The Property Council of Australia's 2026 Queensland Hotel Market Outlook confirms just one new hotel opened across Brisbane, the Gold Coast or the Sunshine Coast in the past 12 months, despite record occupancy, rising room rates and sustained growth in visitor demand.
Property Council Queensland Executive Director Jess Caire said the findings reinforce that the accommodation challenge is structural, not cyclical.
"The demand is here, the global spotlight is coming, but the rooms are not," Ms Caire said.
"Queensland's hotel markets are doing exactly what we would hope – attracting visitors, lifting occupancy and driving strong returns, yet the supply response has stalled completely."
"This year's analysis confirms what last year's report foreshadowed. This is not a short‑term dip or a construction hangover, it is a feasibility problem that is getting worse, and without intervention we will not maximise the opportunity ahead," Ms Caire said.
The report produced by CBRE for the Property Council shows Queensland is now demonstrably off‑track to meet the State Government's accommodation targets, with the probability‑adjusted pipeline delivering just 24 per cent of the 14,700 rooms required by 2032, and only 9 per cent of the 40,000‑room Destination 2045 target.
CBRE's Head of Hotels Research Ally Gibson said the data shows hotel markets across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast are exceptionally tight, with demand well above pre‑pandemic levels.
"Across Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, just one new hotel opened in the past 12 months - the Mondrian in Burleigh Heads. One exceptional property in three major markets. That tells you everything about the supply problem we face, " Ms Gibson said.
"Hotels are fundamentally different to other asset classes. They are highly capital‑intensive, rarely pre‑sold or pre‑leased, and must absorb escalating construction, financing and operating costs before reaching stabilised performance."
Construction costs for three-to-five-star hotels have risen close to 40 per cent since 2019. CBRE is forecasting a further 18 per cent across 2026 and 2027. The gap between what a hotel costs to build and what it can earn is widening every month. Projects that didn't stack up last year stack up even less today. The market is performing. The economics of building are broken.
CBRE's analysis of six Olympic host cities since 1996 shows median room night growth of 8.4 per cent in year two post-Games and 7.5 per cent in year three which is materially above the event year itself. Queensland's accommodation pipeline needs to be sized for the decade after 2032, not just the weeks of competition.
To close the widening accommodation gap, the Property Council is calling on state and local government to take decisive action.
"In an ever-uncertain environment, we need to ensure the policy settings give investors the confidence to bring forward hotel projects at the scale and pace required," Ms Caire said.
She said previous periods of targeted reform had shown what was possible.
"We've seen before that when planning, tax and investment settings align, Queensland can deliver. The challenge now is replicating that success in a much tougher feasibility environment."
Measures the Property Council is recommending to the State and local governments include:
- Attracting and retaining essential investment, through incentives that waive Foreign Land Tax Surcharge (FLTS) and Additional Foreign Acquirer Duty (AFAD) for developments that directly unlock supply across key asset types and deliver meaningful economic and social benefits for Queenslanders.
- Working with local governments across Queensland to deliver investment incentives by reducing upfront costs such as infrastructure charges and rates to stimulate supply.
- Investigating government backed lending pathways or subsidies to offset the capital investment needed to build new hotels.
- Working with industry to create a coordinated investment attraction campaign to secure national and international investment in all Queensland property, including our hotel sector.
- Fast-tracking planning approvals for new hotels by providing planning and building flexibility, including for mixed-use developments and precincts that include a hotel.
