A new report by the Property Council of Australia reveals Brisbane is falling further behind its housing targets.
More than a third of future apartment supply is at risk and existing stock could dry up within a month as shock new data reveals the extent of Brisbane’s housing crisis.
An exclusive report has found the Queensland capital is falling further behind its housing targets, with the cost of building a new apartment now about $1.7 million and 35 per cent of future projects at risk of not being completed.
At the same time, Brisbane’s existing apartment market is running critically short of supply with research from Place Advisory showing inner Brisbane currently has just one month of apartment supply available — the tightest conditions in more than a decade.
A new report has found Brisbane’s apartment shortage is at a critical point. Picture: David Clark.
Property Council Queensland executive director Jess Caire said rising construction costs, labour shortages, and lengthy approval timeframes were undermining the delivery of new apartment supply.
Ms Caire said that without “extreme intervention”, no projects of scale would stack up going forward, meaning only luxury product would be built for a limited number of high-end buyers.
“The average existing unit in Brisbane is now worth $831,000, meaning it is more expensive to build new supply than to purchase existing stock,” she said.
“Ensuring we can deliver apartment supply that is accessible to a broader buyer market, including first homebuyers, downsizers and owner-occupiers, is essential if we are serious about improving availability.”
Jess Caire, Executive Director of the Queensland Division of the Property Council of Australia. Picture: Liam Kidston.
The research conducted by Urbis for the Property Council of Australia reveals that while apartment launches and sales improved last year, the uplift has not translated into construction, with many approved or marketed projects not going ahead.
Under the Shaping SEQ: South East Queensland Regional Plan 2023, Brisbane is required to deliver around 8,000 apartments per year until 2031, yet less than half of this target has been delivered each year since 2019.
Ms Caire said that while completions had lifted to around 2,550 apartments in 2025 and were forecast to approach 3,000 in 2026, this still left an annual shortfall of 4,000 to 5,000 apartments.
“Brisbane is not delivering enough apartments to meet demand, and the gap is not narrowing — it’s widening,” she said.
“Even with the recent uptick in launches and sales, we are still nowhere near where we need to be.”
High-rise apartment buildings in Brisbane’s West End. Picture: Mark Calleja.
As Brisbane approaches the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, competition for labour and materials is expected to intensify further.
Urbis’s latest inner Brisbane apartment report reveals the average sale price for an apartment was a staggering $1.75 million.
Urbis director Paul Riga said the market remained constrained despite signs of improvement.
“While we’ve seen a welcome uplift in apartment launches and sales, this has not flowed through to construction at the scale required,” Mr Riga said.
“Beyond 2027, a significant proportion of Brisbane’s apartment pipeline remains at risk, and without further action, the shortfall will persist.”
According to the Place Advisory research, active apartment listings have almost halved over the past year to just 694, while buyer enquiries have surged.
Inner Brisbane apartment prices have jumped 15 per cent over the same period, with much of the demand coming from first homebuyers and young families.
“With roughly one month of supply across inner Brisbane, the market is operating under genuine constraint,” Place Advisory and Projects director Syd Walker said.
According to Place Advisory, there are currently 75 apartment projects across inner Brisbane in the development pipeline, totalling more than 20,000 apartments.
Urbis director Paul Riga.
Of those, 4,934 apartments are under construction, 6,580 have been approved but have not yet commenced, and 8,536 remain at development application stage.
“In the meantime, demand continues to exceed immediate availability,” Mr Walker said.
Place New Farm agent Aaron Woolard said competition among buyers had intensified sharply over the past year, with the number of buyers per listing doubling and enquiries rising 44 per cent compared with the same period last year.
“A significant portion of the competition we’re seeing is coming from first homebuyers and young families who still want proximity to the city, but can’t stretch to house prices,” Mr Woolard said.
“For many of them, apartments represent the most accessible entry point without compromising location.”
Mr Woolard said investors now accounted for 50 per cent of apartment purchases in inner Brisbane — up from 45 per cent a year earlier.
English (US) · 