General News
28 October, 2026
Cairns renters search for answers as housing pressure bites
QUEENSLAND search interest in rent increases has reached its highest relative level in a year, with new figures showing Cairns tenants are paying a median of $50 more per week than they were 12 months ago.
Queenslanders are seeking answers on rent increases as Cairns housing services report record demand and families struggle to find affordable alternatives amid the city's tight rental market.
Google Trends data shows Queensland search interest in “rent increase” peaked over the past year in the week beginning 16 August, when the index reached 100.
Residential Tenancies Authority data shows the median weekly rent across all dwellings in the Cairns local government area rose from $550 to $600 over the year to 30 June 2026. The $50-a-week increase represents a rise of about 9.1 per cent, adding $2600 a year for a household paying the median rent.
A Department of Housing and Public Works spokesperson said the increase was in line with the Queensland median, which rose from $600 to $650 per week over the same period.
Families seeking help for the first time
Shelter Housing Action Cairns chief executive Sally Watson said rental pressure had reached people who had spent their lives in the private rental market and had not previously needed housing or welfare assistance.
“Since about 2022, we have been seeing this daily,” Ms Watson said. “We now have more demand than we've ever had, and we are seeing some families who have lived in the private rental market all their lives and have never sought help from a welfare agency before coming to us.”
Ms Watson said years of rent increases meant even a relatively small additional rise could push a household beyond what it could afford.
“As rents continue to climb, they reach a point where people can no longer fit them into their fortnightly budgets and still afford to eat and service their car, and that's what tips them over the edge,” she said. “It could just be a $20 increase that throws you out.”
She said the shortage of alternatives compounded the problem for renters who could no longer afford their homes.
“If people cannot afford it, literally can't afford it, they have no choice but to leave, and then what we're finding is that they cannot find another rental,” she said. “That's the biggest issue, vacancy rates.”
Demand strongest for houses
Cairns Property Office head of rentals Jamie-Lee Hogan said demand remained strong, particularly for houses, although the rapid rent increases of previous years appeared to have moderated.
“We're still getting plenty of enquiries. We're getting plenty of applications. We're definitely seeing more demand for houses,” Ms Hogan said.
“I think the rapid increase we've seen over the last couple of years has certainly slowed down and remained quite the same over the last few months.”
Ms Hogan is also a tenant and recently received a $50-a-week rent increase, mirroring the dollar increase in the Cairns-wide median over the past year.
“Ours was $50, and I tell you now, we're still very much below the market value for where we live,” she said.
Cairns rental market splitting in two?
Buyer's agent and property investor Shaun Craike, from The Buyers Co., said Cairns was showing signs of a divide between smaller units and apartments and larger family homes.
“I've noticed it in Cairns, but when you sort of look at the economics of it, I think it's going to be something that becomes very prevalent across Australia,” Mr Craike said.
Mr Craike estimated Cairns apartments could achieve rental yields of around 6 to 7 per cent compared with about 4 per cent for houses, and said families could bear the brunt of a shortage of larger rental properties.
“The family where they're trying to make ends meet, and they're now getting pushed out of that sort of family home market, that's going to be the real losers out of the situation,” he said.
His observations broadly align with Ms Hogan's experience of stronger demand for houses.
Looking ahead, Mr Craike predicted the greatest rental pressure would be felt in larger homes.
“I think the unit market is going to stabilise, those one and two-bedroom homes,” he said. “There is plenty of them on the market for rent at the moment, where I think the larger family homes, they're the ones that are going to see the biggest increases in rents.”
Ms Hogan said she was also concerned that a drop in investors in the sales market could mean less rental stock in future, although she said it had not driven prices to change at this stage.
2830 on Cairns social housing register
There are 2830 people on the social housing register in the Cairns LGA, according to the Department of Housing and Public Works.
The RTA held 20,728 rental bonds in the Cairns LGA at 30 June, up 332, or 1.6 %, in a year. The Cairns Housing Service Centre assisted 2057 households with private rental products in 2025–26, down 11.75 % from 2331 the previous year.
A department spokesperson said the Queensland Government had allocated $76.1 million this financial year to private rental products and services, such as bond loans and rental grants.
The spokesperson said 723 social and affordable homes were underway in the Cairns LGA, part of more than 6,800 underway across Queensland.
“The Queensland Government is committed to helping all Queenslanders in housing need,” the spokesperson said.
Ms Watson said she did not expect rental conditions in Cairns to improve substantially over the next 12 months.
“I don't think that we're going to see the movement to the extent that we need to free up the vacancies,” she said. “Until we can do anything about the supply, there's no hope on the horizon, really.”
The Real Estate Institute of Queensland was contacted for comment but did not respond by deadline.
What the Google data means
Google Trends does not reveal how many people searched for “rent increase” or establish that rising Cairns rents caused the increase in searches. It measures relative interest from zero to 100, with 100 representing the peak for the selected term, location and period.
For Queensland searches for “rent increase”, the week beginning 16 August recorded an index of 100, the highest point during the 12-month period examined. The previous high was 77 in the week beginning 10 May.
Google Trends methodology and disclosure
This article was produced as part of a Google Trends licensing initiative. It uses Google Trends data to explore search interest in rent increases.
Google Trends data is aggregated and anonymous. Search interest is measured on a relative scale and does not represent total search volume.
This content is part of a paid partnership with Google to promote Google Trends.
