The best suburbs in Brisbane in 2026, ranked on six measures

The 20 highest scoring Brisbane suburbs

Auchenflower takes first place on a combination rather than a single strength. It scores 19.6 of 20 on schools, 10 of 10 on transport and 10 of 10 on amenities, while still running at $6,759 a year, below the $10,883 Greater Brisbane average.

Compare any two of these suburbs →

Every suburb in the top 20 sits inside Brisbane City Council. That is a function of geography rather than a judgement on the other four councils: Brisbane City covers almost all of the inner and middle ring, where short commutes and frequent rail lift three of the six component scores at once. The distance bands below give a fairer read on Moreton Bay, Logan, Ipswich and Redland.

Best Brisbane suburbs by distance from the city

Ranking the whole of Greater Brisbane on one list rewards proximity twice, once through a cheaper commute and once through better transport access. Splitting the 432 suburbs into distance bands removes that and shows the strongest option at each commute length.

Best Brisbane suburbs for families

Filtering for a catchment school ICSEA of 8.0 or above, low flood risk, and at least 10 parks within a 2 km walk leaves 10 suburbs. Ranked by the overall score:

One caveat that matters more than it usually gets. ICSEA is the Index of Community Socio Educational Advantage, published by ACARA. It describes the socio educational background of a school's student community, not the quality of its teaching, and ACARA is explicit about that distinction. A high ICSEA catchment tells you about the families already enrolled. It does not tell you the school is well run, and a lower ICSEA school may suit a particular child better. Use it as one input, visit the school, and check the catchment boundary against the specific address rather than the suburb.

See the full cost breakdown for a suburb →

Best Brisbane suburbs for commuters

74 Brisbane suburbs have a train station within a 10 minute walk. Ranked by overall score, these balance that access against what they cost to run.

The commute component of running cost assumes driving. If you would genuinely use the train every day, the gap between an inner and an outer suburb narrows considerably. The drive versus train comparison sets out the difference in dollars.

What this score does not measure

Being straight about the limits is the only way a ranking like this is worth anything.

• Property prices and capital growth. Not included, anywhere on SuburbCost. This score is about what a suburb costs to run and what it offers, not what a house there costs to buy or what it might be worth later.
• How a suburb feels. Street character, noise, neighbours, community, nightlife and the things that actually make people happy somewhere cannot be scored from open data.
• Your commute, specifically. The commute figure is modelled on a drive to the CBD. If you work at the airport, in Springfield or from home, it does not describe your trip.
• Property level risk. Flood and fire are classified for the suburb, not the address. Two houses in one suburb can face very different exposure. Always check the council flood overlay for the specific property.
• Crime detail. The classification uses two broad Queensland Police Service offence groupings rendered as Low, Medium and High. It does not distinguish between offence types or capture recent trend.
• Estimated components. Building insurance is AI estimated, not quoted. Treat it as directional.

If any one measure matters far more to you than the rest, the component columns in the tables above let you re-rank on that alone rather than accepting the weighting used here.

See the current Brisbane City Council rates and cost any suburb in the area →