Median priceⓘLast 12 months
623kk
↑ +7.1% YoY
Cairns City's busiest market is unit sales, with 113 sales (up 18.9%) at around $622.5K (up 7.1%), taking about 35 days to sell (up a lot from 25 days last year), around half are 2-bedroom.
Unit rentals are close behind, with 105 leases (down 7.9%) at $660 a week (up 10%), renting out in about 15 days (down from 18 days last year), with rents growing faster than most unit rental markets nationally, with 1-bedroom making up around 37%. Then come 12 house rentals at $530 a week and 8 house sales at around $611.5K.
Who lives hereA middle-income, renter-heavy, young-professional suburb — strongly multicultural, apartment-dominated and newcomer-heavy.
House covers houses, duplexes, semi-detached and terraces; Unit covers apartments, units, townhouses and villas.
Census data sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics — © Commonwealth of Australia, 2021 Census of Population and Housing and Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) 2021 · Shares, ratios and percentiles shown are Micromarkets transformations of that data · licensed CC BY 4.0.
The age structure, household make-up, and cultural fabric of the people who call this suburb home.
Share of all residents by 5-year band · hover a band for the count + split
8.3% report Irish ancestry, but only 0.6% were born in Ireland — the gap is the Australian-born and diaspora Irish community, invisible in birthplace alone.
A mix of established and newer migrant families.
2020–21 understated — COVID border closures.
Census data sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics — © Commonwealth of Australia, 2021 Census of Population and Housing · Shares, ratios and percentiles shown are Micromarkets transformations of that data · licensed CC BY 4.0.
What it costs to live here, who owns versus rents, and the shape of the housing stock.
Census data sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics — © Commonwealth of Australia, 2021 Census of Population and Housing · Shares, ratios and percentiles shown are Micromarkets transformations of that data · licensed CC BY 4.0.
Incomes, employment, and the occupation mix of the people who live here.
A typical household earns about 1.8× the typical individual here.
Census data sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics — © Commonwealth of Australia, 2021 Census of Population and Housing · Shares, ratios and percentiles shown are Micromarkets transformations of that data · licensed CC BY 4.0.
How people get to work, and how car-dependent the suburb is — the clearest tell of inner-urban versus outer-suburban living.
Census data sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics — © Commonwealth of Australia, 2021 Census of Population and Housing · Shares, ratios and percentiles shown are Micromarkets transformations of that data · licensed CC BY 4.0.
Education · ACARA My School 2025
2 schools inside Cairns City, plus the closest options around it. Distances are straight-line from the suburb centre and are not enrolment catchments — always confirm zones with the school.
ICSEA is ACARA’s official measure of a school’s socio-educational advantage — based mainly on parents’ education and occupation, plus the school’s location and student mix.
Why are some State Rank and star ratings blank? Schools can choose not to publish their results. In practice, schools that score well above their state average almost always publish theirs — so a blank rating more often reflects a school opting out than a top result being hidden. Academic results also tend to rise with ICSEA Rank, so higher-ICSEA schools more often carry a strong State Rank as well.
School profile and ICSEA data sourced from ACARA — © Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (data year 2025) · State Rank & star columns are Micromarkets-compiled academic ratings from publicly available school results · Distances are straight-line from the suburb centre, not catchments.
How settled or transient the community is — and where newcomers came from.
Headline price, rent, yield and time on market for Cairns City — choose a property type and size below.
Every segment this suburb tracks — sales and rentals side by side, ranked by total activity over the last twelve months.
Where each segment sits against its peers in the chosen geography — past the midline means it's outperforming the rest.
Market demandHow fast this market is moving — a velocity index built from trailing-year transaction volume and median days on market. Strong volume lifts the score; days on market drags it down, with the drag growing sharply once listings start lingering. Ranked against peers in the chosen geography.
What it costs each week to own a property versus renting the same one — positive means buying carries the premium, negative means rent covers the mortgage.
Two questions on one chart — how strong demand is right now, and which way it's heading year-on-year.
Eight diagnostic views cutting the data a different way each time — Cairns City in blue, peers in colour.
How long current listings would take to clear at the recent rate of sales or leases. Critical shortage and Oversupply only fire at the genuine tails of the national distribution — sales tip in under 0.7 months, rentals far faster, under 0.3.
Out of every property transaction in this suburb, what share are sales versus leases — each point a rolling twelve-month window.
Each tape traces one metric across sixty months for the selected segment — every point a trailing twelve-month figure, matching the headline KPIs above.
Every market within reach of Cairns City, ranked by distance — each compared against this suburb's Units · Total segment so divergence reads at a glance.
QLD markets whose Units · Total segment behaves most like Cairns City's on the buy side — ranked by a like-for-like blend of price, yield, days on market, ownership cost and cycle phase.
Comparable sales markets to Cairns City include Airlie Beach (QLD 4802), Whitfield (QLD 4870), Kewarra Beach (QLD 4879), White Rock (QLD 4868), Yorkeys Knob (QLD 4878), Yandina (QLD 4561), Raceview (QLD 4305) and Bundall (QLD 4217). Each link opens that suburb's full market report.
21 data-driven answers about Cairns City's property market — every one computed from the metrics above.
