New research from the Property Council of Australia and SA1 Property shows Brisbane faces a critical shortage of job-creating employment land with existing supply to be exhausted within the next five years.
The Industrial Land Supply and Vacancy Outlook 2026 found around 205 hectares of industrial land, equivalent to roughly 12 times the size of the South Bank Parklands, is expected to be absorbed annually across Greater Brisbane over the next five years.
The research also found Brisbane’s Industrial Outdoor Storage market is 96.87 per cent utilised, leaving next to no capacity for businesses needing yards for equipment, materials, vehicles and storage.
Brisbane remained the strongest-performing industrial market on the East Coast, recording positive net absorption while Sydney and Melbourne moved into negative territory. However, some of Brisbane’s key industrial precincts now have as little as 3.5 years of supply remaining.
Property Council Queensland Executive Director Jess Caire said the findings reinforced the need to accelerate the delivery of additional industrial land, to support Queensland’s growing population and economy.
“In 2025, we released our Inaugural No Room to Grow report, identifying industrial land supply as a critical constraint on Brisbane’s growth. A year later, the problem persists and market pressures have only intensified,” Ms Caire said.
“Queensland’s industrial precincts are doing the heavy lifting for a growing economy. Supporting freight, logistics, construction and the delivery of major infrastructure, many of these strategically located sites are now approaching full occupation, leaving limited room for future growth.
“At the same time, industrial land values have increased by 44 per cent in just 12 months, and as land becomes harder and more expensive to develop, we risk limiting the types of projects that can be delivered and the jobs and investment they support.
“We’ve also seen rents increase 50 per cent since 2019, adding to the cost of doing business and ultimately driving up prices for everyday Queenslanders in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.
“If we don’t maintain a pipeline of well-located job-creating employment land, we risk pushing up costs for businesses, making it harder for new investment and jobs to flow into South East Queensland.
“This requires immediate, coordinated action between industry and government. employment land cannot simply be pushed to the urban fringe, it must be close to transport infrastructure, freight networks, ports, airports and labour markets.
“It is not as simple as identifying more land. We need to unlock fit-for-purpose industrial land in the right locations, supported by roads, water and other enabling infrastructure,” Ms Caire said.
This year’s research also examined industrial land supply on the Sunshine Coast, finding the region’s industrial pipeline is under growing pressure, with Industrial Outdoor Storage nearing full capacity at 98.8 per cent utilisation.
Place Design Group Planning Principal Brad Williams said prioritising job-creating employment land supply now would help ensure the region could continue to support existing and future economic and employment opportunities.
“The Sunshine Coast is planning for significant population growth, but this report shows that growing communities also need a pipeline of employment land,” Mr Williams said.
“The Sunshine Coast has significant opportunities emerging in areas like Beerwah South, Yandina East and Corbould Park, however, the report tells us that much of the future supply is either already performing an industrial function or will take time to become development ready.
“Getting in front of that challenge now will help ensure the region remains an attractive place to invest, do business and create jobs for decades to come.”
The Property Council is continuing to call for a suite of policy settings designed to help in the delivery of critical new industrial land:
- Immediate investment of $500 million into an Industrial Infrastructure Fund to enable local governments and the industrial sector to unlock new employment land.
- State Government to coordinate an industrial strategy that facilitates the delivery of well-located industrial land, identifies the necessary infrastructure to support growth and aligns industry, government and utility providers on the measures needed to strategically unlock new industrial land.
- Strengthen Queensland’s Investment Settings by expanding exemptions for Australian-based entities captured by the Foreign Land Tax Surcharge (FLTS) regime.
- State Government to work with industry on a dataset that monitors industrial land supply and benchmarks this against targets in the South-East Queensland Regional Plan.
