September 2026 · Issue #6
Rents are cooling, not spiking
Here’s a piece of good news that doesn’t get many headlines: rents are still rising, but the pace is easing, and there are more vacant properties around than there have been in a couple of years.
August 2026
| National rent growth, year | 5.7% |
| Prior three-month reading | 5.9% |
| National vacancy rate | ~1.9% |
| A balanced market sits near | 2.5–3.5% |
Vacancy nudging up to about 1.9% is the highest it’s been since early 2025. It’s still tight — still a landlord’s market by historical standards — but it’s no longer the desperate scramble tenants faced through the worst of the squeeze.
The tax-change rent scare hasn’t landed
The question I keep getting from bayside investors is whether the 2027 negative gearing and CGT changes will send rents through the roof. The best independent read this month is blunt about it: the predictions of a rent spike from the budget changes have, in one economist’s words, “aged like milk.” What’s actually moving rents is slower immigration and tenants hitting an affordability ceiling — not tax policy.
Make your decisions off what tenants are actually paying here — not a national forecast written to frighten someone.
The Redlands read
If you own a rental around the bay
Hold your nerve on both fronts. Your yield story is intact, local vacancies remain low, and the scare campaign linking the 2027 reforms to a rent explosion isn’t showing up in the data.
If you want a read on what your property would rent for in today’s market — in Redland Bay, Alexandra Hills or anywhere across the patch — just ask.
Want a current rental read on your investment property?
Get in touch
Greg Leigh — local Redlands specialist, Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty. Published 2 September 2026.
Sources: Cotality and realestate.com.au vacancy series (August 2026); commentary via MacroBusiness (31 August 2026). General market information, not financial advice.