Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Brisbane
We update this blog post regularly so the numbers you see here reflect what the Brisbane rental market looks like right now.
Brisbane's rental market in March 2026 keeps rewarding investors who focus on the right neighborhoods and the right property types.
Inner-city apartments continue to produce the strongest yields, while family homes in outer suburbs offer stability but much thinner cash returns.
And if you're planning to buy a property in Brisbane, you may want to download our real estate pack about Brisbane.
A quick summary table
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Brisbane neighborhood with best rental yield | Fortitude Valley (1-bed apartment, 5.7% gross) |
| Brisbane neighborhood with weakest rental yield | Carindale (4-bed house, 2.6% gross) |
| Average gross yield across Brisbane | 4.4% |
| Average net yield across Brisbane | 3.2% |
| Median purchase price in this Brisbane dataset | AUD 860,000 |
| Average monthly rent across Brisbane segments | AUD 3,300 |
| Average occupancy rate in Brisbane | 95.8% |
| Fastest leasing market in Brisbane | South Brisbane (2-bed apartment, avg. 10 days) |
| Slowest leasing market in Brisbane | Fortitude Valley (3-bed apartment, avg. 12 days) |
| Highest occupancy in Brisbane | Chermside 1-bed unit and South Brisbane 1-bed apartment (97.0%) |
| Best value high-yield segment in Brisbane | South Brisbane 1-bed apartment (5.2% gross, 4.0% net) |
| Yield dispersion across Brisbane | 2.6% to 5.7% gross (3.1 percentage point spread) |
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Brisbane neighborhoods and property types in 2026 ranked by rental yield
This table ranks the top neighborhoods and property types in the Brisbane residential market by gross rental yield.
For each neighborhood and property type, the table includes average purchase price, average monthly rent, gross rental yield, net rental yield, annual fees, average occupancy, average time to rent, main rental demand, main risk, and investment profile.
By the way, you'll find much more detailed data in our real estate pack about Brisbane.
| # | Neighborhood | Property type | Gross rental yield | Net rental yield | Average purchase price | Average monthly rent | Ownership annual fees | Average occupancy | Average time to rent | Main rental demand | Main risk | Rental Investment Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fortitude Valley | 1-bed apartment | 5.7% | 4.3% | AUD 550,000 | AUD 2,600 | AUD 6,500 | 95.5% | 11 days | Young professionals and students | Noise and tenant churn | Top Pick |
| 2 | South Brisbane | 2-bed apartment | 5.4% | 4.2% | AUD 830,000 | AUD 3,727 | AUD 7,800 | 96.0% | 10 days | Young professionals and couples | Strata and investor competition | Top Pick |
| 3 | Chermside | 1-bed unit | 5.3% | 4.1% | AUD 575,000 | AUD 2,557 | AUD 5,000 | 97.0% | 10 days | Hospital staff and singles | New-apartment competition | Top Pick |
| 4 | South Brisbane | 3-bed apartment | 5.3% | 4.0% | AUD 1,180,000 | AUD 5,200 | AUD 10,000 | 95.5% | 11 days | Executives and medical staff | Premium rent ceiling risk | Top Pick |
| 5 | Brisbane City | 2-bed apartment | 5.2% | 3.8% | AUD 850,000 | AUD 3,683 | AUD 8,500 | 95.0% | 11 days | CBD sharers and couples | High-rise body corporate costs | Strong Potential |
| 6 | Brisbane City | 1-bed apartment | 5.2% | 3.9% | AUD 650,000 | AUD 2,817 | AUD 7,000 | 95.5% | 11 days | CBD workers and students | High-rise oversupply risk | Strong Potential |
| 7 | South Brisbane | 1-bed apartment | 5.2% | 4.0% | AUD 660,000 | AUD 2,860 | AUD 6,500 | 96.5% | 10 days | Hospital staff and students | New-supply competition risk | Top Pick |
| 8 | Newstead | 1-bed apartment | 5.0% | 3.8% | AUD 670,000 | AUD 2,795 | AUD 7,000 | 97.0% | 10 days | Single professionals and consultants | Strata cost escalation | Strong Potential |
