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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →More than half of Queensland's regions had more rental homes available in the June quarter of 2026 than three months earlier, according to the Residential Vacancy Rate Report the Real Estate Institute of Queensland published on 30 July. Of the 50 regions the institute tracks, 27 recorded a rise in vacancies, 13 tightened and 10 were unchanged.
The statewide rate still only edged up, from 0.9 per cent in the March quarter to 1.0 per cent. The REIQ classes anything from 0 to 2.5 per cent as tight and regards 2.6 to 3.5 per cent as healthy, so the state as a whole remains far from that range. The institute's own summary is that more regions are relaxing than tightening, particularly in regional Queensland, and that the market is still a long way from healthy.
Where vacancies rose most
The larger movements were in regional Queensland, and the Wide Bay stands out. Hervey Bay reached 2.3 per cent and the Fraser Coast 2.2 per cent, each up 0.7 of a percentage point in a quarter. Maryborough rose 0.6 points to 1.4 per cent.
Five regions rose by 0.4 points: Gympie to 1.4 per cent, the Gold Coast to 1.5 per cent, the Caloundra Coast and the Burdekin to 1.1 per cent, and Mareeba to 1.0 per cent. For Gympie, the REIQ says, it is the highest rate in almost a decade. The institute adds that several areas reached their highest rates since the start of the pandemic, and it names the Fraser Coast, Hervey Bay, Maryborough, the Gold Coast, Mackay, Rockhampton and Mareeba.
Related readRTA's 2026-27 compliance plan begins with bond claim evidenceThe table sets the June figures beside those in the institute's March quarter report, published on 30 April, for the regions that moved most in either direction.
| Region | March quarter | June quarter | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hervey Bay | 1.6% | 2.3% | +0.7 pts |
| Fraser Coast | 1.5% | 2.2% | +0.7 pts |
| Maryborough | 0.8% | 1.4% | +0.6 pts |
| Gold Coast | 1.1% | 1.5% | +0.4 pts |
| Gympie | 1.0% | 1.4% | +0.4 pts |
| Lockyer Valley | 1.3% | 1.0% | -0.3 pts |
| Whitsunday | 1.3% | 0.9% | -0.4 pts |
| Mount Isa | 1.9% | 1.2% | -0.7 pts |
REIQ Residential Vacancy Rate Reports for the March quarter 2026 (30 April) and the June quarter 2026 (30 July). Every rate shown is in the institute's tight band of 0 to 2.5%.
Every region in the table is still classed as tight, including those that eased the most. Noosa, at 2.2 per cent, and Gladstone, at 2.1 per cent, are described by the REIQ as just shy of a healthy rate. Noosa was at 1.9 per cent in March. Gladstone was at 2.2 per cent, so it slipped slightly while its neighbours on the list rose.
The Gold Coast is the largest market among the regions that eased. Its rate went from 1.1 per cent to 1.5 per cent in the quarter in which Domain's rent data made the city the dearest rental market in the country, a reminder that a vacancy rate and a rent level measure different things.
The south-east did not move
The easing stopped at the edge of the capital. The REIQ lists Greater Brisbane at 0.8 per cent, the Brisbane local government area at 1.0 per cent, Ipswich and Moreton Bay at 0.7 per cent, Pine Rivers at 0.6 per cent and the Sunshine Coast at 0.9 per cent, in a south-east it describes as largely unchanged. Logan, at 0.8 per cent, belongs to the same group. The institute puts Brisbane's median weekly rent at around $700.
For Greater Brisbane and the Brisbane local government area, 0.8 and 1.0 per cent are the same figures the institute reported for the March quarter. Both had fallen by 0.2 points in that earlier report, so the June result holds the capital at the tighter level it reached over the summer.
Related readRTA publishes plain-language guides for residential servicesOther parts of the state tightened. Mount Isa fell 0.7 points to 1.2 per cent, the largest tightening of the quarter. Whitsunday fell 0.4 points to 0.9 per cent, and Townsville and the Lockyer Valley each fell 0.3 points, to 0.9 and 1.0 per cent. The REIQ notes that Mount Isa and the Lockyer Valley have now tightened for consecutive quarters, and that Redcliffe, Gladstone, the Cassowary Coast and Goondiwindi have been tightening gradually.
At the tight end, Cook and Goondiwindi both recorded 0.0 per cent, which the REIQ describes as effectively no rental availability. Charters Towers was at 0.3 per cent, and Banana and Maranoa at 0.4 per cent. Redcliffe, the Cassowary Coast and the Southern Downs were at 0.5 per cent.
Only two markets class as weak
Across the state, 29 regions have a vacancy rate of 1.0 per cent or less and only six are above 2.0 per cent, the REIQ says. Two regions meet its definition of a weak market, at 3.6 per cent or more: Isaac, at 6.2 per cent, and the Bay Islands, at 4.3 per cent.
