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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →The number of homes advertised for sale in Brisbane rose 18.0 per cent in July to 20,273, according to SQM Research's monthly listings report released on 4 August 2026. July is normally one of the quietest months of the year for new campaigns, and SQM calls the result unseasonal.
Nationally, SQM counted 278,984 residential listings in July, up 12.4 per cent on June and 22.8 per cent higher than in July 2025, which the firm describes as the strongest annual increase in available stock in more than a year. Brisbane's monthly rise was well ahead of that national pace.
More stock, but not many more sellers
The detail of the report matters more than the headline. SQM separates new listings from the total, and in Brisbane the two moved very differently in July.
SQM Research, Total Property Listings, July 2026, released 4 August 2026. Monthly change in the number of residential properties advertised online.
An 18.0 per cent rise to 20,273 implies that Brisbane had about 17,180 listings in June, so roughly 3,090 more homes were on the market in July than a month before. New listings, which SQM defines as homes advertised for less than 30 days, grew by only 4.8 per cent. The difference is made up of homes that were already advertised and did not sell.
SQM's count of old listings, its term for homes that have been advertised for more than 180 days, points the same way. That group rose 6.0 per cent in Brisbane over the month and 8.1 per cent nationally, to 78,098 homes. Across Australia, that is 28 per cent of everything advertised, slightly more than the 72,806 new listings, which make up 26 per cent.
Related readBrisbane growth slows to 0.3% in June as Cotality revises May downThe picture, then, is not a rush of Queensland owners deciding to sell. It is a slower rate of sale, which leaves each month's unsold homes to be counted again the next month. SQM's own commentary reads the national figures the same way: rises in both new and older stock at once suggest homes are selling more slowly, which the firm calls typical of a housing downturn.
How Brisbane compares with the other capitals
Brisbane's monthly rise was the largest of any capital city in the report. MPA's account of the SQM figures, published on 6 August, sets out the count for each city.
| City | Listings | Change on June | Change on July 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne | 50,867 | +15.5% | +42.8% |
| Sydney | 39,400 | +6.6% | +28.0% |
| Brisbane | 20,273 | +18.0% | +29.5% |
| Perth | 15,218 | +5.5% | +10.0% |
| Adelaide | 10,399 | +16.0% | +30.1% |
SQM Research, Total Property Listings, July 2026, with city counts and annual changes as reported by MPA on 6 August 2026.
Melbourne has by far the most stock and the largest annual increase. What sets it apart from Brisbane is where the extra homes came from: Melbourne's new listings rose 15.5 per cent in July, the same pace as its total, so sellers there are still coming forward. Sydney's new listings rose 0.6 per cent and Perth's fell 2.6 per cent.
The older stock tells the rest. Homes advertised for more than 180 days rose 11.4 per cent in Melbourne and 6.6 per cent in Sydney over the month, close to Brisbane's 6.0 per cent, and 7.4 per cent in Adelaide. Perth's barely changed, up 0.6 per cent, which fits a city where new listings fell.
Brisbane sits between the two patterns. It has some new sellers, more than Sydney or Perth, and a much larger carry-over of unsold homes. With 20,273 listings, the city accounts for about 7 per cent of all the homes advertised in Australia. Among the smaller capitals, Canberra's listings rose 10.3 per cent to 5,066 and Darwin's 15.6 per cent to 1,082, while Hobart, at 2,515, was the only capital with fewer homes for sale than a year earlier.
Related readBrisbane records the sharpest monthly fall of any capital in SeptemberHow SQM counts a listing
Listing figures differ between research houses, so the definition is worth stating. SQM defines stock on market as the total number of residential properties, including land, advertised online during the month, counting properties that were advertised and then withdrawn. It removes duplicates where the same home appears on more than one website, and it leaves out advertisements with no address.
Because the count covers the whole month, a home that sold on 3 July and one that sat unsold for all 31 days are each counted once. A rising total can therefore reflect either more sellers or slower sales. In Brisbane's July figures it is mostly the second.
Two firms, two ways of counting homes for sale
SQM counts every home advertised at any point in the month. Cotality reports listings over a rolling four weeks and compares them with a five-year average. The levels differ, so each series is best compared with its own history.
Cotality's figures, published a day before SQM's, agree on the direction. Over the four weeks to 26 July, the firm said, advertised stock in the combined capitals was 5.7 per cent above its five-year average, while the national count was 1.1 per cent below. Its research team told the ABC on 3 August that Brisbane's supply had gone from 25 per cent below the five-year average in February to 6 per cent above it.
API Magazine's summary of Cotality's Brisbane data, published on 6 August, adds the time dimension. Total advertised listings in Brisbane were 23.2 per cent higher than a year earlier, new listings only 0.8 per cent higher, and the median time on the market had lengthened to 23 days, three days longer than a month before.
Distress remains a small part of the story
SQM also tracks distressed listings, where the advertisement signals a forced or urgent sale. Queensland's distressed listings rose 4.0 per cent in July. Nationally the count was 4,330 properties, up 1.6 per cent over the month and 0.9 per cent over the year, which SQM notes is the first annual increase in distressed stock in some time.
Related readBrisbane's median now sits $147,302 below Sydney's, REIQ points outSet against 278,984 listings nationally, distressed stock is about 1.6 per cent of everything advertised. The larger monthly rises were elsewhere: South Australia's distressed listings rose 11.8 per cent in the month, while those in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania fell. In Queensland, the rise in supply is coming from ordinary sellers whose homes are taking longer to find a buyer.
The Australian Capital Territory had the largest annual rise in distressed listings, at 70 per cent, and South Australia's were 31.4 per cent higher than a year earlier, MPA's account of the report shows.
SQM points to a second sign of sellers adapting. Auction listings, the firm says, are down by about 20 per cent on the same period last year even as total listings have climbed, and vendors are increasingly choosing to sell by private treaty. A private treaty campaign has no fixed end date, which is one reason it can stay in the monthly count for longer.
Why it matters for prices
The listings report arrived one day after the Cotality Home Value Index showed Brisbane dwelling values down 0.6 per cent in July, with houses down 0.6 per cent and units down 0.4 per cent. The two releases fit together. When stock builds faster than sales, buyers have more homes to compare and less reason to hurry, and vendors who need a result begin to adjust their expectations.
SQM's asking price series shows that adjustment starting. Nationally, asking prices for houses fell 1.5 per cent in July and for units 0.2 per cent, the report says, a combined fall of 1.2 per cent that still leaves asking prices 6.2 per cent higher than a year earlier. Brisbane's combined asking prices fell 1.1 per cent over the month.
An asking price is what a vendor hopes for, not what a buyer pays, and it tends to move after the market does. A fall of around 1 per cent in a month means a meaningful number of Brisbane sellers lowered their advertised figure, or new campaigns opened below where older ones had been pitched.
What comes next
SQM's own view is that the spring selling season should add further to listings and is likely to put more downward pressure on prices, while softer asking prices and wider choice should strengthen the position of buyers. That is the firm's expectation, stated in its release, not a recorded result.
The calendar offers two tests before spring. The Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Board meets on 10 and 11 August, with the cash rate at 4.35 per cent after three increases this year. SQM publishes its count every month, and the August report will show whether the carry-over of unsold stock grew again.
None of this settles where Brisbane values go next. Listing counts are seasonal, and spring normally brings a wave of new campaigns regardless of conditions. What July adds to the record is a clear statement of the starting point: Brisbane enters the selling season with about 3,090 more homes on the market than it had in June, and most of them have been there for a while.
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.
