International property investment · Queensland
A clearer route into Australian property.
Established homes are generally off-limits to foreign buyers until 30 June 2029. Developed commercial property often remains accessible — including industrial, retail and office assets across Brisbane’s western corridor.
The regulatory divide
Residential is restricted. Commercial is a different pathway.
Australia’s foreign investment framework treats established residential dwellings and commercial land very differently. For a private foreign buyer, the distinction can determine whether a purchase is prohibited, needs approval, or falls below the notification threshold.
Position as at 28 September 2026. See Foreign Investment guidance on commercial land and the established-dwellings announcement.
Established residential
From 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2029, foreign persons are generally banned from purchasing established dwellings. Narrow exceptions may apply; new dwellings, eligible near-new dwellings, off-the-plan purchases and vacant residential land remain separate approval pathways.
Developed commercial
A private foreign investor can generally acquire developed, non-sensitive commercial land without FIRB notification when the investment remains below the applicable monetary threshold.
Start with the asset type
Preliminary guide only
Market evidence
Foreign capital is already choosing commercial property.
The market signal is not theoretical: offshore capital returned strongly to Australian commercial real estate in 2025, with industrial, office and retail all attracting cross-border investment.
MSCI Real Capital Analytics data reported by realcommercial.com.au.
Indicative gross yield
Commercial range across office, retail and industrial, compared with 3–5.5% for residential.
Typical commercial lease
Longer contractual income than the 6–12 month residential tenancy pattern.
Brisbane industrial
Reported vacancy, with prime industrial yields of 5.5–6.0% in September 2026.
Indicative comparisons: Buyers Agency Australia. Brisbane industrial figures: Industrial Commercial Partners. Returns are not guaranteed and vary by asset, lease and purchase price.
Local opportunity set
Commercial themes in the Centenary suburbs — and adjacent hubs.
The Centenary suburbs combine industrial, destination retail and neighbourhood centres. Nearby Darra, Oxley, Sherwood, Graceville and Corinda broaden the surrounding western-corridor market and are labelled separately below.
Industrial & logistics
Established industrial stock ranges from compact strata units to multi-tenanted warehouses and institutional-scale logistics holdings. The corridor links quickly to the Centenary and Ipswich Motorways, then onward to the Logan and Gateway networks.
Documented examples include the five-tenancy property at 99 Wolston Road, Sumner, and the 1,895 sqm freestanding facility at 16 Counihan Road, Seventeen Mile Rocks.
Destination & large-format retail
DFO Jindalee and the regional Mt Ommaney Centre form the Centenary retail anchors, while adjacent Oxley adds a substantial large-format precinct. The mix includes outlet, homemaker, supermarket, cinema and service-led tenancies.
Asset selection matters: traffic, tenant covenant, lease expiry profile, incentives and future supply should be tested rather than inferred from a centre’s scale.
Neighbourhood retail & adjacent repositioning
Within the Centenary suburbs, the research found smaller neighbourhood retail rather than major commercial precincts in Middle Park, Jamboree Heights, Westlake and Riverhills. This is a limited-data finding, not confirmation of absence.
Adjacent Sherwood and Graceville add main-street retail, while Corinda shows repositioning potential through a documented 1.01 hectare riverfront former aged-care site.
Local examples: 99 Wolston Road brochure, 16 Counihan Road listing, DFO Jindalee, Mt Ommaney Centre and Savills western Brisbane listings.
A compliance-first process
Fast does not mean unchecked.
The strongest international-investor proposition is certainty: identify the asset correctly, test the buyer and threshold, then document the right approval conditions before a contract becomes unconditional.
Five gates before an offer.
- Confirm whether the property is developed commercial land, vacant land, residential land, or mixed use.
- Establish whether the purchaser is a private foreign investor or a foreign government investor.
- Check the applicable 2026 monetary threshold and whether the land is sensitive or national-security land.
- For vacant commercial land, treat notification as required regardless of value and expect development or productive-use conditions.
- Use a FIRB-experienced Australian lawyer and tax adviser to confirm approval, duty, land-tax and ownership-register obligations for the proposed structure.
Commercial land thresholds are indexed annually. Fee sources reviewed for 2025–26 conflicted; confirm any payable fee using the official Foreign Investment Portal estimator rather than relying on a fixed figure.
Selected sources
Research read 28 September 2026
- Foreign Investment — Guidance Note 4: Commercial land
- Foreign Investment — changes to purchases of established dwellings
- Financial Standard — established-dwelling ban extended
- Turnbull Hill Lawyers — established-dwelling ban
- Australian Business Register guide — 2026 FIRB thresholds
- Ashurst — foreign purchaser duty and land-tax surcharge summary
- realcommercial.com.au — MSCI offshore investment data
- Commo / RWC — cross-border capital and processing times
- realcommercial.com.au — Commercial Yield Report, June 2026
- Industrial Commercial Partners — Brisbane market review, September 2026
Explore the commercial corridor with local context.
Begin with the investor’s status, target asset class and preferred holding profile. AKAIHUS can help shape a focused search across the Centenary suburbs, alongside independent legal and tax advice.