Queensland's Rental Reform Wave Has Paused. Here's What Still Matters

For three years, Queensland landlords got used to a rhythm: a new tranche of tenancy law changes every few months, starting with the Housing Legislation Amendment Act in 2021 and running through the Homes for Queenslanders reforms in 2024. Since the change of state government in October 2024, that rhythm has stopped. The Crisafulli Government has been explicit that it doesn't support further caps on rent increases or ending arbitrary evictions at the end of a fixed term, the two changes tenant advocacy groups are still pushing for. For owners who've spent three years bracing for the next announcement, that's genuinely good news: there isn't a new wave of QLD-specific tenancy law heading your way.

That doesn't mean there's nothing to do. A small number of dates are still locked in, and one of them catches more owners than you'd expect.

What's actually changing, and when

Source: Residential Tenancies Authority; Queensland Fire Department; 2026 Federal Budget. Notice periods and eligibility criteria can vary, confirm your own circumstances before acting.

The one that actually matters for most owners: smoke alarms

If your property has been a rental at any point since 1 January 2022, it should already have interconnected, photoelectric smoke alarms compliant with AS3786-2014. For most LongView-managed properties, that box has been ticked for years. Where it still catches owners out are properties that were owner-occupied until recently and have only just entered the rental pool, or long-held properties bought with a tenant already in place where alarm compliance wasn't checked at the time of purchase.

From 1 January 2027, the requirement extends to every dwelling in Queensland regardless of whether it's rented or owner-occupied, meaning there's no longer a category of property anywhere in the state that's exempt. Penalties for non-compliance can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for individuals, so if you've never had this checked, it's worth confirming before the deadline rather than after.

The one that mostly doesn't apply to you: rooming accommodation house rules

The updated prescribed house rules commencing 1 September 2026 sound like a general tenancy change, but they only apply to rooming accommodation boarding houses, off-campus student accommodation, and similar shared-living arrangements. If you own a standard house or unit let under a general tenancy agreement, this one passes you by entirely. We're including it here mainly, so you're not caught off guard if you see it mentioned elsewhere and wonder whether it applies to you.

The one that isn't Queensland-specific, but matters more than either of the above

The federal changes to negative gearing announced in the 2026 Budget are the biggest date on the calendar for QLD investors, even though they have nothing to do with state tenancy law. Under the current proposal, investors who purchase an established (not new build) property after 12 May 2026 may lose the ability to offset losses against other income once the change takes effect on 1 July 2027. Properties bought before that cutoff are expected to be grandfathered under existing arrangements, subject to final legislation which is precisely why the timing of a purchase, or a decision to hold rather than sell, matters more than any of the state-based dates above.

What this pause means in practice

A quieter reform environment is a good moment to catch up rather than switch off. If your smoke alarms haven't been checked in a few years, if you're not sure whether your property was ever formally assessed against Minimum Housing Standards, or if you're weighing up a purchase before the federal cutoff, none of those things need a new law to justify sorting out now. They're all still live risks even while the legislative pace has slowed.

How LongView Helps

Our Brisbane property management team keeps a compliance record for every property we manage, so smoke alarm testing, minimum housing standards, and any other statutory checks aren't something owners need to track themselves. If you've recently moved a property from owner-occupied to rental, or you're unsure when your property was last formally checked against current standards, get in touch and we'll run through what's outstanding before it becomes a problem rather than after.