Neither is a sign of general loosening. The Bay Islands rose 0.8 points, which the report says largely reflects a rebound from the previous quarter's decline. The March report had the islands at 3.5 per cent after a fall of 0.5 points, and Isaac at 5.5 per cent after a fall of 0.6 points. Both are among the smaller markets the institute tracks, and both have returned to roughly where they stood at the end of 2025.
Related readQueensland adds rental application forms for disability accommodationTight, healthy and weak are fixed ranges
The institute calls a market tight at 0 to 2.5 per cent, healthy at 2.6 to 3.5 per cent and weak at 3.6 per cent or more. In the June quarter no region it named sat in the healthy band: the regions above 2.5 per cent were both above 3.5 per cent.
The institute does not read the quarter as a turning point. Its release describes a market in a state of flux and mentions reports of more broken leases, more tenants moving to cheaper homes, and some higher-priced rentals taking longer to let. Those are signs of households reaching the limit of what they can pay, which is a different thing from supply catching up with demand.
How the quarter compares with earlier ones
The REIQ's earlier releases show how unusual the breadth of this quarter's movement is, and how little the state figure has changed over two years.
| Quarter | Statewide rate | Regions easing | Regions tightening |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 2024 | 1.0% | 25 | 13 |
| March 2025 | 0.9% | 14 | 24 |
| March 2026 | 0.9% | 13 | 24 |
| June 2026 | 1.0% | 27 | 13 |
REIQ vacancy rate releases of 8 August 2024, the March quarter 2025, 30 April 2026 and 30 July 2026. The remaining regions in each quarter were unchanged.
The pattern has a seasonal look. In both 2025 and 2026 the March quarter brought 24 tightening regions and a state rate of 0.9 per cent, and the June quarters of 2024 and 2026 each brought at least half the regions easing and a rate of 1.0 per cent. The REIQ does not describe its series as seasonal, and four releases are too few to establish it, but the comparison is a caution against reading one winter quarter as a trend.
What has changed is the spread. In the March 2026 report, 33 of the 50 regions were at 1.0 per cent or less; in June the count is 29. Two years earlier, in the June quarter of 2024, the institute counted 47 regions as tight, two as healthy, Noosa at 2.6 per cent and Mount Isa at 2.7 per cent, and one as weak, the Bay Islands at 3.7 per cent. Mount Isa has since gone from the loosest of the mainland markets to 1.2 per cent, while the Wide Bay has moved the other way.
Related readBrisbane vacancy holds at 0.9 per cent as the national rate risesThe March release carried a different theme from this one. It reported a clear shift towards co-tenancies, with more tenants sharing homes and more multi-generational households, as a practical response to cost. The June release's references to broken leases and tenants trading down describe the same pressure from another side.
What the REIQ says is missing
The REIQ's conclusion is about supply. It argues that more housing is the only sustainable answer to housing affordability and rental pressure in Queensland. It also raises federal policy, saying it is difficult to see how making property investment less appealing would not eventually flow through to rental supply. That is the institute's argument about what may follow; the June quarter figures do not measure it.
As a marker of pressure at the lowest-income end of the market, the release cites the state's social housing register, which the Queensland Government put at 41,298 people in a statement of 23 July. The same statement said 6,925 social and affordable homes were under way across the state, that 4,469 had been delivered, and that the target is 53,500 social and community homes by 2044.
Other measures published this month agree with the REIQ on the capital. SQM Research, which counts online listings advertised for three weeks or more, put Brisbane's vacancy rate at 0.9 per cent in June in its release of 14 July, unchanged from May, on 3,065 vacant homes. Its national rate rose to 1.3 per cent. SQM's monthly series covers the capitals, so the REIQ's report remains the only regular source with a figure for Hervey Bay or Mount Isa.
For tenants in the Wide Bay, Gympie or the Gold Coast, the quarter brought slightly more choice than they had in autumn. For tenants in Brisbane, Ipswich and Moreton Bay, it brought none.
For owners and property managers, the regional picture now matters more than the state average. A statewide 1.0 per cent covers a home in Hervey Bay that may take longer to let than it did in March and a home in Goondiwindi that has no competition at all.
What comes next
The institute reports each quarter. Its March edition appeared on 30 April and its June edition on 30 July, which puts the September quarter report next in line, covering the start of the spring leasing season.
Rents for the same period come from a separate public source. The Residential Tenancies Authority publishes median weekly rents each quarter, calculated from new bond lodgements, and its schedule puts June quarter figures out in July and September quarter figures in October. Those medians describe agreements that were actually signed, by suburb and by local government area, and they are the natural companion to a vacancy report that shows where homes have become easier to find.
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.
