Brisbane's early auction clearance rate climbs back above 40 per cent

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Brisbane's preliminary auction clearance rate rose to 42.0 per cent in the week ending Sunday 2 August, according to the weekly auction release Cotality published on Monday 3 August. The data firm noted that the city's early rate had sat below 40 per cent in six of the previous eight weeks, so the first reading of August is a step up, though still a long way from a market where most auctions end in a sale.

The same release counted 139 auctions in Brisbane for the week, 5.2 per cent more than the week before and 8.6 per cent more than in the same week of 2025.

Cotality preliminary auction results, week ending 2 August 2026, published 3 August 2026.

What the Brisbane figure is built on

A preliminary rate is calculated from the results that have reached Cotality by the time it publishes, not from every auction held. The firm's weekly indicator summary for the same week shows that 100 of Brisbane's 139 auctions had a reported result. Of those 100, 42 were recorded as sold and 58 as not sold, which gives the 42.0 per cent.

That leaves 39 auctions, a little more than one in four, with no result in the early count. Cotality publishes a final rate each Thursday once more results are collected, and says that on average it ends up with about 99 per cent of them.

The previous week shows the level those final figures have been settling at. In its release of 30 July, Cotality put Brisbane's final clearance rate for the week ending 26 July at 29.5 per cent from 132 auctions, the weakest among the major mainland markets that week. The same release observed that Brisbane's final rate had stayed between the low 20s and the mid 30s throughout July.

July's four weeks also show how far the Monday number tends to travel. Brisbane's preliminary and final rates were within a point of each other in three of them: 23.8 per cent against 23.5, 35.9 against 35.4 and 30.5 against 29.5. In the fourth, the week ending 12 July, an early 43.0 per cent finished at 35.4 per cent. Each time the final figure was the lower one.

So the early number for the first week of August is best read as a first impression. At 42.0 per cent it is 11.5 points above the preliminary figure of a week earlier and close to the 43.0 per cent of mid-July, the only other week since the start of July in which the city's early rate has been over 40. The Thursday figure will say how much of that holds.

Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast

Cotality's indicator summary also carries rows for the two large coastal markets outside the capital, and they sit a long way apart.

On the Gold Coast, 64 auctions were held in the week ending 2 August. Results had been collected for 48 of them, and 13 were recorded as sold, a preliminary clearance rate of 27.1 per cent. On the Sunshine Coast, 31 auctions were held, 22 had a reported result and 9 of those sold, a preliminary rate of 40.9 per cent.

Both are small samples, and a handful of late results can shift either figure by several points. Taken as they stand, the Sunshine Coast's early rate was within about a point of Brisbane's, while the Gold Coast's was roughly 15 points lower than the capital's.

Neither coast moved much on its own recent record. On the like-for-like early measure, Cotality's summary of 27 July had the Gold Coast at 31.9 per cent and the Sunshine Coast at 42.9 per cent, so each has slipped a few points in a week. The Gold Coast's final rate for the week ending 26 July was 29.4 per cent, from 15 sales out of 51 auctions, and it finished every week of July after the first under 30 per cent. The Sunshine Coast's final rate that week was 41.2 per cent, though from only 17 auctions. Its count has almost doubled since, to 31, and the Gold Coast's has risen from 51 to 64, so both coasts opened August with more homes going under the hammer than they closed July with.

Where Brisbane sits among the capitals

Across the combined capital cities, Cotality reported a preliminary clearance rate of 53.6 per cent, up 1.1 percentage points on the week before and the highest in three weeks. It was also the tenth week in a row in which the national early rate stayed under 55 per cent. The firm traced the improvement from a June low of 47.4 per cent. The national figure is built on 977 reported results from 1,273 auctions, 523 of them sales.

Melbourne recorded 59.6 per cent, which Cotality described as its highest preliminary rate since the week ending 24 May, when it was 60.2 per cent. Sydney went the other way, falling to 49.7 per cent from 56.1 per cent a week earlier. Adelaide came in at 52.6 per cent and the ACT at 43.9 per cent. Brisbane's 42.0 per cent was the lowest of the capitals for which Cotality published a rate, even after its rise, and sat 11.6 points under the combined figure.

Perth, with ten auctions, and Tasmania, with none, do not have a rate in the table. Cotality reports one only where it holds at least ten results.

More auctions in Brisbane, fewer in the south

Volumes tell a different story. Nationally, 1,273 auctions were held, 10 per cent fewer than the week before and 19.2 per cent fewer than a year earlier, the eleventh week running below year-ago levels. Cotality reads the run as a sign of lower vendor activity.

The falls were concentrated in the two largest markets. Melbourne's 572 auctions were 19.4 per cent fewer than the week before and 21.6 per cent fewer than in the same week of 2025. Sydney's 407 were 4.5 per cent down on the week and 28.7 per cent down on the year.

Of the capitals for which Cotality gave a year-on-year comparison, Brisbane and Adelaide were the only two with more auctions than in the same week of 2025, Brisbane by 8.6 per cent and Adelaide by 9.5 per cent. Brisbane's count was also close to plan: the firm's preview of 30 July had listed 141 auctions as scheduled, against 128 held a year earlier, and 139 have been counted so far. In other words, Brisbane sellers have kept bringing homes to auction at a time when the larger southern markets have been holding fewer of them.

Withdrawals and the headline rate

Cotality linked the national lift in the clearance rate partly to fewer withdrawn auctions. Withdrawals made up 19.7 per cent of scheduled auctions nationally in the week, which the firm compared with an average of 11.8 per cent last year and a high of 23.7 per cent in the week ending 21 June. It gave separate figures for the two largest cities, and they explain a good part of the distance between them.

The release did not give a separate withdrawal figure for Brisbane.

A withdrawn auction counts against the clearance rate in Cotality's method, so the share of sellers who pull out before auction day feeds directly into the headline number. A lower withdrawal share can lift the rate without any change in how bidders behave on the day. With more than one in four Sydney auctions withdrawn and fewer than one in six in Melbourne, the ten points between the two cities' clearance rates owes something to decisions made before any bidding began.

A withdrawal is not the end of a sale campaign. A seller who cancels an auction can keep the home on the market and sell it by private treaty, and at that point the weekly auction figures no longer follow it.

The week ahead

For the week now under way, Cotality expects about 1,400 homes to go to auction across the capitals, and about 1,300 the week after. Its preview of 30 July had pencilled in 1,302 capital city auctions for the week ending 2 August, and 1,273 have been counted so far.

Brisbane's final rate for the week ending 2 August is due in the firm's Thursday release, on 6 August, together with the final figures for the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast and the number of Brisbane auctions scheduled for the week ending 9 August.

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.

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