# Just over half of Brisbane's reported auctions sell in mid-August

Cotality's preliminary rate for Brisbane reached 51.9 per cent in the week ending 16 August, the best early result in 13 weeks, from 79 reported results out of 145 auctions.

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Just over half of the Brisbane auctions with a reported result ended in a sale last week. Cotality's preliminary auction release, published on Monday 17 August, put the city's early clearance rate at 51.9 per cent for the week ending Sunday 16 August. The firm called it Brisbane's best early result in 13 weeks.

The rate was 13.8 percentage points higher than the 38.1 per cent Cotality reported at the same stage a week earlier. It comes with a caution that the release's own tables make plain: little more than half of the week's auctions had reported a result when the figure was calculated.

## A strong rate from a thin count

Cotality counted 145 auctions in Brisbane for the week, 9.9 per cent fewer than the week before and 6.6 per cent more than in the same week of 2025. Its weekly indicator summary shows results collected for 79 of them. Of those 79, 41 were recorded as sold and 38 as not sold.

That leaves 66 auctions with no result in the early count, or 45.5 per cent of the week's total. Both Queensland coastal markets were in a similar position.

<figure class="fig"><figcaption><b>What had been reported by Monday</b><span>Week ending 16 August 2026, preliminary</span></figcaption>
<div class="scroll"><table class="tbl">
<thead><tr><th>Market</th><th>Auctions held</th><th>Results reported</th><th>Sold, and early rate</th></tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>Brisbane</td><td>145</td><td>79</td><td>41 sold, 51.9%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Gold Coast</td><td>64</td><td>39</td><td>18 sold, 46.2%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sunshine Coast</td><td>37</td><td>21</td><td>11 sold, 52.4%</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table></div>
<p class="src">Cotality Property Market Indicator Summary, week ending 16 August 2026. Rates are calculated on reported results only.</p></figure>

The pattern of recent weeks suggests how to hold the number. A week ago Brisbane's preliminary rate was 38.1 per cent. When Cotality published its final figures on Thursday 13 August, the same week had settled at 35.4 per cent, 2.7 points lower. The week before that, a preliminary 42.0 per cent became a final 37.5 per cent. In both cases the results that arrived late contained fewer sales than the ones that arrived early.

Those two weeks started from fuller counts. The early figure for the week ending 9 August rested on 126 results out of 163 auctions, and the one for the week ending 2 August on 100 out of 139. In each case about three in four auctions had reported by Monday. This week it is barely more than one in two.

<div class="callout"><span class="mono">The arithmetic</span><h4>The 41 reported sales are 28.3 per cent of all 145 auctions</h4>
<p>If none of the 66 outstanding Brisbane auctions turned out to be a sale, the week would finish at 28.3 per cent. The final rate will sit somewhere between that floor and Monday's 51.9 per cent, depending on what the late results contain.</p>
</div>

Whether the late results pull the rate down as they did in the two earlier weeks will be known on Thursday. With 66 results still outstanding, the room for movement is larger than it was in either of them.

## How Brisbane's coverage compares

Thin early coverage was not a national feature of the week. Across the combined capitals, Cotality had results for 949 of 1,309 auctions when it published, a little under three in four. Setting each capital's reported results against its auction count shows two cities well below that level.

<figure class="fig"><figcaption><b>Share of the week's auctions with a result by Monday</b><span>Week ending 16 August 2026, per cent</span></figcaption>
<div class="scroll"><svg viewBox="0 0 680 242" role="img" aria-label="Bar chart: the share of auctions with a reported result in Cotality's preliminary count for the week ending 16 August 2026 was 79.5 per cent in Melbourne, 77.8 per cent in Canberra, 73.6 per cent in Sydney, 54.5 per cent in Brisbane and 47.7 per cent in Adelaide.">
<text class="lb" x="176" y="33" text-anchor="end">Melbourne</text><rect class="bar" x="190" y="14" width="318" height="28" rx="4"/><text class="lb" x="518" y="33">79.5%</text>
<text class="lb" x="176" y="79" text-anchor="end">Canberra</text><rect class="bar" x="190" y="60" width="311" height="28" rx="4"/><text class="lb" x="511" y="79">77.8%</text>
<text class="lb" x="176" y="125" text-anchor="end">Sydney</text><rect class="bar" x="190" y="106" width="294" height="28" rx="4"/><text class="lb" x="494" y="125">73.6%</text>
<text class="lb" x="176" y="171" text-anchor="end">Brisbane</text><rect class="bar" x="190" y="152" width="218" height="28" rx="4"/><text class="lb" x="418" y="171">54.5%</text>
<text class="lb" x="176" y="217" text-anchor="end">Adelaide</text><rect class="bar" x="190" y="198" width="191" height="28" rx="4"/><text class="lb" x="391" y="217">47.7%</text>
</svg></div>
<p class="src">Calculated from the results collected and total auctions in Cotality's Property Market Indicator Summary, week ending 16 August 2026.</p></figure>

Melbourne's early rate rests on 474 results out of 596 auctions and Sydney's on 313 out of 425. Adelaide's is built on 42 results out of 88, and Brisbane's on 79 out of 145. The two capitals with the thinnest early counts are also two of the three that Cotality credits with the week's largest gains.