The median house price in Cairns City, QLD 4870 is $612k as of June 2026, based on 8 sales recorded over the past 12 months. Houses there have moved +2.8% year-on-year. Prices vary by bedroom count, from compact two-bedroom homes to larger four-bedroom houses. See the bedroom-level breakdown below for 2-, 3- and 4-bedroom medians.
The median unit price in Cairns City, QLD 4870 is $623k as of June 2026, based on 113 sales over the past 12 months. Units have moved +7.1% year-on-year and currently trade at roughly 102% of the median house price.
The median weekly house rent in Cairns City is $530 as of June 2026, drawn from 12 leases over the past 12 months. Units rent for around $660 per week. House rents have moved −10.9% year-on-year. Current vacancy pressure is shown in the supply section above.
Gross rental yield in Cairns City is 4.40% for houses and 5.40% for units as of June 2026, compared with the QLD unit median of 4.35%. Gross yield is annual rent divided by purchase price — it doesn't account for ownership costs like council rates, strata, maintenance or vacancy.
As of June 2026, Cairns City medians by bedroom count:
| Property | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed | 4 bed | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houses | — | $594k | $610k | — | $612k |
| Units | $453k | $589k | $1.02M | — | $623k |
Figures cover only segments with enough recent transactions to be statistically meaningful; sparse segments are excluded.
At the median Cairns City unit ($623k purchase, $660/week rent), weekly mortgage repayments sit at roughly $689 — about $29 more per week than renting. That gap is the ownership premium. Figures assume 80% LVR, a 6.0% interest rate and a 30-year principal-and-interest loan.
Cairns City's property market trends to June 2026: house prices rose +2.8% year-on-year and units +7.1%; weekly house rents moved −10.9%; homes now sell in a median 149 days — slower than a year ago by 92; sales supply sits at 0.0 months (severe). Read together — price, rent, selling speed and supply — they show which way the Cairns City market is leaning. The 5-year tape and demand cycle charts above plot the full trajectory.
As of June 2026 in Cairns City, house prices rose +2.8% over the year, gross rental yield is 4.40% against a QLD median of 3.71%, houses take a median 149 days to sell, sales supply is 0.0 months (severe). Capital growth, rental yield, selling speed and supply are the signals investors weigh — but these figures describe the market, not a recommendation. This is data, not financial advice; always do your own research and consider a licensed adviser.
Houses in Cairns City sell in a median 149 days on market as of June 2026, with units clearing slightly faster at 35 days. Days on market have lengthened by 92 days versus a year ago. Faster clearance typically coincides with stronger buyer demand and lower supply.
Cairns City's sales market sits at 0.0 months of supply for houses as of June 2026 — classified as Severe (extreme shortage) against the Australian distribution. Under 1.7 months is Severe (extreme shortage); over 4.5 months is Loose. The rental side is similar at 0.0 months of supply.
House prices in Cairns City moved +2.8% over the 12 months to June 2026, while units moved +7.1%. The 5-year tape above plots the full monthly trajectory — showing where the market changed character rather than just crossing round numbers.
Cairns City's house rental market sits at 0.0 months of supply as of June 2026 — classified as Severe (extreme shortage), with 12 houses leased over the past 12 months. Units sit at 0.8 months. Tighter supply typically corresponds to faster letting and upward pressure on rents.
Cairns City's median house price ($612k) is 36% below the QLD median ($960k) as of June 2026. On selling speed, houses clear in 149 days vs 26 days state median. On gross yield, Cairns City sits at 4.40% vs 3.71% state median.
The most-transacted segment in Cairns City over the 12 months to June 2026 is 2 bed units with 54 sales. 3 bed units come second at 35 sales. The 'Most popular' panel above breaks down the top segments with weekly mortgage, rent and ownership-cost detail.
Cairns City recorded 8 house sales and 113 unit sales over the 12 months to June 2026 — a combined 121 transactions. On the rental side, 12 houses and 105 units were leased. Segments with statistically thin samples are excluded from displayed figures.
Cairns City, QLD 4870 is home to 3,616 residents (ABS Census 2021). The median resident age is 44, and the average household holds 1.9 people. The "Who lives here" section above breaks the community down by age, life stage and tenure.
The median household in Cairns City earns $2k per week — roughly $85k a year (ABS Census 2021). Median personal income runs $907/week. Income, rent-to-income and mortgage-to-income context sits in the "Who lives here" section above.
Cairns City tilts towards renters: about 48% of households are owner-occupiers and 50% rent (ABS Census 2021). Of owners, 31% own outright and 17% are paying off a mortgage.
Cairns City has 45 schools within reach, 2 of them inside the suburb itself — including St Monica's College, St Augustine's College. The Schools section above maps each one with sector, year range, enrolment, Micromarkets-compiled academic ratings and ICSEA (ACARA).
Cairns City, QLD 4870 has a population of 3,616, a median age of 44, a median household income around $2k/week, 50% of households renting (ABS Census 2021). There are 45 schools within reach. Whether it's the right fit depends on your priorities — these figures describe the community, housing mix and amenity rather than offer a verdict.
This Cairns City market data was last updated June 2026. Figures are computed monthly from 12-month rolling windows of recorded sales and leases, with five years of monthly history behind the trend charts. Methodology, glossary and data sources are linked in the footer.
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