Last verified · 21 primary sources
Re-checked on 31 August 2026, including the Queensland Housing Code published 3 August 2026 and commencing 1 September 2026, which was read in full. Statutory definitions, commencement dates, tax rates and thresholds verified against legislation.qld.gov.au and qro.qld.gov.au. Council planning schemes are amended frequently — verify the current acceptable outcome for your own lot with the council before you commit to a design. General information, not planning, legal or tax advice.
Steven Jin · Chief Acquisitions Officer, PremiumRea · 2026-08-31
Yes, state-wide. The Planning (Secondary Dwellings) Amendment Regulation 2022 (SL 2022 No. 133) replaced the definition of "secondary dwelling" in schedule 24 of the Planning Regulation 2017, removing the requirement that it be occupied by a member of the primary dwelling's household. The definition now reads: a dwelling on a lot that is used in conjunction with, but subordinate to, another dwelling on the lot, "whether or not the dwelling is— (a) attached to the other dwelling; or (b) occupied by individuals who are related to, or associated with, the household of the other dwelling".
So a secondary dwelling remains subordinate to the primary dwelling and cannot be sold off separately — but there is no longer any relationship test for who may live in it. Some council codes still carry the old occupancy wording; the Planning Regulation governs on that question.
The maximum size is still set by your council. A full-text reading of the current Planning Regulation 2017 finds no secondary-dwelling floor-area figure anywhere in it, and "maximum gross floor area" does not appear at all. What changed on 3 August 2026 is that a state-level figure now exists in the building framework rather than the planning framework: the Queensland Housing Code, which commences 1 September 2026, carries an acceptable solution of 50 m² internal floor area (60 m² on lots of 1,000 m² or larger), and local governments adopt it over a three-year transition period starting the same day. Until your council adopts it, the gross floor area cap in its planning scheme is the number that governs your design.
Queensland's framework has a clean division of labour that Victoria's does not: the State defines the land use, and the council decides how big it can be without a development application. Getting that division right is the key to reading any Queensland advice correctly, because most confusion comes from people quoting a council rule as though it were state law, or vice versa.
The state-level definition sits in schedule 24 of the Planning Regulation 2017, and the reprint current as at 1 July 2026 reads: "secondary dwelling means a dwelling on a lot that is used in conjunction with, but subordinate to, another dwelling on the lot, whether or not the dwelling is— (a) attached to the other dwelling; or (b) occupied by individuals who are related to, or associated with, the household of the other dwelling."
Two words in that definition do all the work. "Subordinate" is why it cannot be equal in standing to the main house and why it cannot be separately titled without a reconfiguration of a lot approval. "Whether or not" is the 2022 amendment — it is what removed the occupancy restriction.
By contrast, a dual occupancy is defined in the same schedule as a residential use involving two dwellings on a single lot, or two dwellings on separate lots sharing common property — and the definition expressly excludes a residential use involving a secondary dwelling. So the two are mutually exclusive categories in Queensland, not points on a spectrum.
Before the amendment, a Queensland secondary dwelling could generally only be occupied by a member of the primary dwelling's household. That is what made the term "granny flat" literal. SL 2022 No. 133 removed it, and it did the same tidying to three neighbouring definitions in the same instrument: it removed "for 2 households" from dual occupancy, "for a single household" from dwelling house, and "detached, for separate households" from multiple dwelling.
On the date, there is a genuine discrepancy worth stating plainly rather than papering over. The Regulation was made by the Governor in Council and notified on the Queensland legislation website on 23 September 2022, a Friday. It contains no commencement provision — only a short title, an amendment provision and the substantive amendment — so the default in section 32 of the Statutory Instruments Act 1992 applies: a statutory instrument that must be notified commences on the day it is notified.
Legally, therefore, it commenced on 23 September 2022. Queensland Government guidance consistently describes the change as taking effect on 26 September 2022, which was the following Monday. Both dates are in circulation and both come from government sources; the legally operative one is 23 September 2022.
This is the single most useful thing to understand about Queensland secondary dwellings, because it explains why every answer you find online is different.
A full-text reading of the current Planning Regulation 2017 finds no secondary-dwelling floor-area figure at all. The phrase "secondary dwelling" appears in four distinct provisions and none of them carries a square-metre number; "maximum gross floor area" returns zero occurrences in the instrument. The cap is entirely a matter for each council's planning scheme.
