Seventeen weeks under 40 per cent for Brisbane's auction market

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Kooky

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The improvement did not last a second week. Cotality's final auction results for the week ending 20 September, published on Wednesday 23 September, put Brisbane's clearance rate at 31.4 per cent, down 7.1 percentage points from the 38.5 per cent of the week before. The firm counts it as the 17th consecutive week in which Brisbane's final rate has been below 40 per cent, and the lowest result of any capital that week.

There were more homes on offer than at any point this spring. Brisbane held 176 auctions, up 4.1 per cent from 169. In the same week of 2025, Cotality says, the city's clearance rate was 61.9 per cent, a gap of 30.5 points.

The run of 17 weeks reaches back to late May. In its release of 17 September, Cotality dated the start of the weakness to that month, when Brisbane's rate first fell under 40 per cent, and described the city's results since then as subdued. The week ending 13 September, at 38.5 per cent, was the nearest the city has come to 40 per cent since mid-June.

Five weeks of final results

Final rates are the fairest way to follow a market from week to week, because they include the late results that the Monday figures miss. Set side by side, Brisbane's last five tell a consistent story: one better week in mid-September, and otherwise a rate close to 30 per cent.

The number of auctions behind those five points has grown as the season has turned. Cotality's finalised tables show 151 Brisbane auctions in the week ending 23 August, 146 a week later, 131 in the first week of spring, then 169 and now 176. The two largest weeks produced the best and the third-best rate of the five, so a longer list has not, on its own, meant a lower share of sales.

The preliminary figure for the latest week, published on Monday 21 September, was 37.5 per cent, from 45 sales among 120 collected results. Cotality noted then that it closely matched Brisbane's winter average of 37.2 per cent for early readings. The final rate, with all 176 auctions accounted for, came in 6.1 points lower. That is a larger step down than in the previous week, when the first count of 41.6 per cent finalised 3.1 points lower, and it means the results reported after Monday contained few sales.

A clearance rate counts homes, not prices. Under Cotality's published method, a property is counted as sold if it is known to have sold before, at or after the auction, and passed-in and withdrawn homes are both counted as unsold. A week at 31.4 per cent therefore says that roughly two in three Brisbane campaigns did not produce a sale by the time the final table was compiled. It does not say what the homes that sold fetched, or how many of the others have since found a buyer by negotiation.

The Gold Coast finishes level with Brisbane

On the Gold Coast, the week's final rate was 31.3 per cent, with 15 sales from 48 auctions. That is almost the same as Brisbane's and a little below the 32.0 per cent the region recorded a week earlier, when 16 of 50 auctions sold.

The Gold Coast's first count had looked stronger. Cotality's summary of 21 September showed 11 sales among 27 collected results, a preliminary rate of 40.7 per cent. The 21 results that followed added four sales. It is the second week in a row in which the region's final rate has landed several points under its first reading: the week before, 36.4 per cent became 32.0 per cent.

On the Sunshine Coast, Cotality's final table gives a clearance rate of 31.8 per cent. The first count, on 17 collected results, had been 58.8 per cent, which shows again how little weight an early figure for a small market can bear. The region finalised at 32.0 per cent a week earlier and 37.5 per cent the week before that.

For the week ending 20 September, then, all three south-east Queensland auction markets finished within half a point of one another, at a little under one sale in three.

A year-on-year gap in every capital

Brisbane was not alone in giving ground. The combined capitals clearance rate finalised at 49.1 per cent, down 3.5 points from 52.6 per cent, and Cotality says 15 of the past 17 weeks have now finished below 50 per cent. A year earlier the combined rate was 71.6 per cent.

Adelaide's fall over the year is the largest in the table, and Brisbane's is the second largest. Brisbane also started from the lowest point of the five: its rate a year ago was about ten points under the combined capitals figure, and it is now almost 18 points under.

Volumes rose at the same time. The 1,841 capital city auctions were the most since late June, Cotality says, and 16.2 per cent more than the week before, though still 30.2 per cent below the 2,638 held in the same week last year. Melbourne held 918 of them, a rise of 29.3 per cent on the week, and has now finished above 50 per cent for 11 weeks in a row. Sydney held 569 and its rate fell 6.6 points. Adelaide's 112 auctions were 41.8 per cent more than a week earlier. Canberra's 53.6 per cent, from 56 auctions, was up 10.5 points and its highest since early May; Canberra and Perth were the only capitals to improve on the week.

Pass-ins and the cash rate

Of the 1,841 auctions, Cotality counted 652 passed in, or 35.4 per cent, and 285 withdrawn, or 15.5 per cent. Pass-ins made up 69.6 per cent of the unsuccessful outcomes, which the firm says may indicate that buyers and vendors are apart on price.

The share has been climbing. In the week ending 30 August, Cotality's finalised release put pass-ins at 30.6 per cent of all capital city auctions and withdrawals at 19.9 per cent. In the week ending 6 September the counts were 480 passed in and 245 withdrawn among 1,431 auctions, or about 34 per cent and 17 per cent. Across those three readings, the proportion of auctions that go ahead and stop short of the reserve has risen by almost five points, while the proportion pulled before the day has fallen by more than four.

Cotality publishes that breakdown for the combined capitals only, so it is not possible to say how Brisbane's 176 auctions divided. What the national figures describe is a market in which sellers are testing their price in public more often than they are stepping back.

The firm also points to borrowing capacity. The Reserve Bank has raised the cash rate three times this year, to 4.35 per cent, and Cotality says that has reduced how much buyers can borrow. The Bank's published schedule has its Monetary Policy Board meeting next on 28 and 29 September. The outcome of that meeting is not known at the time of writing, and Cotality's release does not anticipate it.

A lighter fortnight before the long weekend

Fewer Brisbane homes are booked for the week ending 27 September. Cotality's preview lists 144 auctions in the city, 18.2 per cent fewer than the 176 just held and 2.7 per cent fewer than the 148 held a year ago.

Nationally, 1,537 auctions are scheduled, down 16.5 per cent on the week and 11.4 per cent below the 1,735 of a year ago. Most of the weekly fall is Melbourne, which drops from 918 auctions to 275 for the AFL Grand Final long weekend. Sydney moves the other way, with 904 auctions scheduled, 58.9 per cent more than last week and close to six in ten of the national total. Adelaide has 106 booked, Canberra 86 and Perth 20.

The week after is expected to be quieter again. Cotality anticipates fewer than 1,300 capital city auctions as the King's Birthday holiday in Queensland and Labour Day in New South Wales, the ACT and South Australia fall on Monday 5 October, with activity expected to pick up after that. For Brisbane sellers and their agents, that leaves one ordinary weekend before the calendar interrupts the spring campaign. The first count for it is due on Monday 28 September.

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.

About Kooky and Shaka →