GOLD Coast beachfront residents have been told not to expect help from the city council to combat erosion, even if their properties are about to fall into the sea.

City councillor Greg Betts has little sympathy for residents of luxury homes along Albatross Avenue at Nobby Beach, who yesterday watched helplessly as big seas ate away the last remaining centimetres of land between them and the ocean.

"Council does work to protect public land, but it's up to the owners to protect their own land," he said.

"We've had 20 years of really good conditions where there hasn't been erosion, and people have had plenty of time to fix up their rock walls. You really have to question why they didn't, and now they are complaining."

The seas, driven by huge swells combined with a 1.8m king tide, left several multimillion-dollar properties perilously close to falling into the ocean.

One home next to Nobby Beach Surf Club has only a few centimetres of sand remaining before its expensive glass-panel back fence is swallowed by the ocean.

Nobby Beach resident Leonie Conn said she had watched metres of beachfront dunes disappear in the past three years, with waves continuing to edge closer, stripping sand around her rock wall, leaving huge scarps and a sheer drop to the water.

"I'm not looking out at the waves today," she said.

"I keep thinking, please don't come up."

Read more on this story at the Gold Coast Bulletin.