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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Vendors in Brisbane lowered their asking prices by 1.7 per cent in August, according to SQM Research's monthly Total Property Listings report, released on 1 September 2026. Across Australia the fall in combined asking prices was 0.1 per cent. Brisbane's asking prices are still 7.1 per cent higher than a year ago.
The same report counts 20,374 homes for sale in Brisbane, a rise of 0.5 per cent on July and 26.5 per cent on August 2025. Brisbane was one of only two capitals where stock rose at all during the month, and the national count fell 3.3 per cent to 269,717.
SQM Research, Total Property Listings, August 2026, released 1 September 2026. Asking prices are for houses and units combined.
Fewer new sellers, more old stock
The small rise in Brisbane's total hides two opposite movements. New listings, which SQM defines as homes advertised for less than 30 days, fell 7.6 per cent in the month, against a national rise of 1.7 per cent to 74,049. Older stock went the other way. SQM reports a 13.8 per cent monthly increase in Brisbane's old listings, the homes that have been advertised for more than 180 days without selling. That was the largest monthly rise in old stock of any capital. Sydney's was 6.5 per cent, and the national count of old listings fell 1.0 per cent to 77,355.
Put together, those figures describe owners holding back from starting new campaigns while the homes already on the market wait longer for a buyer. The arithmetic of the total supports that. SQM counted 20,273 Brisbane listings in July, so August added just 101 homes to the count even though the flow of new listings shrank.
Related readBrisbane homes now take 28 days to sell, and units are outpacing housesOld stock in Brisbane is not yet high by the standard of a year ago. It is 5.4 per cent above August 2025, a far smaller gap than the 26.5 per cent for all listings. In other words, most of the extra stock in the city arrived during 2026 and has not yet had time to become old. August is the month in which some of it started to.
The annual comparison shows how much has changed in twelve months. Stock 26.5 per cent above August 2025 implies there were about 16,100 Brisbane listings a year ago, some 4,270 fewer than today. Nationally, listings are 12.8 per cent higher than a year earlier, about half of Brisbane's rate of increase.
Brisbane beside the other capitals
SQM's tables for the eight capitals put Brisbane's month in context. The city has the largest annual rise in stock of any capital, slightly ahead of Adelaide, and the second-largest monthly fall in asking prices after Perth.
| Capital | Listings, month | Listings, year | Asking prices, month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brisbane | +0.5% | +26.5% | -1.7% |
| Adelaide | +0.1% | +24.4% | +0.8% |
| Melbourne | -4.7% | +22.0% | +0.2% |
| Canberra | -1.6% | +14.2% | -0.4% |
| Sydney | -2.8% | +13.3% | +0.1% |
| Darwin | -0.7% | +7.3% | 0.0% |
| Perth | -0.5% | +6.0% | -2.2% |
| Hobart | -4.0% | -11.3% | -0.4% |
SQM Research, Total Property Listings, August 2026, released 1 September 2026. Ranked by annual change in listings.
Hobart is the only capital with less stock than a year ago. Sydney, with 38,293 listings, has almost twice Brisbane's count in a much larger city, and its asking prices are 0.1 per cent higher than a year earlier, against 7.1 per cent in Brisbane. Perth is the closest comparison on price: its asking prices fell 2.2 per cent in August and remain 8.8 per cent higher over the year.
The pattern in the two right-hand columns is consistent. The cities where asking prices fell most in August, Perth and Brisbane, are the ones where they had risen most over the previous year. The cities where values had already been falling for some months, Sydney and Melbourne, saw asking prices hold steady.
Related readBrisbane house buyers need $17,000 more income than in JanuaryHow August followed an unusual July
The August figures make more sense read after July's. SQM's July report, released on 4 August, recorded a jump of 18.0 per cent in Brisbane listings in a single month, to 20,273, the largest rise of any capital. National listings rose 12.4 per cent in July to 278,984. SQM described a surge of that size in winter as abnormal, because listings usually fall in the coldest months.
July's rise in Brisbane came from both ends. New listings rose 4.8 per cent and old listings 6.0 per cent. August kept the second movement and reversed the first. The stock that arrived in July is still largely there, and fewer owners followed it onto the market.
