Olympics hotel shock: Queensland running out of rooms
Queensland is expected to offer less than a quarter of the hotel rooms needed for the 2032 Olympics as the building fails to meet growing visitor demand, new analysis shows.
Hotel construction in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast has virtually stalled despite strong bookings and high room rates. A report by the Property Council of Australia It was published on Wednesday.
In the 2026 Queensland Hotel Market Outlook report, only one new hotel has opened across three regions in the past 12 months: the Mondrian in Burleigh Heads.
Property Council Queensland chief executive Jess Caire said the state’s hotel shortage was no longer a short-term slump but a long-term problem.
“There is demand, global interest is coming, but the rooms are not coming,” he said.
“Queensland’s hotel markets are doing exactly what we hoped they would – attracting visitors, increasing occupancy and delivering strong returns – but the supply response has completely stalled.”
Queensland is currently well behind the state government’s hotel targets, according to CBRE’s report for the Property Council.
Based on current trends, the planned pipeline would deliver about 24 percent of the 14,700 extra rooms needed by 2032 and only nine percent of the long-term Target 2045 goal of 40,000 rooms.
CBRE head of hotel research Ally Gibson said hotel markets in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast were already tighter than before the pandemic.
“Only one new hotel has opened in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast in the last 12 months: the Mondrian in Burleigh Heads,” he said.
“It is an outstanding property that speaks volumes about the supply issue we face in three major markets.”
Ms Gibson said hotels were expensive to build and had to carry increasing construction, finance and operating costs over the years before they could settle into a stable trade.
According to CBRE, construction costs for mid- and upper-range hotels have increased by nearly 40 percent since 2019; Another 18 percent increase is expected in 2026 and 2027.
“The gap between what a hotel costs to build and what it can earn gets wider every month,” Ms Gibson said.
“Projects that did not accumulate last year accumulate even less today. The market is performing well; the construction economy has deteriorated.”
According to the report, room-night demand in past Olympics host cities was generally higher in the second and third years following the games than during the event itself.
The Property Council has said the hotel project in Queensland must cover not just two weeks of competition but a decade from 2032.
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