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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Logan City Council has added its figure to this month's round of big South East Queensland council budgets: an increase of 5.49 per cent. The council's own publication, Our Logan, reported on Tuesday 23 June that the $1.39 billion budget for 2026-27 adds $4.12 a week for properties on the minimum general rate. The budget papers record that it was adopted the day before, on 22 June.
The City of Moreton Bay, Logan's counterpart on the northern side of Brisbane, announced its figure earlier in the month. Moreton Daily reported on 12 June that the minimum general rate there rises by 4.69 per cent, which the council puts at $1.13 a week or $59 a year, within a $1.2 billion budget.
Both are fast-growing cities on Brisbane's edge, both describe a record infrastructure program, and both quote the increase for a minimum-rated property. The weekly dollars they attach to it, though, are far apart, and the reason is worth understanding before comparing them.
Our Logan (Logan City Council), 23 June 2026; Moreton Daily, 12 June 2026.
Logan: growth sets the terms
Logan's budget is framed almost entirely around population. Mayor Jon Raven, quoted by Our Logan, said: "Logan is home to more than 400,000 people and we're growing rapidly." The council's response is the largest infrastructure allocation it has made, reported as a record $923 million.
Water and wastewater take the biggest share at $468.4 million, including $89.25 million for a new treatment plant at Chambers Flat. Roads and drainage receive $335.2 million, parks $89.7 million and community facilities $61.1 million. Named projects include $25 million for the Chambers Flat Road upgrade, $15 million for the intersection of Teviot Road and Homestead Drive and $14.9 million for Waterford West District Park.
Related readHow Queensland values your land: site value, the cycle and objectionsThe budget document itself shows the revenue side. Logan levies differential general rates across 37 rating categories, which is how a council charges an owner-occupied house, a rented house, a shop and a quarry at different rates on the same land value. Gross rates and charges for 2026-27 are budgeted at $774.7 million, and $756.6 million after discounts and pensioner remissions, which together are worth about $18.2 million. Separate charges for the environment and for volunteer fire brigades are levied as flat amounts, so that, in the document's words, all ratepayers contribute equally regardless of their land valuation.
Moreton Bay: under the inflation figure
Moreton Bay's announcement leads with restraint. Mayor Peter Flannery told Moreton Daily the council had "worked hard to keep this year's minimum general rate increase under Brisbane CPI". The Gold Coast, which ties its rise to the same index, set 4.7 per cent a few days later, so Moreton Bay's 4.69 per cent sits one hundredth of a point beneath it.
The $1.2 billion budget includes $454 million for infrastructure, which the council also calls a record, on an asset base of $10.6 billion. Rebates for pensioners and self-funded retirees rise by 10 per cent, a change the council says reaches about 35,000 people. Moreton Daily reports the council's claim that it is the only one in South East Queensland to offer a rates rebate to self-funded retirees.
Two other points are aimed at household costs. Residents keep free tipping, up to three tonnes or 26 visits, and the council describes its waste charge as among the lowest in the region. On debt, it offers a domestic comparison: its borrowings are the equivalent of a $23,000 mortgage on a $925,000 home.
Related readSunshine Coast rates rise 9.7 per cent after a 24 per cent land revaluation| Measure | Logan | Moreton Bay |
|---|---|---|
| Total budget | $1.39 billion | $1.2 billion |
| Infrastructure program | $923 million | $454 million |
| Increase quoted | 5.49% | 4.69% |
| Weekly amount quoted | $4.12 | $1.13 |
| What the increase is quoted on | Minimum general rate properties | Minimum general rate |
Our Logan, 23 June 2026; Moreton Daily, 12 June 2026.
Why $4.12 and $1.13 are not the same measure
On the face of the table, Logan's increase costs a household nearly four times Moreton Bay's. The percentages, 5.49 and 4.69, say otherwise, and the percentages are the better guide.
Moreton Bay's arithmetic is self-contained. A rise of $59 a year that equals 4.69 per cent means a minimum general rate of roughly $1,260 before the increase. That is a plausible floor for general rates alone.
