State of flux in Queensland’s rental market, says REIQ

Source: REIQ

Queensland’s rental market remains tight overall, but over the last quarter more than half of the state's regions recorded an increase in vacancies, including some bigger spikes in parts of regional Queensland and some areas reaching their highest rates since COVID.

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland’s (REIQ) latest Residential Vacancy Rate Report for the June 2026 Quarter found 27 of the 50 regions tracked across the state recorded a rise in vacancies this quarter, compared to 13 that tightened and 10 that remained unchanged.

Despite these improvements, the stark reality is rental availability remains constrained across much of Queensland with 29 regions reporting vacancy rates of 1.0% or less, and only six regions recording vacancy rates above 2.0%.

Accordingly, the statewide vacancy rate only inched up to 1.0% this quarter – still sitting far below the REIQ’s healthy range of 2.6-3.5%.

The southeast corner including our capital city and Greater Brisbane were among the areas that stayed unchanged from the previous quarter. However, notable loosening in vacancy rates were recorded in regional and coastal markets, including:

• Gympie (1.4%), Mareeba (1.0%), Caloundra Coast (1.1%), Gold Coast (1.5%), and Burdekin (1.1%) were all up by +0.4pp

“Rental markets in the regions could be gradually rebalancing, as new housing comes online with a promising upward trend in the number of building approvals and migration levels continuing to rise but at a slower pace.

“Rent data for the June quarter showed Brisbane’s median weekly rent is now sitting around $700 per week, however because of Queensland’s rent increase cap, we won’t see the full impact of recent Federal Budget taxation reforms for some time,” she said.

Fast facts: June Quarter 2026

• Queensland Vacancy Rate: 1.0%.
• Tightest Vacancy Rates: 0.0% in Cook and Goondiwindi, and 0.3% in Charters Towers.
• Highest Vacancy Rates: 6.2% in Isaac, 4.3% in Bay Islands 
• Biggest falls over quarter (worsening): -0.7 percentage points (pp) in Mount Isa, and -0.3 pp in Townsville and Lockyer Valley.
• Biggest rises over quarter: +0.8 pp in Bay Islands, +0.4 in Mareeba, Caloundra Coast, and Gold Coast.

Tightest and weakest markets

Queensland’s tightest rental markets remain concentrated in regional areas – Cook and Goondiwindi (both 0.0%), Redcliffe, Cassowary Coast and Southern Downs (all 0.5%) remained incredibly tight.

Across southeast Queensland, conditions remained largely unchanged and firmly in tight territory, including Greater Brisbane (0.8%), Brisbane LGA (1.0%), Ipswich (0.7%), Logan (0.8%), Moreton Bay (0.7%), Pine Rivers (0.6%), and the Sunshine Coast (0.9%).