Brisbane vs Tasmania: which is better for Airbnb investment? (2026)

Bottom line

Tasmania edges ahead of Brisbane on higher occupancy (26.3% vs 21.4%), stronger RevPAR (£40 vs £31).

Head-to-head metrics

	Brisbane	Tasmania
Median occupancy	21.4%	26.3%
Median daily rate	£148	£148
Median RevPAR	£31	£40
Active listings	5,198	5,498
YoY occupancy	-1.6 pts	+0 pts
YoY daily rate	+65.3%	+49.2%
Regulation risk	—	—
Annual night cap	None	None
License required	No	No

Full analysis: Brisbane vs Tasmania

On the money side of this comparison — what a listing actually earns against the nights it has available — Tasmania finishes clearly ahead of Brisbane. Revenue per available night — rate and occupancy combined, the figure that actually reaches an owner — is 30.8% higher in Tasmania: £40 against £31. Across a full year the median Tasmania listing grosses £14,780 against £11,306 in Brisbane. Those gaps are wide enough to survive a normal year's variance.

On the mechanics of the yield the two are hard to separate. Brisbane runs 21.4% occupancy at £148 a night; Tasmania runs 26.3% at £148. That leaves RevPAR almost level too — £40 against £31 — so operating quality, not market selection, is what will decide your return between these two.

That verdict needs a caveat, because Brisbane is not simply the weaker market of the two. Nightly rates are also climbing faster in Brisbane, +65.3% over the last year against +49.2% in Tasmania. Its strongest submarket, Wakerley, clears £123 RevPAR on its own — city medians hide that kind of spread. If your model leans on that dimension, the ordering above can reasonably flip.

Neither Brisbane nor Tasmania currently has a verified short-term rental regulation record in our register, so the comparison above is a yield comparison only. Regulation is the single largest source of downside in this asset class — an unverified market is an unpriced risk, not an absent one.

The two calendars also behave differently. Brisbane peaks in September at 61.7% and bottoms in February at 36%; Tasmania runs from 52.7% in September down to 36.9% in May. Tasmania is the steadier of the two at 15.8 points peak-to-trough against 25.7 — easier to underwrite against a mortgage — while Brisbane concentrates its return into a shorter window and rewards operators who price the peak aggressively instead of holding a flat rate all year.

Who each suits, then. Brisbane suits buyers who want a conventional, lightly regulated entry. It is the contrarian side: buying it means buying a market that has cooled. Tasmania answers to the same regulatory profile, so the split between them is operational rather than legal. Every figure above comes from the same Inside Airbnb snapshot pipeline on both sides, dated 2026-09, filtered to listings with at least one booking in the last twelve months. Occupancy medians are drawn from 5,198 active Brisbane listings and 5,498 in Tasmania.

Frequently asked questions

Is Brisbane or Tasmania better for Airbnb investment?

Tasmania, on the data we track. It leads on stronger RevPAR (£40 vs £31), higher median annual revenue (£14,780 vs £11,306), and higher occupancy (26.3% vs 21.4%). Brisbane is not the weak side of this pair, though — it wins on faster rate growth (+65.3% vs +49.2% year over year).

Which has higher occupancy, Brisbane or Tasmania?

Tasmania, at 26.3% median occupancy against 21.4% in Brisbane — a gap of 4.9 points. That is a real but modest edge; a well-run listing in Brisbane can close most of it. Over the last twelve months Brisbane shed 1.6 points and Tasmania was flat, so the gap is widening.

Which has higher nightly rates, Brisbane or Tasmania?

Brisbane, at £148 a night against £148 in Tasmania — roughly 0% more. The nightly rate is not the whole story, though. On revenue per available night — rate multiplied by how often the room actually sells — Tasmania comes out ahead at £40 against £31, so Tasmania's cheaper nights are more than repaid by how often they fill.

Which has stronger year-over-year growth, Brisbane or Tasmania?

Tasmania, on occupancy: +0 points over the last twelve months against −1.6 points in Brisbane. Nightly rates rose 65.3% in Brisbane and rose 49.2% in Tasmania over the same window. One year of movement is a direction, not a trend — weigh it against the regulation picture before treating it as momentum.

Which is the bigger Airbnb market, Brisbane or Tasmania?

Tasmania, with 5,498 active listings against 5,198 in Brisbane. Size cuts both ways: a deep market gives you comparables, contractors and an exit, while a thinner one means fewer near-identical rivals competing for the same search results.

How much can you earn from an Airbnb in Brisbane vs Tasmania?

Tasmania earns more: roughly £14,780 a year for a median listing against £11,306 in Brisbane. Those are gross booking revenues before cleaning, management, platform fees, furnishing amortisation and tax — budget for a meaningful share of them, and note that a median listing is a median operator, not a good one.

Go deeper on each city

Market guide

Airbnb in Brisbane →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

Market guide

Airbnb in Tasmania →

Occupancy, ADR, neighborhoods, regulation

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