A draft "State Code for a Dwelling House that is a Secondary Dwelling" does exist, and it is the source of the state-wide 80 m² figure circulating online. It proposed a maximum gross floor area of 80 m² on lots under 1,000 m² and 100 m² on lots of 1,000 m² or more. Consultation on it closed on 12 November 2024. As at 31 August 2026 it remains a consultation draft — the document itself is headed "for consultation / DRAFT" and nothing corresponding to it appears in the Planning Regulation. Do not plan a build to a figure that is not yet law.
One state-level figure has arrived, though, and it is not that one. It sits in the building framework rather than the planning framework: the Queensland Housing Code, published 3 August 2026 and commencing 1 September 2026, carries an acceptable solution of 50 m² maximum internal floor area for a secondary dwelling, rising to 60 m² on lots of 1,000 m² or larger. It is not the 80 m² everyone is quoting, it is measured on a different basis from your council's gross floor area cap, and councils adopt it across a three-year transition rather than all at once. The section below sets out what it does and does not do; the council caps in the table remain the operative planning numbers until your council adopts the Code.
Because the cap is a council matter, the practical answer for your lot is an acceptable outcome in your council's dwelling house or secondary dwelling code. Meet every acceptable outcome — the floor area cap, the proximity limit to the primary dwelling, the minimum lot size where one applies, and the siting rules — and the proposal is generally accepted development. Exceed any one of them and it becomes assessable, which means a development application, fees, and a discretionary decision.
Every row below was read in the council's own planning scheme and carries the scheme name, the version and the operative date it was read at. Where the figure that circulates on builder and aggregator sites disagrees with the scheme, the scheme is what is printed here and the discrepancy is named. Five of the corrections below are ones a reader would otherwise design and build to.
| Council | Maximum gross floor area | Other acceptable-outcome conditions | Scheme, version and operative date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brisbane | 80 m² | Within 20 m of the dwelling house. The performance outcome now reads "occupied by no more than 1 household" — the older "occupied by members of the same household as the dwelling house" limb has been deleted. Most competitor pages still publish the deleted limb, which would tell a Brisbane owner they cannot rent the secondary dwelling out. They can. | Brisbane City Plan 2014, v36, operative 12 June 2026 — Table 9.3.7.3.A, AO1.2 (and PO1) |
| Gold Coast | 80 m² | Siting: attached to the dwelling house, or within 10 m of it; within 20 m in the Rural and Rural residential zones; within 3 m in the Conservation zone and the named landscape precincts. | Gold Coast City Plan 2016, v13, operative 9 December 2025 — §9.3.18, RO4/PO4 (size) and RO1/AO1 (siting) |
| Sunshine Coast | 90 m² in the Rural and Rural residential zones; 60 m² in any other zone. 45 m² in the Caloundra local plan precinct CAL LPP-2. | Within 20 m of the primary dwelling if freestanding (AO12.2). Minimum lot size 600 m² in the urban zones (AO11). | Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme 2014 (as amended 23 January 2024) — §9.3.6, AO12.1, AO12.2 and AO11; AO19.1 for the Caloundra precinct |
| Logan | 70 m² in the residential zone category on a lot under 1,000 m²; 100 m² otherwise | Maximum 20 m from the primary dwelling (AO9). ⚠️ Logan is the exception to this page's headline: the scheme's own definitions note requires a secondary dwelling to be occupied by persons who form one household with the main dwelling, so in Logan the separately lettable product is a Dual occupancy (auxiliary unit), not a secondary dwelling. It carries the same 70 / 100 m² and 20 m rules but adds a 15 m minimum frontage and five car spaces, two of them covered. Designing to the secondary dwelling row here produces the wrong product. Separately: there is no minimum lot size for a secondary dwelling — the 450 m² figure in this scheme, widely republished as a minimum lot size, only selects which Queensland Development Code siting standard applies. | Logan Planning Scheme 2015, v9.2, operative 1 July 2025 — §9.3.2, AO8 and AO9 |