Logan's is not, if it is read the same way. A rise of $4.12 a week is about $214 a year, and $214 is 5.49 per cent of roughly $3,900. No council in the region has a minimum general rate near that figure. Brisbane City Council's budget summary, published on 17 June, implies Logan's minimum general rate is about $1,616, on which 5.49 per cent would be less than $90 a year. The natural conclusion is that Logan's weekly figure describes the whole notice for a property on the minimum general rate, with water, sewerage, waste and separate charges included, while Moreton Bay's describes the general rate line by itself. That is an inference from the published numbers; the Our Logan report does not spell out what the $4.12 covers.
The difference is typical of council budget season. Every council chooses the property and the measure that it reports, and no two choose alike. Brisbane quotes the average owner-occupier and the minimum. The Sunshine Coast quotes most owner-occupiers on the general rate. Cairns quotes a median home with water and waste. A reader comparing councils needs to line up the same thing: either the percentage on general rates, or the dollars on a whole bill.
Related readTax Institute: trust tax relief leaves State duty and GST unsolvedFive south-east councils compared
With Logan in, five of the region's largest councils have declared. On the percentage each has chosen to publish, the order runs from Brisbane's 3.97 per cent, through Moreton Bay's 4.69 and the Gold Coast's 4.7, to Logan's 5.49 and the Sunshine Coast's 9.7.
On dollars for a whole bill, the best available comparison is the benchmarking summary Cairns Regional Council publishes with its own 2026-27 budget, which puts total rates and charges on a median-valued home, water use included, at $4,333 in Brisbane, $4,428 in Moreton Bay, $4,556 in Logan, $4,789 on the Gold Coast and $4,848 on the Sunshine Coast. By that measure Moreton Bay and Logan are the second and third cheapest of the five, $95 and $223 a year above Brisbane and below both coasts.
So the two growth councils sit in the middle on both counts: neither the lowest increase nor the highest, and neither the cheapest bill nor the dearest.
Neither city was revalued this year
The Valuer-General's 2026 program gave new land values to 15 local government areas, effective 30 June 2026, and Logan and Moreton Bay are not among them. Their 2026-27 general rates are worked out on the land values already in place, so the published percentage is close to what most owners in a category will see on that line.
What a growth council's budget means for owners
The scale of the infrastructure programs is the story behind both rate rises. A city adding thousands of homes a year has to build treatment plants, trunk roads and parks ahead of the rates those homes will eventually pay. Developers contribute through infrastructure charges, and other governments through grants, but existing ratepayers carry part of the cost in the meantime. Logan's $468.4 million for water and wastewater in a single year is the clearest example.
For an owner-occupier, the practical points are the same in both cities. The published increase is for a property on the minimum general rate; a home with a higher land value pays more than the minimum and may see a different dollar change. Discounts and pensioner remissions continue in Logan, and Moreton Bay's rebates rise by 10 per cent.
For investors, the rating category decides the bill. Logan's 37 categories and Moreton Bay's equivalent schedule separate owner-occupied homes from those that are let, and the announcements quoted here give no figure for the latter. For a landlord the rates notice is a deductible cost that still has to be funded from rent each quarter.
For buyers, including the many purchasing land or new homes in either city's estates, rates are a holding cost that begins with ownership of the land. At settlement the charges are adjusted between seller and buyer by the day, and from 1 July the amounts used are the ones set in these budgets.
What comes next
Rates notices on the 2026-27 charges are issued from July. When the first one arrives, an owner in either city can check three things the budget announcements cannot settle for an individual property: the rating category it has been placed in, the land value the council has used, and whether any discount, remission or rebate the household is entitled to has been applied. The State's land tax, a different tax assessed by the Queensland Revenue Office on land owned at midnight on 30 June, is unaffected by either budget, and an owner-occupied home is generally exempt from it.
Attention now moves to the State. The Queensland Budget was delivered on 23 June, the same day Logan's figures were published, and its property tax settings are the next thing owners in both cities will want to read.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
