What Gold Coast Landlords, Sellers, Buyers and Renters Need to Understand about the Rental Law
A considered look at the reforms reshaping Queensland property in 2025
Queensland’s rental landscape has shifted more meaningfully in the past eighteen months than in the previous decade. The Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024, alongside staged reforms flowing from the Housing Availability and Affordability (Planning and Other Legislation Amendment) Act, has introduced changes that touch every side of the property conversation,the landlord holding a long-term investment, the seller weighing timing, the buyer measuring yield, and the renter seeking a home that feels genuinely secure. At Crasto Properties, we’ve spent the years since 1997 watching the Gold Coast evolve through many market cycles, and our view is straightforward: legislation is rarely something to fear, but it always rewards those who take the time to understand it properly.
This article walks through what has changed, what is still rolling out, and what each of those changes means in practical terms for people who own, sell, buy or rent property on the Gold Coast. Where we offer a view on the market, we offer it as opinion grounded in past performance, no one, ourselves included, can accurately predict a property market that responds to local, national and international forces simultaneously.
What has actually changed in Queensland rental law
The reforms passed and progressively commenced through 2024 and 2025 have introduced several structural shifts. Rent increases are now limited to once every twelve months and, importantly, that frequency attaches to the property itself rather than the tenancy, meaning a change of tenant does not reset the clock. Rent bidding has been prohibited, with agents and owners required to advertise a fixed price rather than invite offers above it. Minimum housing standards have been elevated and enforced with clearer expectations around weatherproofing, functioning locks, ventilation, mould prevention and safe electrical fittings. Reforms have also refined the framework for ending tenancies, tightening the approved reasons and evidentiary requirements landlords must meet, and expanding tenant rights around modifications, keeping pets, and privacy during entry.
Further layers, including portable bond schemes, updated rental application requirements around what information can and cannot be requested, and stronger protections against discrimination, continue to phase in. For anyone holding or considering Queensland property, the direction of travel is clear: the framework is becoming more structured, more tenant-aware, and more demanding of professional property management. This is precisely the environment our team was built for, and it’s why we consider our property managers not administrative support but specialists on par with our sales and marketing teams.
What this means for landlords and sellers
For landlords, the practical effect is that casual, self-managed approaches carry more risk than they used to. Minimum standards are now enforceable, meaning a property that once passed by community expectation must now pass by written measure — smoke alarms compliant to current standards, secure external locks, adequate ventilation, functioning plumbing, and no unaddressed mould or structural defect. The twelve-month rent increase rule requires disciplined record-keeping: knowing the date of the last increase on the property, holding written evidence, and planning rental reviews around that anchor date rather than the anniversary of a tenant’s move-in. Ending a tenancy without grounds is no longer available in the way it once was, and grounds-based notices require documented evidence that will withstand scrutiny at the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
For sellers, the changes carry a quieter but meaningful implication. A tenanted property being brought to market must now be navigated with care, entry for inspections, photography and open homes is governed by tighter notice and consent rules, and buyers are increasingly asking informed questions about compliance history, rental cap timing, and whether the property meets the elevated minimum standards. A well-prepared sale in 2026 is one where the property’s tenancy history, compliance certificates and rental review timeline are curated and ready. In our experience across nearly three decades on the Gold Coast, sellers who present this information with clarity tend to attract buyers who are serious, and serious buyers tend to transact with less friction. This is a general observation drawn from past performance, not a guarantee of outcome, every property, and every market moment, is its own conversation.
What this means for buyers and investors
Buyers entering the Gold Coast market, particularly those buying with investment intent, are inheriting a more regulated asset than they may have modelled on. Yield calculations that assume aggressive or frequent rent adjustments will need to be recalibrated against the twelve-month cap. Due diligence should now include a review of the property’s compliance status against current minimum housing standards, because the cost of bringing a property up to standard sits with the owner, not the tenant, and can materially affect the first-year return. Buyers of tenanted properties should also request the current lease, the rent increase history, any records of tenant-requested modifications, and confirmation of bond lodgement, details a considered agent will have ready before the question is asked.
The reforms, in our view, are quietly favourable for buyers who intend to hold. A more structured framework tends to produce longer, more stable tenancies, and stable tenancies compound into stable returns and stronger long-term asset performance. This aligns with how we think about property generally, as legacy building rather than transaction. Today’s lifestyle, tomorrow’s legacy is not a slogan for us; it’s the lens through which we advise clients on whether a property fits not only their current numbers but the next twenty years of their life. Again, this is opinion informed by long observation, not a prediction of future market behaviour.
What this means for renters
For renters, the changes are the most tangible. A fixed advertised price means the days of quietly bidding against unseen competitors are behind us. Rent can only increase once every twelve months on the property, giving renters a clearer horizon for budgeting. Minimum housing standards mean a home should arrive weatherproof, secure and safe, and there is now a clearer pathway to raise concerns when it does not. Rights around reasonable modifications, keeping a pet with consent that cannot be unreasonably refused, and privacy during entry have all been strengthened. Application processes have also been reformed to limit the personal information a renter can be asked to provide, protecting privacy without diminishing the ability of a good property manager to assess suitability.
What this asks of renters in return is engagement, reading the lease properly, understanding the entry notice requirements, keeping written records of communication, and choosing to rent through agencies that treat property management as a craft rather than an afterthought. The renters we work with tend to stay with us across multiple homes and multiple life stages, and that continuity is something we’re quietly proud of.
A grounded closing thought
Legislation will keep evolving. World events, interest rate movements, migration patterns, insurance markets, construction costs, will continue to shape the Queensland property landscape in ways no single voice can accurately forecast. What doesn’t change is the value of working with people who treat property as a whole discipline: sales, rentals, commercial and marketing understood together, not in silos. That is the way Crasto Properties has been built since 1997, and it is the reason our team is expected to be expert across every part of the property conversation, not only the part that suits the day.