# Brisbane home values rise 0.9% in May while the national index stalls

Cotality's Home Value Index for May, published on 1 June, shows Brisbane and regional Queensland still rising while Sydney and Melbourne fall and the national figure is flat.

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Brisbane home values rose 0.9 per cent in May, according to the Cotality Home Value Index published on 1 June 2026. Across Australia the same index did not move at all: the national figure was flat for the month, held down by falls of 0.9 per cent in Sydney and 0.8 per cent in Melbourne.

ABC News, reporting the release the same morning, noted that May was the first month without national growth since January 2025. That leaves Queensland on the stronger side of a market that is now clearly split in two. Cotality's own summary is cautious, though. It says values kept rising in the remaining capitals, but that growth is clearly losing momentum as higher interest rates, stretched affordability and tax policy changes weigh on demand.

<div class="keyfacts">
<div><b>0.9%</b><span>Brisbane dwelling values, month of May</span></div>
<div><b>0.0%</b><span>national Home Value Index, same month</span></div>
<div><b>$1,126,149</b><span>Brisbane median dwelling value</span></div>
</div>
<p class="src">Cotality Home Value Index, results to 31 May 2026, published 1 June 2026. All dwellings.</p>

## Where Queensland sits among the capitals

Brisbane's monthly rise was the third strongest of the eight capitals, level with Hobart and behind Perth and Darwin, which both gained 1.5 per cent. Over the three months to May, Brisbane values rose 3.4 per cent, against 0.6 per cent nationally and no change at all across the combined capitals.

Cotality puts the median dwelling value in Greater Brisbane at $1,126,149. Only Sydney, at $1,282,020, is higher among the capitals, which leaves a gap of $155,871 between the two cities. Melbourne's median, at $812,621, is now $313,528 below Brisbane's, and Perth's sits $75,795 below it.

<figure class="fig"><figcaption><b>Brisbane and regional Queensland against the rest</b><span>Cotality Home Value Index, all dwellings, May 2026</span></figcaption>
<div class="scroll"><table class="tbl">
<thead><tr><th>Market</th><th>Month</th><th>Year</th><th>Median value</th></tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>Brisbane</td><td class="yes">+0.9%</td><td>+19.1%</td><td>$1,126,149</td></tr>
<tr><td>Regional Queensland</td><td class="yes">+0.7%</td><td>+14.7%</td><td>$856,168</td></tr>
<tr><td>Perth</td><td class="yes">+1.5%</td><td>+25.8%</td><td>$1,050,354</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adelaide</td><td class="yes">+0.5%</td><td>+12.3%</td><td>$950,703</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sydney</td><td>-0.9%</td><td>+2.3%</td><td>$1,282,020</td></tr>
<tr><td>Melbourne</td><td>-0.8%</td><td>+0.5%</td><td>$812,621</td></tr>
<tr><td>Australia</td><td>0.0%</td><td>+8.8%</td><td>$941,864</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table></div>
<p class="src">Source: Cotality Home Value Index, published 1 June 2026. Change in the index over the month and over twelve months to 31 May 2026.</p></figure>

The longer columns of the release show how far Queensland has travelled. Cotality's tables put Brisbane dwelling values 80.6 per cent higher than five years ago and 120.2 per cent higher than ten years ago. Regional Queensland is up 70.2 per cent over five years and 117.7 per cent over ten.

Brisbane is also one of four capitals that Cotality lists as sitting at a record high at the end of May, with Adelaide, Perth and Darwin. Sydney is 2.1 per cent below the peak it reached in November 2025, and Melbourne is 3.2 per cent below a peak that dates back to March 2022.

## Houses, units and rents inside Brisbane

Inside Brisbane, units are moving faster than houses. Cotality's May tables show unit values up 1.3 per cent over the month, 4.1 per cent over three months and 21.8 per cent over the year, to a median of $884,881. House values rose 0.8 per cent in May, 3.3 per cent over three months and 18.6 per cent over the year, to a median of $1,232,690.

The difference between the two medians is $347,809, which goes some way to explaining why buyers with a fixed budget keep turning to units. A unit at the Brisbane median now costs more than a dwelling at the Melbourne median.

For landlords and tenants, the same tables give the rental side. Cotality puts the gross rental yield in Brisbane at 3.3 per cent across all dwellings, made up of 3.1 per cent for houses and 3.9 per cent for units. Regional Queensland yields more, at 4.1 per cent. A gross yield is the annual rent as a share of the home's value, before any costs, so it falls when values rise faster than rents, which is what has happened in Brisbane over the past year.

Nationally, Cotality says rents rose 0.6 per cent in May and 5.9 per cent over twelve months, and that the national vacancy rate fell to 1.5 per cent. Tight rental conditions are one of the supports the report identifies under values in the cities that are still rising.

## Regional Queensland and the fastest areas

Regional Queensland rose 0.7 per cent in May, 3.0 per cent over three months and 14.7 per cent over the year. Across the country, the combined regional index rose 0.6 per cent, which Cotality describes as its smallest monthly rise in a year. Regional Western Australia led the regional markets at 1.9 per cent and regional New South Wales was the weakest at 0.2 per cent, with regional Queensland between the two.

The state average hides wide differences. Cotality's regional tables rank the areas of each state by annual growth, and the Queensland list is led by farming and resources country west of the Great Dividing Range, not by the coast.