| Ipswich | Sliding scale by lot size: over 450 m² up to 600 m² → 60 m²; 600 m² to 800 m² → 90 m²; over 800 m² → 120 m² | The scheme sets no cap below 450 m². The commonly cited "50 m²" and "80 m²" Ipswich figures are both wrong. Note also that the scheme prints the middle band inconsistently between its two tables, so confirm which band applies to your lot before you design to it. | Ipswich City Plan 2025, Version 2, operative 1 July 2026 — Table 9.3.7.3.1 RO1.1.1, and Table 9.3.7.3.2 AO1.1.1 |
| Redland | None. The Redland City Plan contains no secondary-dwelling floor area cap at all. | The 85 m² / 112 m² figures in circulation come from Major Amendment 03/23 — Secondary Dwellings, which Council resolved to withdraw on 15 October 2025. They are not in force and were never in force. A separate Amenity and Aesthetics Guideline gives 85 m², 112 m² and 160 m² as "probable solutions" for an amenity referral; failing a probable solution triggers a referral, it does not prohibit the dwelling. Do not treat those numbers as a planning-scheme cap. Note that a different amendment, 02/25, is live rather than withdrawn — it was created at the same October 2025 meeting, consulted in March 2026, and does update the secondary dwelling provisions, so this row is the most likely of the eight to change. | Redland City Plan, v14 as updated 8 April 2026 (full consolidated scheme searched); Amenity and Aesthetics Guideline LUP-001-001-G, v9, effective 1 February 2024 |
| Townsville | 90 m², exclusive of a single carport or garage | Within 20 m of the primary house. The acceptable outcome repeats per zone — and the Rural residential zone version (AO5) omits the 20 m limb, so the proximity rule does not apply there in the same terms. | Townsville City Plan, v2025/01 — Table 6.2.1.3, AO4 (AO5 in the Rural residential zone) |
| Cairns | 70 m², exclusive of a single carport or garage, on lots over 450 m². In the Rural zone: 70 m² under 10 ha, 250 m² over 10 ha. | Secondary dwellings are expressly permitted in the Rural zone by AO1.2 — "not allowed in the Rural zone" is wrong as a prohibition. The 450 m² minimum lot size is a limb of AO1.1 only and does not carry into the Rural zone outcome. | CairnsPlan 2016, v3.1, commenced 2 August 2022 — §9.2.11, AO1.1 and AO1.2 |
Moreton Bay is deliberately absent from the table above.
No primary source for the post-Better-Housing-Amendment secondary dwelling provisions could be reached. What was reached expresses the cap by street frontage — a smaller allowance below a 15-metre frontage and a larger one at 15 metres or more, plus a separate rural figure — and not by the lot-area tiers that circulate on builder blogs for that council. Those two structures are not reconcilable, which means at least one of them is wrong, and we do not know which.
So there is no Moreton Bay row. That is the rule this page runs on: a cap we have not read in the council's own scheme is omitted, not published with a hedge. If you are buying in Moreton Bay, the question to put to the council is which acceptable outcome governs secondary dwelling gross floor area in your zone, and whether it is expressed by lot area or by frontage — the answer to the second half of that question is the one that resolves the contradiction.
Open your council's planning scheme, find the dwelling house code or secondary dwelling code, and read the acceptable outcome that deals with a secondary dwelling. It will give you three numbers: the maximum gross floor area, the maximum distance from the primary dwelling, and any minimum lot size. Those three, plus the siting rules below and your overlay profile, are the whole answer for your lot.
If a council officer or a builder gives you a figure, ask which acceptable outcome and which scheme version it comes from. That single question resolves most of the contradictions you will find online — in every case in the table above where the published figure was wrong, the reason was a superseded scheme version, a withdrawn amendment, or a limb read out of the wrong zone.
Above the council layer sits the Queensland Development Code. Its mandatory parts MP 1.1 (design and siting for lots under 450 m²) and MP 1.2 (lots of 450 m² and over) set the baseline siting standards, and they are prescribed under the Building Regulation 2021 schedule 7.
Under MP 1.2 the acceptable solutions are a side and rear setback of at least 1.5 metres where the height of that part of the building is 4.5 metres or less, at least 2 metres where it is between 4.5 and 7.5 metres, a 6-metre front setback, and site cover of no more than 50%. Note "height", not "mean height" — MP 1.2 defines height as the vertical distance between the outermost projection and the natural ground, and "mean height" is a different defined term used elsewhere. Getting that wrong changes which setback applies.
