Cheapest suburbs to rent in Brisbane: Top 60 list
With Brisbane’s vacancy rate hitting an all-time low, we reveal the 60 most affordable suburbs to lease a property across the city. SEE THE LIST
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THE 60 most affordable suburbs to lease a property in Brisbane’s inner, middle and outer rings have been revealed as the city’s rental crisis continues to worsen.
The 10 cheapest rental suburbs for houses in Brisbane’s inner-ring are all less than 10km from the CBD and all have median weekly rents of more than $500 a week — except for one, according to exclusive new data from PropTrack.
Rocklea, in the city’s west, is the best value, with a median weekly rent of $450, but the average house rental jumps nearly $100 a week in the next cheapest suburb of Salisbury at $533, while Chermside, Mount Gravatt, and Keperra all average $550 a week.
It does not get much better if you venture further from the city, with the cheapest house rents in Riverview at $400 a week, followed by Inala ($425/week) and Goodna ($430/week).
When it comes to finding an affordable unit to rent in Brisbane’s inner city, your best bet is Holland Park West, where the median unit rent is $430 a week, followed by Greenslopes, Kedron, and Wooloowin. Even in the affluent suburbs of Wilston and Clayfield, it’s possible to secure an apartment to rent for $450 a week.
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But don’t expect anything fancy for that price within 10km of the CBD. A quick look at listings on realestate.com.au shows most rental properties at these prices and that close to the city are very small, very basic, or rundown.
Further out, there are bargain leases to be signed for apartments in Logan Central, Sandgate, and Rosewood for around $300 a week.
It comes as Queensland’s rental vacancy rate hit its lowest level ever in August, dropping below 1 per cent, according to the latest PropTrack Market Insight Report.
Brisbane’s vacancy rate dropped to just 0.8 per cent, with the share of rental properties vacant and available now 59 per cent lower than at the start of the pandemic.
Over the past decade, Brisbane’s rents have grown 44.7 per cent — higher than the average of the eight greater capital cities.
But the numbers are dire across the whole state, with Cairns’ vacancy rate now just 0.6 per cent, Townsville 0.9 per cent, and the Gold Coast 0.97 per cent.
PropTrack’s affordable rental data looks at the 10 cheapest suburbs to rent based on distance from the CBD in the inner (
It is based on median weekly rent, and excludes share accommodation, student rentals and 55+ accommodation.
PropTrack senior economist Paul Ryan said the data offered a “stark look at the state of the rental market” in Queensland.
“Brisbane rents are up nearly 15 per cent over the past 12 months and that’s putting a huge amount of financial pressure on many people,” Mr Ryan said.
“Tenants are paying over $500 a week in the cheapest possible inner-city locations, and it doesn’t get that much better the further you go out either.
“The benefit of these lists is that you can see clear trends of where people should look for relative affordability, but the numbers (in Brisbane) are really high.”
Mr Ryan said there was also a clear search trend of people looking for more one and two bedroom units as opposed to houses, which was the case two or three years ago.
Ray White AKG business development manager Lewis Masters said rental costs and competition was increasing in the middle and outer ring suburbs in Brisbane’s southeast, with many tenants now priced out of the inner-city market.
Mr Masters said many tenants were now even struggling to secure more affordable stock in the outer suburbs because these properties were being bought by first homebuyers or snapped up by families willing to pay more for a good school catchment area.
“We’re finding they’re either missing out on properties because of the competition or being priced out because people are starting to purchase that stock to live in, and that’s having a pretty significant effect on available stock in the market,” Mr Masters said.
“The further out you go from the city and the closer you get to Logan and Ipswich, there’s a higher volume of more affordable options, but what we are seeing is that in the newer pockets, like Ripley and even Pallara, four-bedroom homes are renting for $600 to $700, sometimes even $800 a week.”
Another leasing agent, who did not want to be named, at Harcourts Redbank Plains said the amount of applications she was receiving per rental property was “ridiculously high”.
She said there was one property in Redbank Plains with 27 good applications that she was sorting through.
In Brisbane’s inner north, Place Newmarket business development manager Mia Tredinnick said properties in the more affordable $400 to $600 a week price bracket would usually be leased after the first week, with an average of 15 applications.
“Definitely with rents and the cost of living going up, it’s drawing people to those properties around the $400 to $600 a week mark,” she said.
“Those over $850 to $1000 are staying on the market a little longer.”
Ms Tredinnick said apartments and townhouses were the most popular, with tenants snapping them up after one inspection, but with houses it often depended on the property.
“We’ve got about 17 (rental) listings at the moment and the average days on market —depending on the house — are seven to 14,” she said.
It comes as new research from buyer’s agency, InvestorKit, reveals double digit rental growth is still possible across Brisbane’s rental market in the next 12 to 24 months.
InvestorKit head of research Arjun Paliwal said “investor bashing” had to stop in order for more investors to come back into the market and buy rental properties to help ease the cost of renting.
“We have seen an increase in investor sellers in the market adding to the diminishing rental
supply, alongside a lack of new build completions for investors coming on quick enough,” Mr Paliwal said.
Along with Brisbane, Mr Paliwal said he expected rents in Townsville to continue to rise, with the vacancy rate there still below 1 per cent.
“As supply level is staying low, the high market pressure will likely push rents further up.” he said.
“Townsville is becoming one of the fastest growing internal migration magnets of the country, which will see rental demand continue to surge.”
SuburbTrends founder Kent Lardner said its Rental Pain Index for September 2023 revealed an urgent situation where Queensland suburbs like Rothwell and Kippa-Ring had experienced unprecedented rental increases of 15 per cent in the past 12 months.
“Vacancy rates under 1 per cent in these suburbs show the immense strain on housing availability,” Mr Lardner said.
“Our index is more than just numbers; it’s a call to action,” he said. “Policymakers and stakeholders need to acknowledge this growing crisis.”
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