The national total eased from 278,984 to 269,717 between the two reports. SQM's commentary on the August figures is that the market has considerably more stock than at the same time last year, despite the pullback after July's strong result.
The July report carried one more detail relevant to how homes are being sold. Auction listings were about 20 per cent lower than a year earlier, SQM said, with vendors increasingly choosing private treaty. A private treaty campaign has an advertised price, which an auction campaign often does not, so that shift adds homes to the pool from which an asking price series is drawn.
What an asking price does and does not show
An asking price is what a vendor hopes for, not what a buyer pays. SQM's series tracks the prices in advertisements, so it responds quickly when sellers and their agents change their expectations, and it covers homes that have not sold as well as those that will.
Related readBrisbane houses reach a record $1.21 million as unit prices dipThat makes it a useful early signal and an imperfect measure of value. A fall of 1.7 per cent in asking prices in a month says Brisbane vendors are meeting the market. It does not say sold prices fell by that amount. For comparison, the Cotality Home Value Index, also published on 1 September, estimates that Brisbane dwelling values fell 1.0 per cent in August, to a median of $1,080,142.
A third measure arrived the day before. The Real Estate Institute of Queensland's report for the June quarter, published on 31 August, put the statewide median house price at $983,000, down 0.91 per cent on the March quarter, and the median unit price at $810,000, down 1.22 per cent. The institute counts sale prices over three months, so its figures describe April to June, before the listings surge of July.
The three figures measure different things and should not be averaged. What they share is direction: at the end of winter, each of them pointed down.
Distressed listings are rising from a low base
SQM's count of distressed listings in Queensland rose 8.2 per cent in August to 1,497 properties, and is 25.3 per cent higher than a year earlier. Nationally the count rose 4.2 per cent to 4,510, which is 10.0 per cent above August 2025.
Queensland therefore accounts for about a third of the distressed listings SQM identifies across the country. An increase of 8.2 per cent to 1,497 implies roughly 1,380 such listings in July, and the annual change implies about 1,195 a year ago. The state's count had also risen in July, by 4.0 per cent.
Related readBrisbane growth slows to 0.3% in June as Cotality revises May downQueensland is not alone, and its annual increase is not the largest. SQM reports rises over the year of 59.5 per cent in the Australian Capital Territory, 50.7 per cent in South Australia and 39.6 per cent in Western Australia. In New South Wales and Victoria the count fell in August, by 0.8 per cent and 3.7 per cent, and in Tasmania it is 35.0 per cent lower than a year ago.
A distressed listing is a matter of wording, and the count is small
A distressed listing is one advertised as an urgent or forced sale, so the count depends on how a campaign is worded. Queensland's 1,497 compares with more than 20,000 listings in Brisbane alone. SQM's own assessment is that the national figures warrant close monitoring and remain relatively contained.
The trend deserves watching. The level does not describe a market under widespread strain, and other indicators agree. SQM's rental report of 13 August put Brisbane's vacancy rate at 0.9 per cent in July, with 3,057 vacant rental homes and combined asking rents 8.3 per cent higher than a year earlier. An owner under pressure in a market that tight has the alternative of a tenant, which is one reason forced sales stay rare.
Where this leaves spring
September is the traditional start of the selling season, when new campaigns normally lift the listings count. Brisbane goes into it with stock already about a quarter higher than a year ago and with August's new listings down. SQM calls the season an important test of vendor expectations and buyer demand.
Interest rates are part of that test. The Reserve Bank held the cash rate at 4.35 per cent on 11 August after three increases earlier in the year, and its published calendar sets the next Monetary Policy Board meeting for 28 and 29 September.
How new supply and existing stock meet will shape the next few months of price data. If new listings stay low, the stock of older homes can clear gradually. If the usual spring wave arrives on top of the existing stock, buyers will have still more to choose from. SQM's September report, due in early October, will give the first reading.
For agents, the August figures put numbers on a market in which the conversation about price is likely to come earlier in a campaign. For buyers, they are a reminder that the advertised price is an opening position, and that in Brisbane it moved by 1.7 per cent in a single month.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