Note also that 1.5 metres is not an absolute floor. The setback table scales down on narrow lots — down to 0.75 metres side and 1 metre rear on frontages of 10.5 metres or less — and a separate acceptable solution permits building closer than 750 millimetres to a boundary where the wall is maintenance-free.
A related provision catches out investors looking at shared-housing models in Queensland, and almost every published summary of it is now wrong in one direction or the other.
A temporary state-level accepted-development pathway for rooming accommodation in class 1 buildings was inserted into schedule 6 of the Planning Regulation by the Planning (Rooming Accommodation) Amendment Regulation 2022 (SL 2022 No. 182), carrying a three-year sunset. It expired on 2 December 2025. Pages saying the pathway is available are out of date.
But pages saying "the pathway expired, so rooming accommodation now falls back to the ordinary scheme" are also wrong. The Planning Amendment Regulation 2025 (SL 2025 No. 149) inserted replacement provisions at schedule 6 sections 2A and 2B — 2A covering a material change of use for rooming accommodation where development approval was given before 3 December 2025, and 2B covering other material changes of use for rooming accommodation — both requiring the accommodation to be provided in a class 1 building. Section 2B carries its own expiry: 2 December 2026.
So as at August 2026 a pathway exists, and it sunsets in roughly four months. If a rooming-accommodation proposal is part of your Queensland thesis, that date is the one to plan around.
Three Queensland tax facts change the arithmetic for a southern investor, and one of them is a widely repeated error worth correcting.
Land tax. Queensland's tax-free threshold is $600,000 of total taxable value for individuals and $350,000 for companies and trustees — considerably more generous at the individual level than Victoria's $50,000. The individual scale runs $500 plus 1.0 cent per dollar above $600,000, then $4,500 plus 1.65 cents from $1 million, $37,500 plus 1.25 cents from $3 million, $62,500 plus 1.75 cents from $5 million, and $150,000 plus 2.25 cents from $10 million.
The foreign and absentee surcharge. This is the one that is routinely overstated. The surcharge is 3 cents for each $1 more than $349,999 — that is, 3% of the excess above the threshold, not 3% of the whole taxable value. On a $1 million holding the surcharge is roughly $19,500, not $30,000. The Queensland Revenue Office expresses it as (taxable value − $350,000) × 3%.
Transfer duty and foreign buyers. General transfer duty runs $1,050 plus $3.50 per $100 above $75,000 to $540,000, then $17,325 plus $4.50 per $100 to $1 million, then $38,025 plus $5.75 per $100 above that. Additional Foreign Acquirer Duty is imposed at 8% under section 244(2) of the Duties Act 2001, for liability arising on or after 1 July 2024 — it was 7% from 1 July 2018 and 3% from 1 October 2016.
| Total taxable value | Individuals | Companies & trustees | Absentees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below threshold | Nil below $600,000 | Nil below $350,000 | Nil below $350,000 |
| $350,000 – <$2,250,000 | — | $1,450 + 1.7c per $1 over $350,000 | $1,450 + 1.7c per $1 over $350,000 |
| $600,000 – <$1,000,000 | $500 + 1.0c per $1 over $600,000 | — | — |
| $1,000,000 – <$3,000,000 | $4,500 + 1.65c per $1 over $1,000,000 | — | — |
| $2,250,000 – <$5,000,000 | — | $33,750 + 1.5c per $1 over $2,250,000 | $33,750 + 1.5c per $1 over $2,250,000 |
| $3,000,000 – <$5,000,000 | $37,500 + 1.25c per $1 over $3,000,000 | — | — |
| $5,000,000 – <$10,000,000 | $62,500 + 1.75c per $1 over $5,000,000 | $75,000 + 2.25c per $1 over $5,000,000 | $75,000 + 2.0c per $1 over $5,000,000 |
| $10,000,000 and above | $150,000 + 2.25c per $1 over $10,000,000 | $187,500 + 2.75c per $1 over $10,000,000 | $175,000 + 2.5c per $1 over $10,000,000 |
This is worth stating flatly because it is still repeated as though it were live, and it materially changes whether a Queensland purchase makes sense for a Victorian or New South Wales investor.
An interstate land aggregation rule was legislated in 2022, by the Revenue Legislation Amendment Act 2022, to apply from 30 June 2023. It would have brought your interstate landholdings into the calculation of the rate applied to your Queensland land. It attracted enough interstate objection that it was repealed before it ever commenced: the Betting Tax and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2022 (Act No. 30 of 2022, assented 21 November 2022) contains, at section 81, "Omission of pt 6 (Amendment of Land Tax Act 2010) — Part 6 — omit."