Cotality's final figures close most of that gap. The firm says it collects about 99 per cent of auction results each week on average, and its final tables for recent Brisbane weeks have accounted for every auction held.

The late results matter because they are not a random sample of the week. A clearance rate, in Cotality's method, sets sales against every known result, and that includes auctions that were passed in and those withdrawn beforehand. Brisbane's last two weeks, each revised down between Monday and Thursday, are consistent with sales being reported sooner than the rest.

## The Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast

The coastal rows in Cotality's summary improved alongside the capital. On the Gold Coast, 18 of 39 reported auctions sold, an early rate of 46.2 per cent from 64 auctions held. A week earlier the Gold Coast's preliminary rate had been 33.3 per cent, and its final rate for that week was 31.3 per cent.

On the Sunshine Coast, 11 of 21 reported auctions sold, giving 52.4 per cent from 37 auctions held. The week before, the early rate there was 28.6 per cent, calculated on only 14 results, and the final rate was 25.0 per cent from 20 auctions. Samples of that size swing widely from one week to the next, and Cotality's own methodology notes set a minimum of ten results before a rate is reported at all. Neither coastal market fell under that line this week, but the Sunshine Coast is not far above it.

Both coasts held more auctions than the week before, the Gold Coast 64 against 48 and the Sunshine Coast 37 against 20. That is the opposite of Brisbane, where the count eased from 161 to 145.

What can be said is that all three Queensland markets Cotality reports on posted their highest early rates of August so far in the same week.

## Brisbane against the national result

Across the combined capitals, the preliminary clearance rate edged up to 56.5 per cent, which Cotality described as the highest early rate in 12 weeks. It was the second week in a row above 55 per cent. The firm set that against a decade average of 68.0 per cent and a low of 47.4 per cent in the week ending 21 June, and observed that with home values still declining, buyers keep the stronger hand in negotiations.

The national lift did not come from the two biggest markets. Melbourne's early rate eased to 57.4 per cent from 60.8 per cent and Sydney's to 55.6 per cent from 57.0 per cent. Cotality attributed the gain to the smaller capitals, where Adelaide rose 15.1 points to 61.9 per cent, the ACT rose 14.1 points to 60.0 per cent and Brisbane rose 13.8 points.

Even after that rise, Brisbane's 51.9 per cent was the lowest early rate of the five capitals for which Cotality published one. The distance has narrowed, though. A week earlier Brisbane's preliminary figure was 17 points under the combined capitals' 55.1 per cent. This week the gap is 4.6 points.

Recent national gains have had more to do with sellers than with bidders, on Cotality's own account. Its release of 10 August attributed the previous week's improvement to fewer withdrawn auctions, which had fallen to 16.2 per cent of those scheduled, the lowest share since late April. The same release estimated that auctions now make up about 26 per cent of new capital city listings, down from about 40 per cent in late March. A smaller pool of auctions, with fewer pulled before the day, can post a better rate on the same level of demand.

## Fewer auctions almost everywhere

Auction numbers were lower in most cities. Cotality counted 1,309 auctions across the capitals, 5.3 per cent fewer than the previous week and 31.9 per cent fewer than a year earlier. Melbourne's 596 were 9.6 per cent down on the week and about 36 per cent down on the year. Sydney's 425 were 3.2 per cent up on the week and 39.7 per cent under the same week of 2025.

Brisbane and Adelaide were again the exceptions on the annual comparison, each holding more auctions than in the same week of 2025. Brisbane's 145 was one short of the 146 Cotality had listed as scheduled in its preview of 13 August, against 136 held a year earlier.

The annual gap is wider than it was a week ago, when the national count was 12.5 per cent under the previous year's. The reason lies in last year's calendar as much as this year's: Cotality's 13 August preview shows the capitals held about 1,920 auctions in the matching week of 2025, where this year's count has stayed near 1,300.

## What comes next

Cotality expects volumes to rise, with about 1,420 homes scheduled across the capitals this week and around 1,540 the week after. Its final clearance rates for the week ending 16 August are due on Thursday 20 August, with the final Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast rows in the tables attached to that release.

For Brisbane, the question that release will answer is narrow. The city has not finished a week above 37.5 per cent since the start of July on Cotality's final measure. Monday's figure says the first 79 results were better than that. Thursday's will say what the other 66 were.