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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 Brisbane homes advertised for sale rose 18.5 per cent in a single month to 16,973 in May, according to the monthly listings release that SQM Research published on 2 June 2026. Over the same month the firm's measure of combined asking prices in Brisbane fell 1.0 per cent.
For anyone preparing to sell in south-east Queensland this winter, the release puts a count on two changes at once: more owners are coming to market, and the homes already on the market are staying there a little longer. The figures do not say that Brisbane is oversupplied. They do say that a seller listing in June faces more competition than one who listed in April.
SQM Research, Total Property Listings for May 2026, released 2 June 2026.
What the May count shows
SQM Research counts residential properties advertised for sale each month and splits them by how long they have been on the market. Nationally, the firm counted 258,803 listings in May, 10.4 per cent more than in April and 0.8 per cent more than in May 2025. The release describes that as the first time in more than a year that the national total has been above its level of twelve months earlier.
Brisbane's rise was well above the national one. The city's 16,973 listings were 18.5 per cent higher than April's total, which puts April at roughly 14,300 homes and the monthly increase at about 2,650. Among the capitals only Darwin, at 19.5 per cent, recorded a larger monthly rise in the release.
The annual comparison is calmer. Brisbane's May total was still 1.1 per cent below the figure for May 2025. In other words the city has gone, in one month, from clearly fewer homes for sale than a year ago to almost the same number. Perth shows a similar pattern with a wider gap: 15,230 listings, up 16.0 per cent in the month and still 9.8 per cent lower than a year earlier. Sydney and Melbourne are in a different position, with totals 11.6 per cent and 12.1 per cent above their May 2025 levels.
Related readNearly every Brisbane resale made a profit in the March quarterSQM Research, Total Property Listings for May 2026. Canberra rose 12.1% and Hobart 1.0% and are not shown.
New stock and older stock both grew
A rising total can come from two places: owners putting fresh homes on the market, or existing listings failing to sell. The SQM release separates the two, and in May both moved the same way in Brisbane.
New listings, which SQM defines as properties advertised for less than 30 days, rose 12.4 per cent in Brisbane over the month. Nationally there were 77,270 of them, 5.0 per cent more than in April and 12.0 per cent more than a year earlier. Sydney, at 18.6 per cent, and Melbourne, at 14.3 per cent, had the largest monthly increases among the big capitals, while Perth rose 7.4 per cent and Adelaide 4.8 per cent.
Old listings are the other end of the shelf: properties that have been advertised for more than 180 days. They rose 8.1 per cent in Brisbane in May. The national count was 73,820, up 10.5 per cent in the month but still 10.8 per cent lower than in May 2025.
| Measure | What it counts | Brisbane | National |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total listings | Every home advertised for sale | +18.5% | +10.4% |
| New listings | Advertised for under 30 days | +12.4% | +5.0% |
| Old listings | Advertised for over 180 days | +8.1% | +10.5% |
| Asking prices | Combined houses and units | -1.0% | +0.1% |
SQM Research, Total Property Listings for May 2026, released 2 June 2026.
The table carries one point worth drawing out. Brisbane's total grew faster than either its new or its old listings. The difference is made up by the middle of the shelf, the homes that have been advertised for between one and six months, which SQM does not report separately. A total that outruns the flow of new stock is the arithmetic signature of homes taking longer to find a buyer.
Asking prices slip as supply returns
SQM also tracks what vendors are asking, which is a different thing from what buyers pay. Its national measure of combined asking prices was almost unchanged in May, up 0.1 per cent, with houses flat and units up 0.7 per cent.
Related readBrisbane sellers concede 4.2 per cent off asking, Cotality chart pack showsBehind that flat line, the release shows the five largest capitals all moving down over the month: Adelaide by 1.7 per cent, Melbourne by 1.1 per cent, Brisbane by 1.0 per cent, Perth by 0.8 per cent and Sydney by 0.3 per cent. Only Hobart, up 2.1 per cent, Canberra, up 1.4 per cent, and Darwin, up 0.3 per cent, rose.
SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher read the two movements together. "May's data points to a market that is losing momentum," he said in the release. He added that supply returning quickly while prices stall is usually an early sign of a turning point, and he attached a caution to his own reading: April had recorded a seasonally low level of listings, so part of May's jump is a rebound from a quiet month.
An asking price is set by the seller and the agent, so a fall in the average can mean two things at once. Some owners already on the market have reduced their figure. Others, listing for the first time, have chosen a more modest starting point than they would have a few months ago. The release does not separate the two.
Distressed listings rise from a low base
The release has a fourth count that sellers rarely see reported: distressed listings, SQM's term for properties being sold under pressure. Nationally there were 3,847 in May, 5.1 per cent more than in April but 16.2 per cent fewer than a year earlier.
Queensland was one of three states that led the monthly increase, with distressed listings up 8.9 per cent. Western Australia rose 9.1 per cent and South Australia 9.0 per cent, against 3.2 per cent in New South Wales and 0.4 per cent in Victoria. Mr Christopher pointed out in the release that the annual comparison still shows a fall and that it is the monthly direction he is watching. The release gives no state counts, only the percentage changes, so the Queensland figure describes a rise from a base whose size is not published in it.
Related readBrisbane's for-sale stock is 70 per cent above this year's lowFor a typical seller these listings matter less for their number than for their behaviour. A vendor who must sell tends to price to meet the market quickly, and in a suburb with only a handful of comparable homes for sale, one such listing can set the reference point for buyers.
An asking price is not a sale price
SQM's price measure records what vendors advertise, not what contracts are signed at. It moves earlier than sales-based indexes because a seller can change an advertised figure in a day, but it says nothing on its own about the final result of any sale.
What a seller can take from it
The practical reading for a Queensland vendor is about competition, not alarm. A buyer looking in a given Brisbane suburb at the start of June has more homes to compare than the same buyer had in April, and SQM's own annual figure shows the choice is close to what it was in May last year. That is a return toward ordinary conditions after a long stretch in which stock was unusually thin.
Three things follow in general terms. First, the comparison set matters more: the homes a buyer will inspect on the same weekend are the real competition, and there are now more of them. Second, the first weeks of a campaign carry more weight when the count of older listings is growing, because a home that drifts past its first month joins a larger group of stock that buyers have already seen. Third, the advertised price is doing more work. In Queensland, an agent who suggests a price for a home has to support it with a comparative market analysis of at least three similar properties sold within five kilometres in the past six months, or a written explanation where none exist, according to the Queensland Government's guidance for sellers. In a market where asking prices are easing month to month, the age of those comparable sales is worth a seller's attention.
None of this is a forecast. The release measures one month, and each owner's position depends on the home, the suburb and the reason for selling.
The seasonal caveat and what comes next
April is a seasonally quiet month for listings, as Mr Christopher notes, and winter usually brings fewer new listings, not more. That is why the next release carries more information than this one. If June's count falls back, May will look like a seasonal rebound. If Brisbane's total keeps rising into winter, the signal is stronger.
Mr Christopher put the test in his own terms, saying the next few months would confirm whether May was the inflection point. SQM Research publishes its listings figures at the start of each month, so the June count is due in early July. Sellers who want an earlier reading can watch the weekly asking price series the firm also maintains, with the same caution: it records what is advertised, not what is paid.
A total that grows faster than the flow of new listings means the homes already for sale are waiting longer for their buyer.
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.
