)
- Australian Voluntary Code of Practice: Assessment, remediation and validation — former clandestine drug laboratories and other methamphetamine contaminated properties (2019) — Environmental Health Australia
Facts on this page checked against these sources on 29 October 2026.