<figure class="fig"><figcaption><b>Inland Queensland is outpacing the capital</b><span>Change in dwelling values over twelve months to May 2026, per cent</span></figcaption>
<div class="scroll"><svg viewBox="0 0 680 288" role="img" aria-label="Bar chart: over twelve months to May 2026, dwelling values rose 25.1 per cent in Darling Downs East, 24.7 per cent in Beaudesert, 22.4 per cent in Central Highlands, 21.1 per cent in Toowoomba, 19.1 per cent in Greater Brisbane and 14.7 per cent in regional Queensland as a whole.">
<text class="lb" x="176" y="33" text-anchor="end">Darling Downs East</text><rect class="bar" x="190" y="14" width="100" height="28" rx="4"/><text class="lb" x="300" y="33">25.1%</text>
<text class="lb" x="176" y="79" text-anchor="end">Beaudesert</text><rect class="bar" x="190" y="60" width="99" height="28" rx="4"/><text class="lb" x="299" y="79">24.7%</text>
<text class="lb" x="176" y="125" text-anchor="end">Central Highlands</text><rect class="bar" x="190" y="106" width="90" height="28" rx="4"/><text class="lb" x="290" y="125">22.4%</text>
<text class="lb" x="176" y="171" text-anchor="end">Toowoomba</text><rect class="bar" x="190" y="152" width="84" height="28" rx="4"/><text class="lb" x="284" y="171">21.1%</text>
<text class="lb" x="176" y="217" text-anchor="end">Greater Brisbane</text><rect class="bar" x="190" y="198" width="76" height="28" rx="4"/><text class="lb" x="276" y="217">19.1%</text>
<text class="lb" x="176" y="263" text-anchor="end">Regional Queensland</text><rect class="bar" x="190" y="244" width="59" height="28" rx="4"/><text class="lb" x="259" y="263">14.7%</text>
</svg></div>
<p class="src">Source: Cotality Home Value Index, published 1 June 2026. Selected areas from Cotality's regional tables, with the two Queensland totals for comparison.</p></figure>

The medians behind those growth rates are far apart. Cotality gives $601,999 for Darling Downs East and $401,780 for Central Highlands, against $859,966 for Toowoomba, which is now level with the regional Queensland median of $856,168. Further down the regional list, Maryborough is up 19.8 per cent to $668,521, and the Burnett, Biloela, the Granite Belt and Bundaberg all show annual growth of between 17.8 and 18.9 per cent.

Within Greater Brisbane, the strongest annual growth is on the southern side. After Beaudesert, where the median is $953,840, Cotality lists Loganlea and Carbrook, up 24.1 per cent to $1,021,565, and Springwood and Kingston, up 23.5 per cent to $998,510. The western Centenary suburbs are the exception to the pattern of cheaper areas leading: values there are up 23.8 per cent, to a median of $1,414,515.

## Why the national index stalled

The two largest cities explain the flat national result. Cotality reports that home sales over the latest three months were 17.0 per cent lower than a year earlier in Sydney and 14.2 per cent lower in Melbourne, while advertised stock in both cities has risen above average levels. Nationally, sales were 2.2 per cent lower than a year earlier and 4.1 per cent below the five-year average. The combined capitals index slipped 0.1 per cent in May.

Auctions tell a similar story. Cotality says capital city clearance rates weakened to about 50 per cent in the second half of May. Queensland was not immune: ABC News reported on 26 May that Brisbane's clearance rate for the previous week was 45.7 per cent, the lowest since April 2023. Prices in Brisbane are still rising, but fewer homes are selling under the hammer than a few months ago.

Two policy changes sit behind the shift. The first is interest rates. The Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate by 25 basis points on 5 May, to 4.35 per cent, in a decision carried by eight votes to one. It was the third rise of 2026. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on 27 May that annual inflation was 4.2 per cent in April, with the trimmed mean measure at 3.4 per cent, both above the Reserve Bank's 2 to 3 per cent target.

The second is tax. The federal Budget proposed limiting negative gearing to newly built homes from 1 July 2027 and replacing the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount with a different method. Cotality expects the changes to bring a material pullback in investor demand, from levels it describes as near record highs. ABC News reported that Treasury's own estimate is that the measures would slow home price growth by 2 per cent over two years.

Cotality's outlook is for a drift towards lower values nationally, not a sharp correction, with results that stay uneven between regions and price points. That is an assessment by the index provider, not a measurement.

## How to read a first estimate

A monthly index movement is a reading of the whole housing stock, estimated from the homes that sold. Cotality's method uses the attributes of each property, such as bedrooms, bathrooms, land area and location, to separate real changes in value from changes in the mix of homes that happened to sell. It is not the change in any one suburb or any one home.

The first figure for a month is also provisional, because sales keep being recorded after the month ends. The May release shows what that can mean. A month ago Cotality's first estimate for Brisbane in April was a rise of 1.2 per cent. In the 1 June tables, April is now shown at 1.0 per cent. Perth's April figure moved much further, from 2.1 per cent to 1.1 per cent, and the national figure went from 0.3 per cent to 0.1 per cent.

The 0.9 per cent for May should be read in the same way. It is a first estimate that sits a little below April's revised figure, in a series where the latest revisions have been downward.

Other providers measure the same month differently. PropTrack's Home Price Index, also released on 1 June, has national prices flat in May after a small fall in April, and describes Brisbane as recording a modest rise, its slowest pace in more than three years. Both indexes agree on the direction for Queensland's capital: still up, and slowing.

The Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Board next meets on 15 and 16 June. Cotality's June index, which will be the first to cover a full month since the May rate rise, is due on 1 July.