India became Australia’s largest single source of permanent migrants in 2024–25, accounting for 23% of all additions to the population, ahead of China and the United Kingdom. The Australian Bureau of Statistics counts around 980,000 India-born residents by June 2025, up from about 754,000 four years earlier. That growth concentrates in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, where it is reshaping demand for larger, family-oriented housing.
Brisbane house values rose about 12% in the year to March 2026, outpacing the national capitals. The pressure is sharpest in outer suburbs where multi-generational South Asian households compete for detached homes.
Australia admitted more permanent migrants from India than from any other country in 2024–25. That single demographic fact is now doing visible work in Brisbane‘s property market, and not in the way price charts usually capture.
The change is not only how many people are buying. It is how they buy. Research from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute finds that migrants from India and other South Asian countries are more likely to live in larger, multi-generational households than Australian-born residents, with a higher rate of three-generation arrangements in detached housing.
That preference moves money toward specific dwelling types, specific suburbs, specific school catchments. It also creates demand for a service the established market never had to supply: an agent who can hold a high-stakes transaction together across language, culture and an unfamiliar legal system. One 23-year-old in Brisbane’s north-west has built a career on exactly that gap.
The demand that detached housing data already shows
Start with the scale. India-born residents are now the second-largest overseas-born group in Australia, behind only those born in England, and their number has roughly tripled since 2011. Bureau of Statistics figures put the count at just under one million by mid-2025.
That population does not spread evenly. Department of Home Affairs data confirm India as the largest source country, and the arrivals cluster in three cities. Brisbane is one of them.
The housing effect follows from how these households form. Sacha Reid, Associate Professor of Property at Griffith University, has observed that migrant buyers in Brisbane’s outer suburbs often prioritise larger dwellings and proximity to faith and cultural amenities. That reshapes which postcodes attract the most competition.
Sukhraj Singh Nijjar works inside that demand. He moved from India to Australia with his family in 2015 and entered the industry by shadowing senior agent Haesley Cush for six months without pay. For his clients, he says, a home purchase is a family-wide decision that must account for parents or relatives who may live in the house. He deals with a whole family system, not a single buyer.
His fluency in Hindi and Punjabi, he says, is less about translation than about making clients feel secure in a process where one mistake is expensive. The causal chain runs in one direction: a migration policy decided in Canberra creates a buyer in a Brisbane suburb who needs an intermediary the old market did not provide.
The buyer behaviour is documented. What the price data alone cannot tell you is why four years of strong intake has hardened into a structural feature of the market.
Migration policy is now a housing input
The mechanism is straightforward once named. Migration has become a central driver of household formation in Australia. Rebecca Cassells, Deputy Director of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, argues that the intake, with India a leading contributor, now shapes housing demand particularly in the growth corridors of capital cities.
Skilled migrants concentrate where the jobs and schools are. Catherine de Fontenay, a Productivity Commissioner, has noted that recent migration from India clusters in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and can push up rents and prices unless supply responds. In Brisbane through early 2026, supply did not keep pace.
Then there is the trust factor, which is where Nijjar’s value sits. June Zhao, Senior Research Fellow at AHURI, finds that cultural distance and unfamiliarity with Australian systems increase reliance on trusted intermediaries such as bilingual agents and brokers. That is not a soft claim about comfort. It is a measured pattern in migrant housing pathways.
For a non-resident buyer the unfamiliarity is also legal. Under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975, foreign non-residents need Foreign Investment Review Board approval and are generally confined to new builds or vacant land. In Queensland they pay an additional 7% foreign acquirer duty and a 2% land-tax surcharge as absentees. An agent who can explain that, in a buyer’s own language, removes the single biggest source of error in the transaction.
That is the loop. A decision about visa caps in Canberra sets the number of buyers; the cultural distance those buyers carry sets the kind of help they need. The young agent succeeding in Brisbane’s north-west is not an anomaly. He is what a migration policy looks like when it reaches the front counter.