A full-text search of the current Land Tax Act 2010 confirms it: there is no reference to interstate land anywhere in the Act. Queensland land tax is assessed on Queensland land only.
If you are reading anything about Queensland transfer duty concessions written before this month, it is missing a gate that commenced five days before this page was written.
The Revenue (Cost of Living Relief Locked-in Law) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2026 inserted section 90A into the Duties Act 2001, defining a "specified resident" as an individual who is an Australian citizen, a permanent resident, or a specified foreign retiree. For transactions entered into on or after 1 August 2026, the home concession, the first home concession, the first home (new home) concession and the first home vacant land concession all require the transferee to be a specified resident.
The concessions themselves are unchanged. The home concession applies a $1.00 per $100 rate to the first $350,000 of value with general rates on the balance, a maximum saving of $7,175. The first home concession, for contracts on or after 9 June 2024, deducts $17,350 for values up to $709,999.99, tapering in $10,000 bands by $1,735 each to nil at $800,000 — a maximum saving of $24,525. The first home (new home) concession and the first home vacant land concession, both for contracts dated 1 May 2025 or later, reduce duty to nil with no value cap.
The council code gives you the size cap; the overlays decide whether the build happens at all. The pattern differs from Victoria's and is worth knowing before you look at listings.
Flood is the one that most often blocks. A high-hazard or defined flood event area generally means a habitable dwelling is refused or heavily conditioned; a general flood overlay usually does not stop the build but sets a minimum habitable floor level through council assessment, which adds cost and can make a small secondary dwelling uneconomic.
Bushfire does not block — it triggers assessment and AS 3959 construction standards, which add cost in proportion to the assessed bushfire attack level. Acid sulfate soils, common in coastal Queensland, can require a management plan once excavation goes below a trigger depth. Heritage and traditional building character overlays, particularly in Brisbane, impose design controls, though rear siting of a secondary dwelling is often acceptable within them.
A building height overlay, by contrast, generally has no practical effect on a single-storey secondary dwelling — it is a common source of unnecessary alarm when people read their property report.
The two states have arrived at opposite structures for the same policy problem, and the difference matters if you are choosing between them.
Victoria sets one state-wide definition: a small second dwelling is 60 m² of gross floor area, defined at Clause 73.03 of the Victoria Planning Provisions, with a planning permit triggered only on lots of less than 300 m². One number, one rule, every council. Queensland defines the use at state level and leaves the size entirely to each council, so the answer changes at every local government boundary.
For an investor the practical consequences are: Queensland caps are generally more generous than 60 m², which can mean a second or even third bedroom and therefore a different tenant pool and a higher achievable rent; but establishing the answer for a specific Queensland address takes more work, and a strategy that works in one council area may not port to the next one over.
What we cannot tell you is what a Queensland secondary dwelling returns. Our own transaction record — 345 purchases, published open-access — is Victorian. We do not have first-party Queensland yield data and we are not going to publish an estimate dressed as one.
Yes, anywhere in Queensland. The Planning (Secondary Dwellings) Amendment Regulation 2022 (SL 2022 No. 133) was notified and commenced on 23 September 2022 — Queensland Government guidance commonly describes it as taking effect on 26 September 2022 — and removed the requirement that a secondary dwelling be occupied by a member of the primary dwelling's household. Some council codes still carry the old wording, but the Planning Regulation governs on occupancy.
No. A full-text reading of the current Planning Regulation 2017 finds no secondary-dwelling floor-area figure at all, and the phrase "maximum gross floor area" does not appear in it. The cap comes entirely from your council's planning scheme. A draft state code proposing a state-wide limit went to consultation, which closed on 12 November 2024, but it has not been made into the Regulation.
It is a proposal, not law. The draft "State Code for a Dwelling House that is a Secondary Dwelling" proposed a maximum gross floor area of 80 m² on lots under 1,000 m² and 100 m² on lots of 1,000 m² or more. Consultation closed on 12 November 2024 and as at August 2026 the document is still headed as a consultation draft. Do not design to it.
