People moving north have been the engine under South East Queensland prices for years, and despite a recent cooling in the numbers, they still are. Interstate migration remains the region's single most powerful demand driver, and understanding where the flow comes from and why it persists explains a large part of why SEQ prices keep climbing.
The numbers, with the honest nuance
Queensland has been the country's number one destination for internal migration for five years running, and it still is, even though the pace has eased from its pandemic peak. The state's net interstate migration came off from around 29,000 in 2023-24 to roughly 21,600 in 2024-25, a real slowdown, but still the largest gain of any state in the nation. Of those arrivals, more than 14,000 settled in South East Queensland, the corridor running through Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. So, the flow is smaller than it was at its height, but it remains both the strongest in the country and heavily concentrated in the southeast. The driver has not gone away; it has simply normalised from an extreme.
Where the people are coming from
The migration story is largely a New South Wales story. New South Wales recorded more than 24,000 net departures in a single year, the largest interstate outflow of any state since 2005, and most of those leaving Sydney are heading to South East Queensland. The reason is affordability: Sydney's median house price pushed past $1.65 million in early 2026 with rents around $780 a week, a combination that no longer works for many households. Around two-thirds of those leaving Sydney are aged between 25 and 44, the peak family-forming years, exactly the cohort that forms new households and competes for homes. SEQ is absorbing that demand directly.
Why the flow is structural, not a fad
This is not a temporary post-pandemic blip that will reverse. Over the past 40 years, Queensland's population has grown at an average of around 2% a year against roughly 1.4% nationally, and its share of the national population has been rising for decades. Queensland Treasury projects population growth of around 1.75% for 2026-27, behind only Western Australia. On top of interstate arrivals, the southeast pulls a disproportionate share of overseas migration, including New Zealanders, with more than a third of New Zealand-born Australians living in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The lifestyle, the climate, the economy and the affordability gap against Sydney and Melbourne are long-run advantages, not passing ones.
As a Brisbane-based buyer's agency, JSC Property Investments knows where that demand is heading and which suburbs are built to benefit. Book a Kickoff Call with our team and let's get you positioned ahead of it.