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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 final count is in for the first auctions held after September's interest rate rise, and it is lower than the early one. Cotality's finalised clearance rate for the combined capitals in the week ending 4 October is 45.4 per cent, the ABC reported on Thursday 8 October, the lowest final result since July. The preliminary figure published at the start of the week had been 48.2 per cent.
For Brisbane, a second published count fills in what the early number could not. Domain's results page for the week, last updated on 7 October, lists 124 reported auctions, of which 29 sold, 83 were passed in and 12 were withdrawn. That gives a clearance rate of 23 per cent on Domain's method, and it means two of every three reported auctions ended without a sale under the hammer.
Week ending 4 October 2026. Capital city figures: Cotality, as reported by the ABC on 8 October. Brisbane count: Domain auction results, updated 7 October.
From 48.2 to 45.4 per cent in four days
A preliminary clearance rate is built from the results agents have reported by the end of the weekend. The final rate, published later in the week, adds the late results. Those tend to include a larger share of homes that did not sell, so the final figure usually sits below the first one.
This week the revision for the combined capitals was 2.8 percentage points. It was not spread evenly. Melbourne's rate barely moved between the two counts, from 50.6 to 50.4 per cent. Sydney's fell 6.4 points, from 55.7 to 49.3 per cent, which took it from comfortably above half to just under.
| Market | Preliminary rate | Final rate | Auctions held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combined capitals | 48.2% | 45.4% | 1,212 |
| Melbourne | 50.6% | 50.4% | 666 |
| Sydney | 55.7% | 49.3% | 299 |
Source: Cotality. Preliminary rates as published on 5 and 6 October, final rates and auction counts as reported by the ABC on 8 October 2026.
Against the previous week, both of the large cities finished higher. Melbourne's final rate improved 2.5 points from 47.9 per cent, and Sydney's rose 0.9 of a point from 48.4 per cent. The combined figure fell all the same, because the smaller capitals pulled it down. Cotality's early commentary had already named Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra as the markets weighing on the national result.
Related readJust over half of Brisbane's reported auctions sell in mid-AugustTwo of every three passed in on Domain's Brisbane count
Cotality's preliminary reading for Brisbane was 25.6 per cent, from 20 sales among the 78 results it had collected out of 139 auctions held. With so many results missing, that number said little about what had happened to the rest.
Domain's page gives a fuller picture of the same week, on its own count. It shows 145 auctions scheduled and 124 reported. Of those 124, 29 sold. A further 83 were passed in, meaning bidding stopped below the reserve price or no acceptable bid was made, and 12 were withdrawn before the day.
Source: Domain auction results for Brisbane, Sunday 27 September to Saturday 3 October 2026, updated 7 October. A further 21 scheduled auctions had no reported result.
The balance between the two kinds of unsold result is the notable part. Passed-in homes outnumber withdrawn ones by almost seven to one. A withdrawal usually means the campaign was stopped before auction day, sometimes because the home sold beforehand and sometimes because the owner chose not to proceed. A pass-in means the home went to the floor and the bidding, if there was any, did not reach the price the owner had set.
Domain and Cotality do not count in the same way, and their Brisbane figures are not interchangeable. They draw on different sets of reported results and treat some outcomes differently. What the two agree on this week is the order of magnitude: on either count, about one reported Brisbane auction in four ended in a sale.
A short week, and a small one
The week took in the King's Birthday public holiday in Queensland and the Labour Day holiday in New South Wales, the ACT and South Australia, all on Monday 5 October. Fewer owners choose a long weekend for an auction, and the numbers show it.
Related readMore than half of Brisbane auctions passed in during first week of JuneCotality counted 1,212 auctions across the combined capitals, 38.1 per cent fewer than the 1,958 held in the same week of 2025. That is 746 fewer auctions, and the ABC reported that Melbourne and Sydney together account for 710 of them. Brisbane, Canberra and Perth also held fewer auctions than a year earlier, while Adelaide and Tasmania were the only markets to hold more.
Week to week the two large cities moved in opposite directions for calendar reasons. Melbourne held 666 auctions, 134.5 per cent more than the 284 of the AFL Grand Final weekend. Sydney held 299, down 61.4 per cent from 774 the week before.
A thin week makes any rate less steady. When a city reports a hundred or so results, a handful of sales either way moves the percentage by several points. That is a reason to read this week's Brisbane figures as a low reading in a weak run, not as a new level in themselves.
The run behind this week's number
The low result does not stand alone. Cotality's final Brisbane rates earlier in spring were 26.0 per cent for the week ending 6 September, 38.5 per cent for the week ending 13 September and 31.4 per cent for the week ending 20 September. By the week ending 20 September, the city's final rate had been under 40 per cent for seventeen weeks in a row.
The backdrop is a market in which prices are falling. Cotality's Home Value Index, released on 1 October, recorded a 1.5 per cent fall in Brisbane dwelling values in September, the largest monthly decline of any capital. The Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 4.60 per cent on 29 September, its fourth increase of 2026, and the auctions of 3 and 4 October were the first held since.
Related readNearly one in four auctions withdrawn as vendors step backCotality economist Annabelle Mezieres told Real Estate Business that higher rates were reducing what some buyers could borrow and their willingness to stretch. Her message to owners was about price. "Sellers will need to keep their pricing expectations realistic as the spring market and the macroeconomy evolve," she said.
The preliminary 25.6 per cent was the third early Brisbane reading of 2026 to fall in the twenties, Real Estate Business noted. Tom Panos, the auctioneer and founder of the training business Real Estate Gym, told the same publication that Sydney and Melbourne had held up best and were likely to be the first cities to recover at auction. Of buyers everywhere after the rate rise, he said: "Buyers are doing the maths, lower borrowing capacity, higher repayments."
What a pass-in means in Queensland
A passed-in auction is not the end of a sale campaign, and Queensland's rules shape what follows. Under the Property Occupations Act 2014, an agent or auctioneer cannot give bidders a price guide for a home going to auction, so the reserve is known only to the seller's side until bidding reaches it. When a home is passed in, the usual practice is for the agent to negotiate first with the highest bidder and then with other interested parties.
A sale at auction in Queensland is unconditional and has no cooling-off period, according to Queensland Government guidance. The same applies to a contract signed by a registered bidder shortly after a pass-in: the Act removes the cooling-off period where that contract is entered into by 5pm on the second clear business day after the auction. A buyer who was not registered to bid, or who signs later, buys under the ordinary rules for a private sale, with the five-business-day cooling-off period.
A passed-in home can still sell the same week
Clearance rates record what happened at or before the auction. A home that is passed in on Saturday and sold by negotiation on Tuesday may be picked up in a later count or not at all, depending on the data firm and on what the agent reports. A low rate measures auction-day results, not every sale that follows.
For owners, a market where most auctions pass in changes the purpose of the day. The auction becomes a deadline that brings buyers to the table, and the price is more often settled in the negotiation afterwards than by the last bid.
What comes next
The weekend of 10 and 11 October is the first ordinary October weekend, without a public holiday or a football final, and Cotality's preliminary count for it is due at the start of next week. It will be a cleaner test of demand after the rate rise than the long weekend could be.
The Reserve Bank's next meeting is on 2 and 3 November. Bendigo Bank's chief economist, David Robertson, said on 8 October that he expects the cash rate to stay at 4.60 per cent through November and December unless jobs or inflation figures bring a surprise. Four weekends of auctions fall before the Board decides.
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.
