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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Brisbane dwelling values fell 1.0 per cent in August and 2.7 per cent over the three months to the end of the month, according to the Cotality Home Value Index released on 1 September 2026. The city's median dwelling value now stands at $1,080,142.
The fall follows a decline of 0.6 per cent in July, and it is a larger one. Regional Queensland fell 0.5 per cent in August and 1.3 per cent over the quarter, to a median of $844,803.
The annual figure is coming down fast
Brisbane values are still 10.8 per cent higher than they were in August 2025. That sounds comfortable, but the annual rate has been falling by several points a month.
Cotality Home Value Index, monthly results for May to August 2026, each as first published.
The annual rate has dropped 8.3 percentage points in three months, from 19.1 per cent in May. Part of that is arithmetic: each month, a strong month from 2025 drops out of the twelve-month window and a weak one from 2026 comes in. An annual figure that is still positive can therefore sit alongside prices that are falling now.
Cotality's tables date the turn. Brisbane values peaked in May, the release shows, and the 2.7 per cent fall over the three months to August is also the city's whole decline from that peak. In dollars, the published median is $23,952 lower than July's $1,104,094 and $38,164 lower than the $1,118,306 published for June.
The speed is what stands out. Brisbane's three-month change was a rise of 1.3 per cent in Cotality's June release and a fall of 0.6 per cent in its July release. One month later it is a fall of 2.7 per cent.
Related readDomain forecasts Brisbane house price growth of 3% to 7% next yearHouses, units and the regions
The August figures remove a distinction that held through the winter. In July, Brisbane units were falling more slowly than houses. In August both fell by the same amount.
| Market | Month | Three months | Twelve months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brisbane houses | -1.0% | -2.9% | +10.3% |
| Brisbane units | -1.0% | -2.0% | +13.2% |
| Regional Queensland | -0.5% | -1.3% | +9.1% |
| Combined capitals | -1.1% | -3.7% | +1.1% |
| Combined regional | -0.4% | -1.2% | +7.7% |
Cotality Home Value Index, August 2026 results, released 1 September 2026. Median values: Brisbane houses $1,180,552, Brisbane units $854,721.
Units keep an edge over the longer periods. Their three-month fall is 0.9 percentage points smaller than that of houses, and their annual growth almost 3 points higher. On the August medians a Brisbane house is valued $325,831 above a Brisbane unit.
Within Queensland the regions are holding up better than the capital. On Cotality's medians, a typical Brisbane dwelling is valued $235,339 above a typical regional Queensland one. Regional Queensland's quarterly fall of 1.3 per cent is less than half of Brisbane's, which matches the national pattern: combined regional values fell 1.2 per cent over the quarter against 3.7 per cent for the combined capitals.
Regional Queensland is no longer flat, though. A month ago its three-month change was zero; now it is falling at close to the pace of regional New South Wales, down 1.6 per cent, and regional Victoria, down 1.4 per cent. Its median remains $13,865 above regional New South Wales's $830,938. The strongest part of the state over twelve months is still inland: Cotality's regional tables have the eastern Darling Downs up 20.8 per cent.
Inside Greater Brisbane the fastest annual growth has slowed too. Sherwood and Indooroopilly leads Cotality's list at 17.3 per cent, down from 20.4 per cent a month earlier, and Beenleigh is at 14.9 per cent, down from 19.4 per cent.
Brisbane against the rest
Brisbane's August fall was close to the average for the capital cities, where values fell 1.1 per cent, and smaller than Sydney's 1.4 per cent. Melbourne and Canberra each fell 1.1 per cent, Adelaide and Perth 0.8 per cent and Hobart 0.2 per cent. Darwin, up 0.6 per cent, was the only capital to rise.
Related readFourth rate rise of 2026 lifts the cash rate to 4.60 per centThe contrast is in the annual column. Sydney values are 4.6 per cent lower than a year ago and Melbourne's 4.7 per cent lower, while Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide all remain well ahead of where they were, by 10.8 per cent, 15.6 per cent and 8.6 per cent.
