Over recent years, Queensland has experienced a large inflow of residents from other states.
Between Q1 2020 and Q3 2024, 168,500 residents from other states relocated to Queensland.
Many of these residents came from Victoria, which lost 55,400 net residents over the same period.
The surge in net interstate migration into Queensland and the loss from Victoria helped drive a strong divergence in dwelling value growth.
According to PropTrack, Queensland dwelling values have risen by 85% since March 2020 versus only an 18% increase in Melbourne.
As a result, Brisbane’s median dwelling value was $889,000 in May 2025, 13.7% above Melbourne’s median dwelling value of $782,000.
According to Domain, Brisbane’s median house price is tracking at a cyclical high relative to Melbourne’s.
According to analysis from Canstar, “Queenslanders need to earn around $100,000 more a year to afford a typical home than before the pandemic boom”, placing “Brisbane just behind Sydney in terms of the extra income required per household since Covid-19”.
“Very few people have had the kind of pay rises needed to keep pace with the market. For most people, the only way they’ve kept up is because they already own property”, Canstar director of research Sally Tindall said.
Queenslanders might need to move south to Victoria for more affordable housing.