Beyond the headline
The bigger picture
The migration surge is changing how the market defines a typical household. As multi-generational families become more common, Brisbane’s suburban fabric tilts toward larger dwellings, proximity to temples and cultural centres, and school catchments that already host established diaspora networks. That subtly redraws which postcodes are considered aspirational.
The money trail
Behind the visible agents sits a chain of financial actors recalibrating around new clients: banks adjusting credit models for overseas income, developers marketing larger townhouses to diaspora buyers, and conveyancers specialising in foreign-investment approvals. The biggest winners are those who can package legal compliance, finance and cultural reassurance into one seamless transaction for capital flowing from South Asia into Brisbane property.
The reach
Through choices about visa caps and the split between skilled and family streams, the Department of Home Affairs exerts quiet influence over which suburbs boom next. A generous skilled intake from India funnels new professionals into specific school catchments and transport corridors, shaping not only prices but where new shopping strips, medical practices and private colleges emerge.
The decisions facing buyers and owners now
With Brisbane prices still outpacing the national capitals and the next migration report due in late 2026, three groups face concrete choices.
- Non-resident South Asian buyers
Confirm your eligibility before committing to anything. Review the Foreign Investment Review Board’s residential guidance at firb.gov.au to check whether you can buy and which fees apply, and read the Queensland Government’s pages at qld.gov.au on the 7% foreign acquirer duty and 2% absentee land-tax surcharge so these costs sit in your budget upfront.
- Western property investors
Watch quarterly CoreLogic and SQM Research data on Brisbane detached dwellings and rental vacancies through 2026. If homes in migrant-heavy outer suburbs keep outpacing the city average, the multi-generational demand is sustained; if growth normalises or vacancies rise, the migration-driven pressure may be easing.
- Migrant families planning to settle
Align your purchase with visa milestones. Permanent residence can remove some foreign-buyer surcharges and broaden lending options, so check your specific conditions with the Department of Home Affairs at immi.homeaffairs.gov.au before deciding whether to wait.
FAQ
How much deposit do Australian banks require from non-resident buyers?
Major lenders typically require at least a 20% deposit from non-resident borrowers buying investment property, with stricter serviceability tests when income is earned offshore. Some banks cap loan-to-value ratios at 60–70% for foreign buyers and may not accept certain overseas currencies. Temporary residents with local income can sometimes borrow more, but must provide detailed visa documents and evidence of stable employment.
Can buyers use family gifts or money held overseas?
Yes, and many do. Australian banks usually require a paper trail showing where funds came from, gift letters from relatives, and evidence that money has been held in an account for a minimum period, often three months, to count as genuine savings. Transferring large sums into Australia can trigger anti–money-laundering checks, so engaging a bank or licensed remittance provider early is sensible.
Does becoming a permanent resident change the cost of buying?
It can. Permanent residents and most temporary residents who become tax residents are not treated as foreign for duty and land-tax surcharges, removing the 7% Queensland acquirer duty and 2% absentee surcharge. That difference can be substantial on a million-dollar home. Some temporary visas also limit time spent outside Australia, which complicates absentee-tax rules, so checking specific conditions matters before purchase.
Explainer
- Foreign Investment Review Board
- The federal body that screens foreign purchases of Australian residential property under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975. Non-resident buyers must get its approval before buying and are generally limited to new dwellings or vacant land for construction. Application fees scale with the property price and rise sharply for higher-value homes, adding a cost many first-time migrant buyers underestimate.
- Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute
- A national research body, known as AHURI, that produces evidence on housing policy and urban development for Australian governments. Its work on migrant housing pathways documents the higher prevalence of multi-generational households among South Asian arrivals. Its findings feed directly into how planners model future demand for detached, larger dwellings in growth corridors.
- Additional foreign acquirer duty
- A Queensland surcharge of 7% on the value of residential property bought by foreign acquirers, charged on top of standard transfer duty. It applies alongside a 2% land-tax surcharge for absentee owners. The duty is calculated at the time of purchase, meaning a buyer who gains permanent residence shortly after settlement still pays it on that transaction.
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