Real Estate
5 February, 2026
Market on high in last year
THE Cairns property market finished 2025 on a high with strong gains across the board. The median house price reached about $750,000 and the unit price $415,000 as at November 2025.
The expectation at the start of 2025 was that the market would continue to perform strongly throughout the year and this was proven to be an accurate forecast.
Most sectors of the market delivered value rises throughout 2025, underpinned in the main by continued low interest rates, a lack of stock either to buy or rent, southern investors seeking good returns at the lower end of the market and interstate buyers seeking to relocate.
Strong performers were sub-$750,000 detached houses and vacant land in the Cairns southern corridor postcode 4869.
Driven by an influx of buyer’s agents seeking investments for their clients, the suburbs of Gordonvale, Edmonton and Bentley Park were standouts in the Cairns market.
The severely tightening supply of vacant land in the southern corridor postcode of 4879 is concerning and adding to the market imbalance.
These sectors of the market revealed median price increases of between 15 and 50% for the past 12 months, well above the average median price increase for other Far North Queensland markets.
The introduction of the federal government’s first homebuyer incentive scheme in October was an unwelcome entry to an already hot market space. The scheme added pressure to an already overheated sub $700,000 market. The competition with southern investors has meant that the $700,000 value cap for regional areas now has significantly lower purchasing power for first homebuyers due to strong gains in this part of the market.
Our valuers on the ground advise that there are no signs of the market slowing and continued strong gains in median house, land and unit prices are expected in 2026 unless external factors such as higher inflation lead to the start of a rising interest rate cycle.
- Adrian Bagent is a valuer at Herron Todd White