Schedule 24 of the Planning Regulation 2017 defines it as a dwelling on a lot that is used in conjunction with, but subordinate to, another dwelling on the lot, whether or not the dwelling is attached to the other dwelling, or occupied by individuals related to or associated with the household of the other dwelling. The word "subordinate" is why it cannot be separately titled; the words "whether or not" are the 2022 amendment that removed the occupancy restriction.
No. A secondary dwelling is defined as being used in conjunction with, but subordinate to, the primary dwelling on the same lot, so it cannot be sold separately without a reconfiguration of a lot approval — and a reconfiguration is a different, assessable proposal with its own tests.
They are mutually exclusive categories, not points on a spectrum. A secondary dwelling is subordinate to a primary dwelling on the same lot and is size-capped by the council. A dual occupancy is defined in the Planning Regulation as a residential use involving two dwellings on a single lot, or two on separate lots sharing common property — and that definition expressly excludes a residential use involving a secondary dwelling.
Because the size cap is an acceptable outcome in each council's planning scheme, not a state provision. The State defines what a secondary dwelling is; the council decides how big it can be before a development application is required. That is the structural difference from Victoria, which sets a single state-wide 60 m² definition.
Not if the proposal meets every acceptable outcome in your council's applicable code — the gross floor area cap, the proximity limit to the primary dwelling, any minimum lot size and the siting rules. Exceed any one of them and it becomes assessable development, which means an application, fees and a discretionary decision.
Under Queensland Development Code MP 1.2 the acceptable solutions are a side and rear setback of at least 1.5 metres where the height of that part of the building is 4.5 metres or less, at least 2 metres between 4.5 and 7.5 metres, a 6-metre front setback, and site cover of no more than 50%. Note "height", not "mean height". The setbacks also scale down on narrow lots — to 0.75 metres side and 1 metre rear on frontages of 10.5 metres or less. MP 1.1 applies instead on lots under 450 m².
It does so from 1 September 2026. The Code was published on 3 August 2026 and its commencement clause states that it commences on 1 September 2026 and replaces QDC 1.1 and QDC 1.2 published on 11 March 2010. Chapter 1 of the Code is QDC Part 1.1 and Chapter 2 is QDC Part 1.2. Commencement is not the same thing as adoption by your council: the Minister announced on 3 August 2026 that local governments will be able to adopt the Code during a three-year transition period commencing 1 September 2026. Verified against the published Code on 31 August 2026.
From 1 September 2026 there is a state-level figure for the first time, but it is narrower than the headline suggests. The Queensland Housing Code sets an acceptable solution of 50 m² maximum internal floor area for a secondary dwelling on lots under 450 m², and on lots of 450 m² and over 50 m² for lots under 1,000 m² and 60 m² for lots of 1,000 m² or larger. Three qualifications matter: it is an acceptable solution against the performance criterion that a secondary dwelling be smaller than and subordinate to the primary dwelling, so a performance solution remains available; it is measured as internal floor area as defined in the Code, not the gross floor area your council scheme uses; and the Code expressly allows an adopting council to increase the figure through its planning scheme under section 33 of the Building Act. Councils adopt the Code over a three-year transition beginning 1 September 2026, so until yours does, the council cap tabled on this page is the operative number. The 80 m² and 100 m² figures circulating come from a separate draft State Code for a Dwelling House that is a Secondary Dwelling, which is still a draft.
Not without the service provider's concurrence. Building over or near a sewer is governed by Queensland Development Code MP 1.4 and by the water service provider's own requirements; where the standard cannot be met, the provider has to agree. Find out where the main physically runs before you finalise a design, not after.
Where a Class 1a wall is within 1.8 metres of another dwelling on the same allotment, the National Construction Code requires fire-resisting construction. On a tight lot, pushing the secondary dwelling close to the main house to preserve yard space is a common and entirely avoidable way to trigger that cost.
A high-hazard or defined flood event area generally does — habitable dwellings there are refused or heavily conditioned. A general flood overlay usually does not stop the build but sets a minimum habitable floor level through council assessment, which adds cost and can make a small secondary dwelling uneconomic on its own numbers.
No, but it triggers assessment and AS 3959 bushfire-resilient construction standards, which add cost in proportion to the assessed bushfire attack level. A building height overlay, by contrast, generally has no practical effect on a single-storey secondary dwelling.
