According to ANZ Research, Brisbane’s commercial property has outperformed other capital cities, with its CBD office vacancy rate lower than most other capitals since late 2022 and currently sitting at 10.6 per cent in Q3 2025, close to a decade low.
The fall in Brisbane’s office vacancy rate has been led by premium and A-grade offices, driven by a ‘flight to quality’ trend where businesses seek better facilities to support office attendance and meet environmental, social and governance requirements.
Prime CBD office capital value growth in Brisbane has outpaced the national average since Q2 2022, while the city recorded the strongest annual growth in net effective rents among capital cities since Q3 2023.
“Queensland has had the strongest interstate migration of all states/territories since Q2 2017 and has also seen the second-fastest increase in population from Q1 2020, up 14 per cent compared to 11 per cent nationwide,” ANZ Research noted in their report.
This population growth has translated to commercial property strength across multiple sectors.
In retail, regional centres in Brisbane had a vacancy rate of just 0.8 per cent as of Q2 2025, the lowest among state capitals, while sub-regional centres also performed better than the national average.
Industrial property in Brisbane has also shown remarkable strength, particularly in the southern region where capital value growth has outperformed the national average over the past year.
“Between 2015 and 2023, gross take-up largely outpaced completions in southern Brisbane. This contrasts with other cities, including Sydney, where total completions have picked-up relative to gross take-up recently,” the report stated.
Nationally, the office sector is showing signs of stabilisation after challenging years.
Office-based employment has outpaced overall employment growth since Q4 2019, and office attendance has improved from 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in Q2 2022 to 72.7 per cent in Q2 2025.
The premium office vacancy rate nationally is the lowest across office quality grades, though momentum may have eased recently as the rate picked up slightly from 11.2 per cent in Q1 2025 to 12.3 per cent in Q3.
Retail building approvals have been growing despite muted consumption growth, hovering around an all-time high.
While population growth is below its recent peak, it has settled above pre-pandemic rates, potentially driving investor confidence in future demand growth.
“While prime CBD retail vacancy rates remain higher compared to pre-pandemic (10.5 per cent in Q2 2025 vs 7.6 per cent average in 2019), they have declined from their peak of 15.9 per cent in Q2 2022, supported by office-related employment growth and the gradual improvement in office attendance in recent years,” the report said.
The industrial sector continues to be a standout across asset classes, with annual industrial building approvals as of October 2025 34 per cent higher than the 2022 average.
However, the market is showing signs of returning to balance, with rent growth for the year to Q3 2025 at 4.5 per cent, versus the recent peak of 24.5 per cent in Q1 2023.
