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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →The Queensland Budget handed down on 23 June 2026 commits $83.4 million to tenancy support programs in the private rental market, according to the Department of Housing and Public Works' service delivery statement published with it. The Real Estate Institute of Queensland, responding the same day, put total housing spending across the Budget at $12.3 billion and welcomed the absence of new taxes on property.
The social and community housing program of $5.725 billion over four years had been announced six days earlier. The Budget papers add the detail that matters to people who rent privately, and to the agency that looks after their bonds.
REIQ media release, 23 June 2026; Department of Housing and Public Works service delivery statement, 2026-27 Budget.
Support for private tenancies
The $83.4 million pays for programs that help households get into a private rental and stay there. The service delivery statement records it as spread over three years, to continue programs that already exist. Divided evenly, that is $27.8 million a year. The REIQ's release rounds the total to $83 million and calls it rental assistance.
The REIQ also noted $450 million for frontline housing and homelessness services and $18.5 million for the operations of the Residential Tenancies Authority. Those two figures come from the institute's reading of the Budget.
The department's own list of what it will deliver in 2026-27 starts with frontline housing and homelessness support: social and private housing assistance, tenancy management, specialist support services and crisis accommodation. Its housing, homelessness and youth services are budgeted to cost $2.590 billion in 2026-27, the statement shows. The tenancy support money is therefore a small line inside a large service, about 1 per cent of a single year's spending when taken at its annual average.
Related readRent increases in Queensland: how often, how much notice, what to doWhat the Budget does not do is as relevant to the rental market. The Treasurer's statement of 23 June is headed with the words "no new or increased taxes", and the REIQ described its reaction as relief: no new housing taxes, and no existing relief withdrawn. For owners of rental property, that means the Budget changes nothing in their holding costs.
How rental and housing services performed
Budget papers report on the year just ending as well as the year ahead. For each service, the department sets a target and then publishes its estimate of what was achieved.
| Measure | Target | Estimated actual |
|---|---|---|
| RTA disputes resolved after conciliation | 70% | 77% |
| RTA client satisfaction | 75% | 80% |
| New households assisted into the private rental market | 86% | 87% |
| New social housing households in very high or high need | 95% | 100% |
| State-owned social homes in acceptable condition | 95% | 98% |
| At-risk clients who avoided homelessness after support | 80% | 83% |
| Average wait for social housing, very high and high need | 12 months | 30 months |
Department of Housing and Public Works service delivery statement, 2026-27 Queensland Budget. Estimated actuals for 2025-26; a selection of the published measures.
Six of the seven lines beat their target. The seventh is the hard one. Households assessed as being in very high or high need waited an estimated 30 months on average for a social housing allocation, against a target of 12. The target for 2026-27 stays at 12 months.
The department gives its reason in a note to the table: private market conditions tightened across the state and fewer social housing tenancies turned over, so there were fewer homes to allocate. That explanation ties the two halves of the housing system together. When private rentals are scarce, social housing tenants have nowhere to move on to, and the people waiting behind them wait longer.
Two other lines show the same system from different sides. Every new household placed in state-owned social housing in 2025-26 was in very high or high need, according to the estimate, which means the homes that did come up went to the most urgent cases. And the cost of homelessness services rose: the recurrent cost per client is estimated at $8,416 for 2025-26 against a target of $6,690, which the department attributes to continued extra investment, including more funding for specialist homelessness services.
Related readRental bonds in Queensland: lodging, the maximum and getting it backTenants' own view of social housing is measured less often. The department surveys satisfaction every two years: the latest results were 75.6 per cent for public housing against a target of 86 per cent, and 77.3 per cent for community housing against a target of 81 per cent. No target is set for 2026-27 because the next survey falls in 2027-28. The cost of managing a social tenancy, meanwhile, is expected to rise from an estimated $1,641 per household to $1,670, mainly because of enterprise bargaining increases, the statement says.
That wait is the reason social housing appears in a story about private renting. A household waiting two and a half years for a social home spends that time in the private market, usually at the cheapest end of it.
The RTA's own budget
The Residential Tenancies Authority holds every rental bond lodged in Queensland, runs the free dispute resolution service and enforces the tenancy Act. The service delivery statement gives it a short section of its own.
| Line | 2025-26 | 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| Total income | $40.6 million | $45.7 million |
| Total expenses | $52.9 million | $46.7 million |
| Operating result | $12.3 million deficit | $1.0 million deficit |
| Staff, full-time equivalent | 260 | 238 |
Residential Tenancies Authority section of the Department of Housing and Public Works service delivery statement, 2026-27 Queensland Budget.
The direction is clear: more grant income, lower spending, and a deficit that almost closes. Expenses are budgeted about $6.2 million lower than in the previous Budget, and income about $5.1 million higher. The authority's staffing for 2026-27 is the same as the estimated actual for 2025-26, so the fall from 260 positions has already happened.
The RTA's cost target follows. Its operating cost is measured as a share of the bonds it holds: the estimate for 2025-26 is 3.4 per cent, against a target of 3.7 per cent, and the target for 2026-27 is 2.9 per cent. The statement attributes the lower target to improved efficiency and lower operating expenditure.
Related readRTA backs a campaign on home modifications in rental propertiesOn service, the authority's two targets are unchanged for 2026-27, at 70 per cent of disputes resolved after conciliation and 75 per cent client satisfaction, although both were beaten in 2025-26. Its list of priorities for the year is about quality and reach: better information across every channel, stronger digital services, more use of data to direct its regulatory work, and communication tailored with the organisations that represent tenants, owners and managers.
The bond pool keeps growing
The service delivery statement estimates the bonds the RTA holds at $1.485 billion for 2025-26 and budgets for $1.592 billion in 2026-27.
That is an expected rise of $107 million, or about 7.2 per cent, in a year. A bond is capped at four weeks' rent for a general tenancy, so the pool grows when rents rise and when more tenancies exist. The papers do not split the increase between the two.
The statement is careful on one point that concerns every tenant. The authority shows a small negative net asset position, but the bonds are a liability matched by equivalent cash, and the statement says they are fully funded and not affected by that position. A tenant's bond is held as cash against the day it is refunded.
Home ownership and the REIQ's one complaint
Measures for buyers reach the rental market indirectly, because a tenant who buys frees a rental. The REIQ's release lists the $30,000 First Home Owner Grant, funded at $72 million over four years, and $330 million for the Boost to Buy shared equity scheme. A government statement of 23 June says that since May 2025 more than 3,500 first home buyers have paid no stamp duty on a new home, saving more than $66 million between them.
The institute's stated disappointments were both about reach. It wanted the First Home Owner Grant extended to established homes, and it called stamp duty reform the missing element of the Budget, pointing to the Australian Capital Territory's wider program of abolishing duty as a model worth considering.
What does not change
The Budget is a spending document. It does not alter tenancy law: the rules on rent increases, bonds, notice periods and entry are the same on 24 June as they were on 22 June.
For tenants, the measures are indirect ones: support programs for those struggling to secure or keep a private rental, and a dispute service that is meeting its targets with fewer staff. For owners and property managers, the message of the day is continuity in tax and in regulation.
The harder numbers are the ones the next set of Budget papers will be read for: whether the 30-month wait shortens towards its 12-month target, whether the RTA holds its service levels on a tighter budget, and how far the 6,500 social and community homes now under way have progressed.
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.
