Something significant is happening across South East Queensland, and it goes well beyond the familiar story of people swapping a cramped Sydney apartment for a Brisbane backyard. The numbers coming out of 2024 and 2025 tell a more nuanced and frankly more remarkable story — one about an entire region reshaping itself, suburb by suburb, council area by council area, removalist truck by removalist truck.

Queensland has long been a magnet for interstate migration, but the scale of what's unfolding right now is something different. In 2020 alone, Queensland recorded more interstate migration than any other state or territory, with around 30,000 people making the move north. That momentum has not let up. According to the ABS, Queensland's population grew by 2.3% in the year to June 2024, well above the national average, with Greater Brisbane absorbing much of that inflow — adding 72,900 people, with net internal migration contributing 15,600 of those new residents.

But here is what the headline figures miss: Brisbane is no longer the whole story.

More than half of SEQ's growth is occurring beyond the city of Brisbane itself, with almost 68,000 new residents arriving on the Gold Coast in the last five years alone, 61,000 in Logan and Beaudesert, 51,600 in Ipswich, and 47,500 more people on the Sunshine Coast. These are not fringe numbers. They represent a fundamental rebalancing of where Australians are choosing to put down roots.

The data confirms it clearly — Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Logan City, the Sunshine Coast, Ipswich, Redland, and Moreton Bay councils all recorded growth rates greater than 2% in 2024, with Ipswich and Logan both exceeding 3%. For context, these are growth rates that most Australian cities would consider exceptional in a single year. In SEQ, they are becoming the norm.

So who is actually making these moves? Interstate migration is driving unprecedented growth across the region, with more than 22,000 people relocating to South East Queensland from other Australian cities — including close to 1,500 from the ACT, and more than 1,000 each from Sydney's Northern Beaches and South East Melbourne. Interestingly, the demographic profile of those arrivals is changing too. More than 65,000 additional people aged under 35 arrived in SEQ in 2023–24 — double the growth rate recorded in 2018–19. This is not a retirement migration story. It is a story about younger Australians voting with their feet.

The reasons are not hard to understand. Lifestyle factors and relative affordability compared to Sydney and Melbourne remain key drivers, with Brisbane and the surrounding region continuing to attract both owner-occupiers and investors seeking long-term rental returns amid low vacancy rates. For families priced out of the southern capitals, the calculus has become straightforward. More space, a better climate, and — at least until recently — meaningfully lower property prices have made the decision an easier one.

Interstate removalists like Austate Removals have found themselves operating in the middle of this wave, moving families and individuals across state borders as part of a trend that shows little sign of reversing. The volume and direction of those moves is itself a kind of data — a ground-level signal that the population statistics later confirm.

The growth is not without its pressures. South East Queensland requires around 900,000 new dwellings by 2046, equating to roughly 34,000 new homes per year— a target that current construction pipelines are falling well short of. Rental markets across the region have tightened considerably as a result, with vacancy rates in Greater Brisbane sitting well below the 3% threshold that economists consider a balanced market.

As KPMG Queensland partner Stephen Abbott put it, Brisbane was traditionally the epicentre of activity for South East Queensland, but now there are endless opportunities right up and down the M1. That corridor — stretching from the Gold Coast in the south to the Sunshine Coast in the north, with Ipswich and Logan spreading westward and inland — is increasingly functioning as one interconnected urban region rather than a collection of separate cities orbiting a single capital.

The 2032 Brisbane Olympics has added another layer to the story, with billions of dollars in infrastructure investment reshaping transport, connectivity, and liveability across the region. By the time the Olympic flame is lit at the Gabba, Queensland's population is expected to have risen by more than 16%, with the majority of that growth concentrated in and around Brisbane and the broader SEQ region.

South East Queensland's population is forecast to grow by 2.2 million more residents by 2046 — roughly 1,600 new people every week. Businesses moving people between states, including interstate removalists like Austate Removals, are not simply witnessing this shift from the sidelines. They are part of its infrastructure, helping families carry their lives across borders as Australia's population map quietly but decisively rewrites itself.

Whether the destination is a townhouse in Ipswich, a new estate in Logan, a beachside apartment on the Gold Coast, or a hinterland property behind the Sunshine Coast, the message from the data is consistent. The SEQ surge is real, it is broad, and it is only just beginning.