Nationally the index fell 0.9 per cent in August, a fifth consecutive monthly decline that leaves it 3.6 per cent below its March peak, Cotality says. The national annual change is still positive, at 2.7 per cent, and the national median is $912,885.
The combined capitals median has itself dropped below $1 million, to $990,394, having stood at $1,010,814 a month earlier. Canberra has joined Sydney and Melbourne in negative annual territory, at 0.4 per cent lower than a year ago.
Measured from each city's own peak, Brisbane's decline is among the smaller ones. Cotality's figures put Sydney 7.1 per cent below its peak and Perth 3.2 per cent below a peak reached in April, against Brisbane's 2.7 per cent. Perth's median has slipped just under $1 million, to $999,987, which leaves Sydney and Brisbane as the only capitals with a seven-figure median. The distance between those two has barely moved: $142,576 in August, against $140,523 in July.
Three figures, three different questions
The monthly change says what happened in August. The quarterly change smooths out one-off months. The annual change mostly describes last year. For Brisbane those three figures are -1.0%, -2.7% and +10.8%, and each is correct.
What sits behind the fall
Cotality's release puts the weakness on the demand side. Estimated sales volumes are 15.5 per cent lower than a year earlier and 11.5 per cent below the five-year average, and Brisbane, Perth and Sydney have recorded the largest declines in transaction activity, with sales down by more than 20 per cent.
Related readHow interest rates reach Queensland home prices, step by stepSupply is rising at the same time, though not because more owners are selling. Over the four weeks to 30 August, the number of homes listed across the capital cities was 24 per cent higher than a year earlier and 8 per cent above the five-year average. New listings over the same four weeks were 6 per cent lower than a year earlier and 8 per cent below the five-year average. Stock is accumulating because homes are taking longer to sell, the same pattern SQM Research described for Brisbane in July.
Cotality describes longer selling times, larger vendor discounts and low auction clearance rates as signs of a buyer's market, and reports that 93 per cent of capital city suburbs recorded a fall in values. In the firm's words, what began as an easing concentrated in higher-value segments has become a much more general softening.
The rental side of the release moves the other way. National rents rose 0.4 per cent in August and are 5.7 per cent higher than a year earlier, according to Savings.com.au's report of the figures on 1 September. With values falling and rents rising, the national gross rental yield has reached 3.79 per cent, the highest since September 2019, even as the national vacancy rate rose to 1.9 per cent, its highest since January 2025.
For an owner, the rent offsets part of the fall. Cotality's total return for Brisbane, which adds rental income to the change in value, is 14.6 per cent over the twelve months to August, and 13.5 per cent for regional Queensland. Both were higher a month ago, at 18.6 per cent and 16.3 per cent.
What Cotality expects, and what is scheduled
The release says downward pressure on values is likely to continue over the coming months, into the spring selling season. It names elevated interest rates, reduced borrowing capacity and the cost of living as the constraints on buyers, and describes consumer sentiment as still deeply pessimistic.
It also sets out why it sees limited risk of a more significant correction. New housing supply remains short of demand, with building costs and capacity holding back completions, and support for first home buyers, including the 5 per cent deposit scheme, is sustaining activity at the cheaper end of the market. Those are the firm's judgements about what may happen, not recorded results.
Interest rates are the open question. The release notes that a further increase would be challenging for households carrying high levels of debt, much of it housing-related. The cash rate has been 4.35 per cent since May, the Reserve Bank left it there on 11 August while saying it was prepared to raise it further, and the Monetary Policy Board next meets on 28 and 29 September.
For Queensland the August index confirms that July was not a one-month pause. Values in the capital have now fallen for three months from their May peak at a quickening pace, the regions are following more slowly, and both remain well above their levels of a year ago. The September index, due at the start of October, will be the first to cover a full month of the spring season.
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.
