Qld’s affordable suburbs are disappearing as the sub-$500,000 housing market is wiped out – realestate.com.au

The number of Queensland suburbs with a median home value of less than $500,000 has fallen, with only 118 locations now offering what was once that affordable price tag.

Just five years ago, there were 510 suburbs with a median home price of $500,000 or less, representing a nearly 77 percent drop in affordable housing below that threshold, a News Corp. analysis shows.

To put that number in perspective, there are 1,008 housing estates across the state, with 387 suburbs now costing buyers well over a million dollars, according to the latest REA Market Trends report.

23 Flinders Drive, Moranbah, is listed at $448,000

Meanwhile, as many as 41 suburbs now cost more than $2 million, eight of which now cost more than $3 million.

In 2020, there were only 62 suburbs with a median home value of more than $1 million, according to REA data, and only three suburbs – Main Beach, Surfers Paradise and Teneriffe – had price tags of more than $2 million.

It comes after the latest PropTrack Home Price Index of the year showed Brisbane’s median house price rising 13.68 per cent (or $136,300) to $1.15 million in 2025, three times faster than Melbourne.

Meanwhile, the combined average home value in regional Queensland rose by 12.52 per cent or $94,300 in just one year.

And even more sub-$500,000 suburbs are likely to become extinct by 2026.

5 Bunda Street, Bundaberg East is listed for offers over $489,000

REA Group senior economist Anne Flaherty said the number of homes selling under $500,000 has fallen significantly in Queensland in recent years.

“This number is expected to fall even further in 2026, with prices predicted to continue rising across the state,” Ms Flaherty said.

“Housing prices have risen significantly in Queensland in recent years, with some regions seeing house prices double in the last five years alone.

“During the pandemic years, high levels of interstate migration and low interest rates drove a substantial increase in values.

“Recently, a shortage of new homes relative to the rate of population growth, as well as strong investor demand, have continued to push up prices.”

MORE: They added a new form – and created a 500-page mess

‘A joke’: anger over suburban parking chaos

Mentioned: 501 suburbs under $500,000 amid panic

Economist Anne Flaherty of Realestate.com.au

Of the suburbs with median home values still at or below $500,000, only three are in the Greater Brisbane region and none are on the mainland.

They are Russell Island ($445,000), Lamb Island ($457,500) and Macleay Island ($495,000), but all three have seen house values rise by more than 111.9 percent over the past five years, with Lamb Island recording 28.7 percent price growth in the past year alone.

15 Lemontree Dr, Macleay Island, is listed for $470,000

There are no more housing estates under $500,000 on the Sunshine Coast.

Meanwhile, only two suburbs remain in that price range on the Gold Coast, including the controversial South Stradbroke Island ($235,000), where the majority of properties are located at the closed Couran Cove Resort, where all power, water and gas supplies have been turned off due to an ongoing legal dispute between the resort owner and corporate entities.

The residents of Couran Cove Resort live off-grid

The only other sub-$500,000 suburb on the Gold Coast is Stapylton ($420,000).

In the north, the Cairns region has 18 suburbs at or below the magic $500,000 threshold, ranging from Mourilyan ($281,000) to Innisfail Estate and Cullinane ($500,000).