| 9 | Fortitude Valley | 3-bed apartment | 5.0% | 3.7% | AUD 1,001,000 | AUD 4,200 | AUD 9,500 | 94.0% | 12 days | Executives and flatmates | Narrow family demand | Strong Potential |
| 10 | Fortitude Valley | 2-bed apartment | 5.0% | 3.9% | AUD 722,000 | AUD 3,033 | AUD 7,600 | 95.0% | 11 days | City workers and sharers | High tenant turnover risk | Strong Potential |
| 11 | Brisbane City | 3-bed apartment | 4.8% | 3.4% | AUD 1,350,000 | AUD 5,417 | AUD 11,000 | 94.0% | 12 days | Executive flatmates and professionals | Premium stock leasing depth | Strong Potential |
| 12 | Chermside | 2-bed unit | 4.6% | 3.6% | AUD 725,000 | AUD 2,770 | AUD 5,600 | 96.5% | 10 days | Hospital workers and couples | Body corporate leakage | Good Potential |
| 13 | Indooroopilly | 1-bed unit | 4.5% | 3.3% | AUD 694,000 | AUD 2,600 | AUD 5,200 | 96.5% | 10 days | Students and single professionals | Older-unit maintenance spikes | Good Potential |
| 14 | Chermside | 3-bed unit | 4.5% | 3.5% | AUD 860,000 | AUD 3,200 | AUD 6,500 | 96.0% | 10 days | Small families and professionals | Smaller tenant pool | Good Potential |
| 15 | West End | 3-bed apartment | 4.4% | 3.2% | AUD 1,350,000 | AUD 4,983 | AUD 11,000 | 95.5% | 11 days | Executives and affluent sharers | Luxury rent resistance | Good Potential |
| 16 | Newstead | 2-bed apartment | 4.4% | 3.2% | AUD 1,005,000 | AUD 3,683 | AUD 8,500 | 96.5% | 10 days | Professional couples and sharers | Premium pricing sensitivity | Good Potential |
| 17 | Indooroopilly | 2-bed unit | 4.3% | 3.3% | AUD 807,500 | AUD 2,895 | AUD 5,800 | 96.0% | 10 days | Students and young couples | Moderate strata leakage | Good Potential |
| 18 | West End | 2-bed apartment | 4.3% | 3.1% | AUD 950,000 | AUD 3,380 | AUD 8,500 | 96.0% | 10 days | Professional couples and sharers | Premium supply competition | Good Potential |
| 19 | West End | 1-bed apartment | 4.2% | 3.0% | AUD 760,000 | AUD 2,687 | AUD 7,000 | 96.5% | 10 days | Students and young professionals | Amenity-heavy strata costs | Good Potential |
| 20 | Indooroopilly | 3-bed unit | 3.9% | 2.9% | AUD 1,080,000 | AUD 3,467 | AUD 6,800 | 95.5% | 11 days | Small families and professionals | Narrow renter depth | Moderate Appeal |
| 21 | New Farm | 1-bed unit | 3.8% | 2.7% | AUD 900,000 | AUD 2,817 | AUD 6,200 | 96.0% | 10 days | Single professionals and downsizers | Heritage and strata upkeep | Moderate Appeal |
| 22 | Paddington | 2-bed unit | 3.7% | 2.9% | AUD 868,550 | AUD 2,708 | AUD 5,200 | 95.0% | 11 days | Couples and young professionals | Older-block capex risk | Moderate Appeal |
| 23 | Carindale | 2-bed townhouse | 3.7% | 2.9% | AUD 916,000 | AUD 2,817 | AUD 4,800 | 96.0% | 10 days | Downsizers and small families | Townhouse resale liquidity | Moderate Appeal |
| 24 | Paddington | 1-bed unit | 3.7% | 2.8% | AUD 598,000 | AUD 1,863 | AUD 4,300 | 95.5% | 11 days | Single professionals and creatives | Older stock upkeep risk | Moderate Appeal |
| 25 | Newstead | 3-bed apartment | 3.6% | 2.6% | AUD 1,822,500 | AUD 5,417 | AUD 12,000 | 95.5% | 11 days | Executives and relocating families | Limited tenant pool | Moderate Appeal |
| 26 | New Farm | 2-bed unit | 3.6% | 2.6% | AUD 1,150,000 | AUD 3,467 | AUD 7,800 | 95.5% | 11 days | Professional couples and downsizers | Premium pricing compression | Moderate Appeal |
| 27 | New Farm | 3-bed unit | 3.6% | 2.5% | AUD 1,500,000 | AUD 4,547 | AUD 9,500 | 95.0% | 11 days | Executives and affluent couples | Luxury vacancy spells | Moderate Appeal |
| 28 | Paddington | 3-bed unit | 3.4% | 2.4% | AUD 1,285,000 | AUD 3,597 | AUD 7,000 | 94.5% | 11 days | Professionals and small families | Limited renter pool | Moderate Appeal |
| 29 | Carindale | 3-bed house | 2.7% | 2.1% | AUD 1,450,000 | AUD 3,250 | AUD 6,000 | 97.0% | 10 days | Families near schools | High entry price risk | Limited Appeal |