The original one expired, but a replacement exists and is itself time-limited. The temporary accepted-development pathway inserted by the Planning (Rooming Accommodation) Amendment Regulation 2022 expired on 2 December 2025. The Planning Amendment Regulation 2025 then inserted schedule 6 sections 2A and 2B, both requiring the accommodation to be in a class 1 building, and section 2B expires on 2 December 2026.
$600,000 of total taxable value for individuals and $350,000 for companies and trustees. The individual scale then runs $500 plus 1.0 cent per dollar above $600,000, $4,500 plus 1.65 cents from $1 million, $37,500 plus 1.25 cents from $3 million, $62,500 plus 1.75 cents from $5 million, and $150,000 plus 2.25 cents from $10 million.
3 cents for each $1 more than $349,999 — that is, 3% of the excess above the threshold, not 3% of the whole taxable value. The Queensland Revenue Office expresses it as (taxable value − $350,000) × 3%. On a $1 million holding the surcharge is therefore about $19,500, not $30,000, which is how it is commonly misstated.
No. An interstate aggregation rule was legislated in 2022 to start on 30 June 2023, but it was repealed before it ever commenced by the Betting Tax and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2022, whose section 81 reads "Omission of pt 6 (Amendment of Land Tax Act 2010) — Part 6 — omit." A full-text search of the current Land Tax Act 2010 finds no reference to interstate land at all.
Additional Foreign Acquirer Duty, imposed at 8% under section 244(2) of the Duties Act 2001, for liability arising on or after 1 July 2024. It was 7% from 1 July 2018 and 3% from 1 October 2016. It is charged in addition to ordinary transfer duty.
Nil to $5,000; $1.50 per $100 of the excess from $5,000 to $75,000; $1,050 plus $3.50 per $100 of the excess from $75,000 to $540,000; $17,325 plus $4.50 per $100 from $540,000 to $1 million; and $38,025 plus $5.75 per $100 above $1 million.
For transactions entered into on or after 1 August 2026, yes — or a permanent resident, or a specified foreign retiree. Section 90A of the Duties Act 2001, inserted in 2026, defines that class as "specified residents", and the home concession, first home concession, first home (new home) concession and first home vacant land concession all now require it. Guidance written before August 2026 does not mention this gate.
Legally, 23 September 2022. The Planning (Secondary Dwellings) Amendment Regulation 2022 contains no commencement provision, so the default in section 32 of the Statutory Instruments Act 1992 applies and it commenced on the day it was notified — Friday 23 September 2022. Queensland Government guidance consistently describes the change as taking effect on Monday 26 September 2022, which is why both dates circulate. The legally operative one is the notification date.
We deliberately do not publish one. The provisions we could reach express the cap by street frontage, while the figures circulating on builder sites are lot-area tiers — the two structures are irreconcilable, so at least one of them is wrong. Ask the council which acceptable outcome governs secondary dwelling gross floor area in your zone, and whether it is expressed by lot area or by frontage; the answer to that second question resolves the contradiction.
Yes. Meeting every acceptable outcome removes the need for a planning development application, but the building work itself still requires building approval from a building certifier under the Building Act 1975, assessed against the prescribed Queensland Development Code parts — currently MP 1.1 or MP 1.2 — plus the plumbing approvals that attach to any new dwelling. "No DA" is a planning statement, not a no-approvals statement.
We do not have first-party data to answer that, and we would rather say so than estimate. Queensland council size caps are generally more generous than Victoria's 60 m², which changes what a second dwelling can command in rent, but returns depend on the local rental market and on the council's conditions. Our own 345-transaction dataset is Victorian, so any Queensland yield figure from us would be a guess wearing a number.
Victoria sets one state-wide definition — 60 m² gross floor area under Clause 73.03, with a planning permit triggered only on lots of less than 300 m², the same in every council. Queensland defines the use at state level but leaves the maximum size entirely to each council, so the answer changes at every local government boundary. Queensland caps are generally more generous; Victoria is far easier to plan around.
Disclaimer · Last verified · Re-checked on 31 August 2026, including the Queensland Housing Code published 3 August 2026 and commencing 1 September 2026, which was read in full. Statutory definitions, commencement dates, tax rates and thresholds verified against legislation.qld.gov.au and qro.qld.gov.au. Council planning schemes are amended frequently — verify the current acceptable outcome for your own lot with the council before you commit to a design. General information, not planning, legal or tax advice.
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