Restumping in Southport
In Southport, a State development scheme, not only the City Plan, applies to land inside the Southport Priority Development Area. The scheme covers all development inside its boundary, and its text does not say whether restumping or raising a house counts as exempt minor building work, so ask your certifier which rules govern your lot before you accept a quote's approvals line.
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Restumping in Southport
The City of Gold Coast says the Southport PDA Development Scheme applies to all development on land within the boundary of the priority development area and replaces the interim land use plan that came before it. The City describes the area as taking in the former Gold Coast hospital site, the Aquatic Centre, Broadwater Parklands and the residential areas north of Railway Street and south of Queen Street. The City's copy was last amended on 22 July 2022. The scheme describes its two residential precincts as medium to high density, one highrise and the other medium-rise. Whether your street is inside the boundary, and which precinct it is in, is a question for the scheme's map and your certifier.
The City's building height map does not give a height for part of Southport: the label there reads "Please refer to Southport PDA". Across a grid of points laid over the suburb, that label appears at 9.1% of them, which says nothing about any one lot. The scheme's building parameter guidelines are written for medium- and high-rise buildings. For houses, the scheme names the Queensland Development Code's design and siting standards, and your certifier can say which of them apply to your lot. On heritage, the scheme asks development to respond to identified heritage places and points to the City Plan Heritage overlay map. The City's local heritage register lists public buildings, structures and trees in Southport. Whether your own house is listed is a question for the register and the Heritage overlay map, so check both for your lot.
Permits and City of Gold Coast rules
Inside the priority development area, a dwelling house is accepted development in the two residential precincts where it complies with the acceptable solutions in the Queensland Development Code's design and siting standards for single detached housing. The scheme's general exemption for minor building work does not apply where the land is identified on the City Plan's Flood, Coastal erosion hazard, Landslide hazard, Heritage or Environmental significance overlay maps, and the scheme defines minor building work by how much floor area it adds. It does not say whether raising or restumping a house counts. For flood, the scheme's criteria call for habitable floor levels raised to allow for the hydraulic gradient above the main floodway, and for flood conveyance works built above the Designated Flood Level based on the City's flood search, so get the flood search before a raise is quoted. Ask the certifier in writing which instrument covers your lot and whether the work is exempt.
Source: Southport PDA Development Scheme, July 2022 (Schedules 1 and 2, the levels of assessment tables and the PDA-wide criteria), read at the City of Gold Coast's copy on 25 September 2026; City of Gold Coast, Southport priority development area and Development scheme and reports pages, read 25 September 2026; City of Gold Coast Local Heritage Register, read 25 September 2026; City Plan Version 13 open data, our calculation (method record in the site's validation records) — confirm current requirements with City of Gold Coast.
Our Southport service area
Enquiries from Southport are passed to an independent provider for that part of the City of Gold Coast. This site does not do the work and holds no premises.
See all Restumping on the Gold Coast. We also work in Burleigh Waters, Clear Island Waters and Carrara, and the other localities on the suburbs page.
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