| 30 | Carindale | 4-bed house | 2.6% | 2.0% | AUD 1,775,000 | AUD 3,792 | AUD 7,000 | 96.5% | 10 days | Upgrading families and executives | Larger-home maintenance risk | Limited Appeal |
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Key insights about rental yields in Brisbane
Insights
- Brisbane's highest gross yield (5.7%) comes from a Fortitude Valley 1-bed apartment priced at AUD 550,000, more than three percentage points above a Carindale 4-bed house at the same price range, showing how property type matters more than suburb name alone.
- South Brisbane stands out as the most balanced market in Brisbane: it appears across multiple yield tiers, producing 5.4% on a 2-bed and 5.2% on a 1-bed, while keeping occupancy above 96% and average leasing time at just 10 days.
- Chermside delivers the highest occupancy rate in this entire Brisbane dataset at 97%, driven by steady demand from hospital workers near the Prince Charles and Holy Spirit Northside hospitals, making vacancy risk much lower than typical inner-city apartment markets.
- Brisbane City high-rise apartments come with a hidden cost problem: strata and body corporate fees push net yields significantly below gross, with the 2-bed CBD apartment dropping from 5.2% gross to only 3.8% net, a 1.4 percentage point gap caused mainly by building fees.
- Newstead's 3-bed apartment at AUD 1.8 million produces only a 3.6% gross yield, but the same suburb's 1-bed apartment at AUD 670,000 delivers 5.0%, showing that buying bigger in Newstead hurts your return per dollar invested.
- West End functions more like a lifestyle investment than a yield play: all three West End property types in this dataset fall between 4.2% and 4.4% gross, with net yields barely touching 3%, which makes it a weak choice if cash flow is your main goal.
- The gap between the best and worst Brisbane yields in this dataset is 3.1 percentage points (5.7% to 2.6%), which at a AUD 800,000 purchase price translates to a difference of roughly AUD 24,800 in annual gross rent, a meaningful real-money gap for a private investor.
- Carindale family houses are the only two entries in this entire Brisbane dataset rated as Limited Appeal. Despite 96-97% occupancy, the purchase prices are simply too high relative to the rents families will pay, making them poor yield investments regardless of tenant stability.
- Paddington's 3-bed unit delivers the lowest net yield of any non-house property in this dataset at 2.4%, partly because older Brisbane stock often requires more maintenance spending than the headline fees suggest.
- In Brisbane's inner-apartment market, 1-bed units consistently beat 2-bed and 3-bed units on net yield within the same suburb. In South Brisbane, the 1-bed nets 4.0% while the 3-bed nets 4.0% too, but the 1-bed requires AUD 520,000 less capital, freeing money for a second investment.
- Fortitude Valley offers the best headline yield in Brisbane but also the only suburb where all three property types are flagged for tenant churn or turnover risk, meaning management time and re-letting costs can quietly erode those headline numbers.
- Hospital-adjacent suburbs dominate the occupancy rankings in Brisbane. Chermside and South Brisbane, both close to major medical precincts, post the highest occupancy figures in the dataset, suggesting healthcare employment is one of the most reliable rental demand anchors in the city.
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About our methodology
We believe it is important to show our reasoning. It is one of the ways we make our work solid, transparent, and rigorous, just as you will see in our real estate pack about Brisbane.
First, please note that this data is updated regularly, so what you see here reflects the current values as of today.
