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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 median Brisbane home now takes 28 days to sell, up from 19 days a year ago, according to Cotality figures for August reported by API Magazine on 4 September and by Real Estate Business on 8 September 2026. In July the same measure stood at 23 days, Real Estate Business reported last month, so selling times have lengthened by five days in a single month and nine days in a year.
The same data show a split inside the market. Houses and units each fell 1.0 per cent in August, but over three months and twelve months units have held up better.
Cotality figures as reported by API Magazine (4 September 2026) and Real Estate Business (August and September 2026 updates).
Houses and units, side by side
Cotality's index for August, published on 1 September, values the median Brisbane dwelling at $1,080,142. The breakdown by home type is where the month's detail lies.
| Home type | Three months | Twelve months | Median value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Houses | -2.9% | +10.3% | $1,180,552 |
| Units | -2.0% | +13.2% | $854,721 |
| All dwellings | -2.7% | +10.8% | $1,080,142 |
Cotality Home Value Index, August 2026, as reported by API Magazine (4 September 2026) and Real Estate Business (8 September 2026). All three categories fell 1.0% in the month.
The median Brisbane unit is valued $325,831 below the median house, or at about 72 per cent of the house figure. That gap is the simplest explanation for the difference in performance. With the cash rate at 4.35 per cent, a buyer whose borrowing limit has been reduced by this year's rate rises can still reach a unit when a house in the same suburb has moved out of range.
The July figures show how quickly the house segment has turned. A month ago, Real Estate Business reported, the three-month change for houses was minus 0.9 per cent, and units at that point were still slightly up over three months, by 0.4 per cent. In August both are negative over the quarter, with houses falling almost half as fast again as units.
Related readBrisbane records the sharpest monthly fall of any capital in SeptemberThe annual figures are cooling at a similar pace for both. API Magazine's report notes that annual growth in house values slowed from 14.3 per cent in July to 10.3 per cent in August, and in unit values from 17.1 per cent to 13.2 per cent. For all dwellings the annual rate went from 14.8 per cent to 10.8 per cent in one month, and values sit 2.7 per cent below the peak they reached in May. They are still 2.8 per cent higher than at the start of the year.
The cheaper end is holding up
The split between houses and units is one view of a broader pattern, which is that the less expensive part of the market is steadier than the dearer part. API Magazine's report gives Cotality's figures by price band for the three months to July. Values in the lowest quarter of the Brisbane market rose 0.5 per cent over that period, the middle of the market fell 0.6 per cent and the top quarter fell 1.2 per cent.
Location matters as well. The same report describes pockets of inner Brisbane where values rose more than 6 per cent over the quarter, beside middle-ring areas with declines of between 3 and 6 per cent. A city-wide median hides that spread, and it is one reason two vendors in the same month can have very different campaigns.
Against the other capitals, Brisbane's quarter looks moderate. Over the three months to August, API Magazine reports, values fell 4.7 per cent in Sydney, 3.9 per cent in Melbourne, 3.2 per cent in Perth and 2.8 per cent in Canberra, against 2.7 per cent in Brisbane. Over twelve months only Perth, at 15.6 per cent, and Darwin, at 14.6 per cent, are ahead of Brisbane's 10.8 per cent.
Related readBrisbane's median now sits $147,302 below Sydney's, REIQ points outWhy nine extra days matter
Days on market is the time between a home being listed and going under contract, taken at the median. It is one of the earliest signs of a change in the balance between buyers and sellers, because it moves before prices do. A vendor's first response to a thin crowd at an open home is usually to wait, and only later to adjust the price.
At 19 days, the figure of a year ago, a typical Brisbane campaign was over inside three weeks. At 28 days it runs to four. For a seller that is one more week of holding costs and uncertainty. For an agent it is a longer campaign to manage and more feedback to pass on. For a buyer it is time to arrange a building inspection and compare alternatives without the fear of losing the home in the first weekend.
The earlier pace was fast by any standard. The Real Estate Institute of Queensland, which measures selling time from its own sales records, put the statewide median at 21 days for houses and 18 days for units in the March quarter of 2026, and at 15 days for units in the Brisbane council area. The institute's figures and Cotality's are built differently and are not directly comparable, but both describe campaigns that were finishing in about three weeks until autumn.
Twenty-eight days is slower, not slow
A median of 28 days still means half of the Brisbane homes that sold did so in four weeks or less. The change from a year ago is real, but it describes a market returning to ordinary campaign lengths, not one in which homes cannot be sold.
The institute's own description of the change is a gentle one. Presenting its June quarter figures on 31 August, it said agents were reporting a return to traditional real estate, with the buying frenzy of earlier years well behind them.
Related readBrisbane values fall 2.7 per cent in three months as annual growth slowsSupply and sales around the figure
Other measures in the same reports point the same way. Total listings in Brisbane rose 18 per cent between June and July, the largest increase of any capital, and over the three months to July were 39.5 per cent higher than a year earlier, according to the Real Estate Business update. Cotality estimates that sales volumes in Brisbane are more than 20 per cent below their level of a year ago, and that national sales are down 15.5 per cent.
Those figures together explain the longer selling time better than any one does alone. There are more homes for sale and fewer transactions, so each home waits longer for its buyer.
SQM Research's listings report for August, released on 1 September, adds the newest reading. It counted 20,374 homes for sale in Brisbane, 26.5 per cent more than a year earlier. New listings fell 7.6 per cent in the month, while listings older than 180 days rose 13.8 per cent. Fewer owners are starting campaigns, and the homes already advertised are staying longer, which is the same story as the days-on-market figure told from the other side.
New building is not about to change the balance. API Magazine's report notes that dwelling commencements in Queensland rose 20.0 per cent over twelve months while completions fell 2.1 per cent. Homes started this year will take time to reach the market.
Rents are still tight
The rental side of the market has not loosened in the same way. SQM Research put Greater Brisbane's vacancy rate at 0.9 per cent in July, the Real Estate Business update notes, and Cotality's figures show house rents 6.7 per cent higher over the year and unit rents 5.6 per cent higher, the latter down from 6.2 per cent a month earlier.
Gross rental yields stand at 3.3 per cent for houses and 4.1 per cent for units, each a tenth of a point higher than in July. That matters for prices because rising rents and falling values push yields up, which over time changes the sums for investors. It is also part of the case for units: a higher yield on a lower purchase price.
Investor sentiment is nonetheless subdued. API Magazine's own Property Sentiment Report for the second quarter of 2026 found 24 per cent of respondents positive about the market and 48 per cent negative. Queensland was named as the best investment prospect for the next twelve months by 35 per cent of them according to the magazine, though only 17 per cent had bought there in the previous three months. The report gives higher interest rates, the tax changes in the May federal budget and uncertainty about government policy among the reasons for buyers' caution.
Taken together, the August figures describe a Brisbane market that is adjusting in an orderly way. Values are lower than three months ago for every type of home, campaigns are longer, and the cheaper half of the market is proving steadier than the dearer half. Each of those is a normal feature of a market slowing under higher interest rates, and none of them amounts to a forecast of what spring will bring.
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.
