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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →A Queensland household on the state's median income could afford just 9 per cent of the homes sold in the state over the past financial year. That is the finding of the realestate.com.au Housing Affordability Report for 2025-26, published by REA Group in the first week of September and reported by MPA and Australian Broker on 5 September. A year earlier the figure was 15 per cent. The report calls the new reading a record low for Queensland.
Nationally the index tells the same story at a slightly less severe level: a median-income household could afford 12 per cent of homes sold, the smallest share since the series began in 1994-95. Queensland now ranks as the third least affordable state, behind South Australia and New South Wales, according to Australian Property Update's summary of the report.
realestate.com.au Housing Affordability Report, 2025-26 financial year, Queensland, as reported by Elite Agent and Broker Daily on 7 September 2026.
What the index counts as affordable
The number is easy to misread, so the method comes first. The index does not ask whether people feel housing is expensive. It takes every home sold in a year and tests each sale price against a fixed set of lending assumptions.
- Start with the incomeThe state's median gross household income, about $124,000 in Queensland.
- Cap the repaymentsMortgage repayments may take no more than 30% of that income, tested at the average new loan rate plus a 2.5 point buffer.
- Count the homesAssuming a 20% deposit and buying costs are already saved, the share of homes sold under the resulting price is the result.
Two features of that method shape the answer. The 2.5 percentage point buffer mirrors the test lenders apply when they assess a new loan, so the index moves with borrowing capacity, not only with prices. And the 20 per cent deposit is assumed to exist. The time it takes to save one is measured separately.
The measure covers houses and units together, in the capital and the regions. A result of 9 per cent therefore means that across the whole state, including the cheapest unit markets and the most affordable towns, roughly one sale in eleven was priced within reach of the household in the middle of the income range.
Related readQueenslanders' house price expectations drop 15 per cent in a monthQueensland beside the other states
The report ranks South Australia as the least affordable state, a position it has taken from New South Wales, and Victoria as the most affordable for the first time on record. Queensland and New South Wales now return the same headline share.
| State | Homes a median income can afford | Repayments, share of income | Years to save a 20% deposit |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Australia | 7% | 43.9% | 7.4 |
| Queensland | 9% | 39.7% | 6.7 |
| New South Wales | 9% | 39.2% | 6.7 |
| Western Australia | 10% | 30.9% | 5.2 |
| Victoria | 16% | Not reported | Not reported |
| Australia | 12% | 35.5% | About 6 |
realestate.com.au Housing Affordability Report 2025-26, as reported by Elite Agent and Broker Daily, 7 September 2026. Victorian repayment and deposit figures were not given in the coverage read.
The comparison with New South Wales is the one that would have seemed unlikely a few years ago. A Queensland household on the median income, about $124,000, earns close to its New South Wales counterpart on about $126,000, and the two states now show the same 9 per cent share and the same 6.7 years to a deposit. On repayments, Queensland's 39.7 per cent of income is slightly heavier than New South Wales at 39.2 per cent.
Western Australia shows what a higher income does to the same sum. Its median household income is about $130,000, and repayments there take 30.9 per cent of income, the lowest of the states in the coverage, even though only 10 per cent of homes pass the test.
A worked example on a Queensland income
The report's assumptions can be followed through with round numbers. What follows is an illustration built on those assumptions, not a figure from the report.
Take the Queensland median household income of about $124,000 a year. Thirty per cent of it is $37,200 a year, or $3,100 a month. That is the most the index allows for repayments.
Now apply a test rate. The report says average mortgage rates rose from 5.8 per cent in 2024-25 to 6.3 per cent in 2025-26. Adding the 2.5 point buffer gives 8.8 per cent. On a standard 30-year principal-and-interest loan, a repayment of $3,100 a month at 8.8 per cent supports a loan of about $392,000. With the 20 per cent deposit the index assumes, that loan matches a purchase price of about $490,000.
Related readInterstate arrivals to Queensland slow to 14,718 in the year to MarchSet that beside the Real Estate Institute of Queensland's medians for the June quarter, published on 31 August: $983,000 for houses and $810,000 for units. A home at about $490,000 is far below the middle of either market. That gap is why only a small slice of sales passes the test.
Real lending is not identical to the index. Lenders look at actual expenses and existing debts, some accept repayments above 30 per cent of income, and many buyers have more or less than a 20 per cent deposit. The example shows the scale of the gap, not what any one household can borrow.
Why the share fell so far in one year
A fall from 15 per cent to 9 per cent in twelve months is steep. The report points to two forces working in the same direction.
The first is interest rates. REA senior economist Angus Moore attributes the national record low to the three Reserve Bank increases made in February, March and May, which lifted mortgage rates and constrained how much households can borrow. Because the index tests each loan at the prevailing rate plus a buffer, every rate rise lowers the price ceiling for every income.
The second is prices outrunning incomes. Nationally, the report estimates that home prices rose about 5 per cent between the two financial years while household incomes rose 4.5 per cent. In Queensland the gap was much wider: the REIQ's June quarter report shows the state's median house price up 16.57 per cent over the year and its median unit price up 17.29 per cent.
Related readQueensland ranks second least affordable for home loans, REIA findsMr Moore is quoted by Australian Broker noting that home prices have fallen this year, but that they grew much faster than incomes in the years before. A few months of softer prices have not undone that.
The deposit takes 6.7 years
The second hurdle is the deposit, and here too Queensland has set a record. The report estimates it now takes 6.7 years for a median-income Queensland household to save a 20 per cent deposit on a median-priced home. Nationally the figure is about 6 years, up from 5.8 years in 2024-25.
The length of that wait helps explain a shift the report also records. About half of first home buyer loans written nationally in 2025-26 used the federal 5 per cent deposit scheme, roughly double the share before the scheme was expanded. A smaller deposit shortens the saving period, at the cost of a larger loan and higher repayments. The scheme itself, and the grants and concessions available to first home buyers in Queensland, are a subject of their own.
Households below the median face a much narrower field. Nationally, the report finds that a household earning $76,000 could afford 2 per cent of homes sold, and one earning $65,000 could afford 1 per cent. State figures for those income levels were not included in the coverage.
What the figure does and does not say
A single percentage hides a good deal, and buyers reading it should keep its limits in view.
It describes the household in the exact middle of the income range. Half of Queensland households earn more, and couples with two full-time incomes commonly sit above the median. For them the share of affordable homes is larger than 9 per cent, though the report's coverage does not say by how much.
It counts homes that sold, at the prices they sold for, across a full financial year. It says nothing about the homes for sale today. Since the middle of 2026, dated sources have described more listings and softer prices in parts of the state, which the 2025-26 average only partly captures.
It is a statewide measure. A buyer looking in a regional centre and a buyer looking in inner Brisbane face different arithmetic, and the index does not separate them in the figures reported so far.
And it is one measure among several. Other organisations calculate affordability from average loan sizes or from the ratio of prices to incomes, and they produce different percentages. What they share at present is the direction.
What the report's authors expect
REA Group's own commentary is pointed. Chief executive Cameron McIntyre is quoted by Australian Broker describing the result as the worst affordability in at least a generation. Mr Moore's assessment, reported by Elite Agent, is that affordability will remain a significant challenge without a meaningful increase in housing supply, particularly for lower-income households.
Neither statement is a forecast of prices. For a Queensland buyer, the practical content of the report is the pair of numbers that set the size of the task: repayments that would take 39.7 per cent of a median income on a median-priced home, and a deposit that takes 6.7 years to save. The index is compiled once a year, so the next full reading will cover the 2026-27 financial year.
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.