In order to get reliable data for the Brisbane residential property market, we applied a strict source filter. We only used authoritative, verifiable sources specific to Queensland and the Brisbane metro area, not random listings or unsupported figures. More on that point below.
For each Brisbane neighborhood and property type, we aggregated the freshest purchase price and monthly rent data available from the main Australian property portals, including REA and Domain suburb profiles. When possible, we cross-checked multiple sources to confirm the same price range.
This allowed us to estimate rental yield before costs. That is the gross yield, based on annual rent versus purchase price.
We then estimated rental yield after costs. That is the net yield, after recurring ownership and operating expenses specific to Queensland and Brisbane.
These expenses can vary a lot across Brisbane neighborhoods. That is why two areas with similar rents can still produce different net returns.
For example, Brisbane City high-rise apartments tend to carry much higher body corporate fees than outer-suburb units. Older stock in Paddington or New Farm may carry heavier maintenance and insurance costs. In high-turnover inner suburbs like Fortitude Valley, re-letting costs and vacancy time also add up more frequently.
We also estimated ownership annual fees by combining the main recurring costs for each Brisbane property type. This includes Brisbane City Council rates, Queensland land tax where applicable, landlord insurance, body corporate or strata fees for apartments and townhouses, and a routine maintenance allowance.
These cost estimates were not applied as one flat number across all of Brisbane. They were adjusted by neighborhood and property type to better reflect local conditions in Queensland.
This table should therefore be read as a structured market estimate, not as an exact guarantee of future performance. Honesty, quality, and rigor are at the core of our work, and they are also what you will find in our real estate pack about Brisbane.
What sources have we used to write this blog article?
Whether it's in our blog articles or the market analyses included in our real estate pack about Brisbane, we rely on verifiable sources and a transparent methodology.
We also aim to be fully transparent, so below we've listed the authoritative sources we used, and explained how we used them and the methods behind our estimates.
| Source | Why it's reliable | How we used it |
|---|---|---|
| ABS Census QuickStats (Brisbane) | The Australian Bureau of Statistics is the official national statistics agency, making it the most reliable source for local demographic and housing data. | We used it to anchor Brisbane-wide household, rent, and dwelling context before going suburb by suburb. We used it as the public-sector baseline to sanity-check suburb-level population and rental composition. |
| REA (realestate.com.au) suburb profiles | REA is Australia's largest property portal, and its suburb profiles are one of the most widely referenced sources for median prices and rent data. | We used it for suburb-level medians by property type and bedroom count, plus current rental listing patterns. We used it as the primary source for matching specific property types to neighborhood price points across Brisbane. |
| Domain suburb profiles and Rental Report | Domain is a major national property portal with a dedicated research team that publishes consistently structured rental market reports. | We used it to cross-check suburb positioning, lifestyle context, and recent rental examples against REA data. We used the Domain Rental Report as a market-level check on Brisbane's broader rental direction. |
| SQM Research (weekly rents and vacancy rates) | SQM Research is a long-established Australian housing data provider with transparent series descriptions and well-documented vacancy and rent series. | We used it to cross-check suburb and postcode asking rents and to smooth out any single-portal noise from current listings. We used its vacancy-rate series to estimate occupancy and time-to-rent by Brisbane postcode and segment. |
| Cotality Home Value Index | Cotality is one of Australia's best-known housing data providers and publishes a documented, regularly updated price index methodology. | We used it to anchor the broader Brisbane price direction as of early March 2026. We used it as a macro cross-check to ensure suburb-level price estimates sit inside the wider Brisbane market trend. |
| Brisbane City Council rates information | Brisbane City Council is the official authority for local government rate settings, making it the most accurate source for council cost inputs. | We used it to anchor the council-rates component of annual ownership costs across Brisbane neighborhoods. We used it to ensure our fee estimates reflect Brisbane's actual local tax structure rather than generic national averages. |
| Queensland Revenue Office (land tax) | The QRO is the official Queensland state tax authority, making it the definitive reference for land tax rules and thresholds in Queensland. | We used it to reflect how Queensland state land tax exposure can affect investor holding costs where relevant. We used it mainly as a framework input for net-yield realism, rather than assuming zero state tax across all Brisbane properties. |
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