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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 held 138 auctions in the week ending 7 June, about 30 per cent fewer than the week before, according to preliminary figures Cotality released on Monday 8 June. The early clearance rate was 31.9 per cent, which the data firm says is the city's lowest preliminary result since May 2020.
The drop in volume stands out because Brisbane had no public holiday to explain it. Most other states marked the King's Birthday long weekend, and their auction numbers fell as they do every year. Queensland did not, and its auction count fell anyway.
Fewer auctions without a holiday to blame
Across the combined capital cities, 1,182 homes went to auction in the week, a fall of 55.5 per cent from the week before and 13.9 per cent below the same week of 2025. Cotality attributes the weekly drop to the long weekend, which it notes was observed in most states but not in Queensland or Western Australia. Sydney held 491 auctions, about half the previous week's number, and Melbourne 422, about two thirds fewer.
Brisbane's case is different. Cotality notes that the city's volume fell sharply "despite the absence of a long weekend". A week earlier the city had held 201 auctions on Cotality's early count, and 194 the week before that. The step down to 138 suggests that some sellers chose not to book an auction, or to sell another way, after several weeks of soft results. The figures themselves do not say which.
Queensland's auction rules give sellers one practical reason to weigh the two methods against each other. The Queensland Government's guidance for buyers states that an agent cannot give a price guide for a property going to auction, although a comparative market analysis may be provided with the seller's approval. A home sold by private treaty can carry an asking price. In a market where bidders are cautious, some owners may prefer to state a figure and negotiate from it. Cotality's count records only the homes that kept an auction date.
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The Queensland Government's public holiday calendar lists the King's Birthday on Monday 5 October in 2026. The first weekend of June was an ordinary one for Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast auctions, so the state's lower numbers cannot be put down to the calendar.
Adelaide offers a comparison. South Australia did have the long weekend, and its volume fell about 40 per cent to 79 auctions. Brisbane, with no holiday, fell by three quarters of that amount.
The lowest early result since May 2020
Of the 138 Brisbane auctions, Cotality had collected 94 results when the preliminary rate was calculated. Thirty of them were sales and 64 were not, which gives the 31.9 per cent figure. The other 44 auctions had not reported.
The missing results set the outer limits of where the final figure can land. If every one of the 44 turned out to be a sale, 74 of the 138 auctions would have sold, or 53.6 per cent. If none did, the rate would be 21.7 per cent. Neither extreme is likely, and the previous week's experience across the capitals was that late results lowered the rate.
Among the capitals, Brisbane was a long way behind the rest.
Source: Cotality, preliminary results released 8 June 2026. Perth held only 14 auctions, so its rate rests on very few results.
The gap is wide enough that sample size alone does not account for it. Adelaide cleared about twice Brisbane's share, on 53 results. Perth's high figure should be read with care, since it comes from 11 results. Melbourne's 52.3 per cent is described by Cotality as that city's lowest early reading since September 2021, and Sydney's 52.9 per cent as its third lowest of the year, so the two largest markets were weak by their own standards and still about 20 points ahead of Brisbane.
The city's own recent run puts the number in context. Its early rate was 45.7 per cent in the week ending 24 May, which Cotality called the weakest since April 2023, then 43.3 per cent in the week ending 31 May, and now 31.9 per cent. That is a fall of 13.8 percentage points in a fortnight.
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Cotality's weekly summary also reports the state's two coastal auction markets. Both held fewer auctions than a week earlier, and both, like Brisbane, did so without a public holiday.
| Market | Auctions held | Results collected | Reported sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brisbane | 138 | 94 | 30 |
| Gold Coast | 50 | 45 | 15 |
| Sunshine Coast | 23 | 18 | 8 |
Source: Cotality, Property Market Indicator Summary, week ending 7 June 2026.
The Gold Coast's 50 auctions compare with 82 the week before, a fall of 39 per cent and a steeper one than Brisbane's. Its early clearance rate was 33.3 per cent, down from 37.9 per cent. The Sunshine Coast went from 31 auctions to 23 and recorded 44.4 per cent, up from 37.5 per cent, on only 18 results. At that size, each sale is worth more than five percentage points.
Across the three markets, 211 homes were taken to auction, against 314 a week earlier. That is a fall of about a third for south-east Queensland as a whole. Of the 157 results in hand, 53 were sales, or 33.8 per cent.
The Gold Coast figure rests on firmer ground than most early readings. Cotality already had 45 of its 50 results, so little is left to change it. Brisbane, with 44 results outstanding, has more room to move.
Last week's figures, revised
Monday's release also carried the final count for the previous week, and it is a useful guide to how far an early number can travel. The combined capitals' preliminary rate of 54.5 per cent for the week ending 31 May settled at 49.0 per cent once late results were counted, a revision of 5.5 points. Cotality says that is the first time the final capital city clearance rate has been below 50 per cent since May 2020.
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That pattern is a reminder of how the two figures relate. The preliminary rate is built on the results reported by Monday. The final rate, published each Thursday, includes the late ones. Brisbane's 31.9 per cent rests on 94 results out of 138 auctions, so a little under a third of the week is still to be counted.
A national market at pandemic-era levels
Brisbane's result arrived in a weak week everywhere. The combined capitals' preliminary clearance rate fell to 51.1 per cent, from 474 sales among 927 results. Cotality describes it as the lowest outcome since the week ending 26 April 2020, in the early months of the pandemic. In the same week of 2025 the early rate was 58.1 per cent, from 1,373 auctions.
One capital moved the other way. Canberra's early rate rose to 50.0 per cent from 39.1 per cent a week earlier, on 30 results from 36 auctions.
A week earlier, in its release of 1 June, Cotality had listed the pressures on buyers as affordability, three interest rate rises this year and weaker consumer sentiment, alongside a gradual rise in the number of homes for sale. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment survey published on Tuesday 9 June gives the latest reading on the third of those. Its headline index fell 2.9 per cent in June to 80.6, and its measure of house price expectations fell 14.9 per cent. In Queensland, the survey's price expectations index dropped 15 per cent to 141.
The same survey was less gloomy on one housing measure. Its "time to buy a dwelling" index rose 12.6 per cent to 81.1 after a weak May reading of 72.0. A reading under 100 still means more respondents think it is a bad time to buy than a good one. About two thirds of those surveyed expect mortgage rates to rise over the next 12 months, the Melbourne Institute's release says. Buyers who expect prices to soften and rates to rise have little reason to stretch at an auction, which fits the pattern in Cotality's figures without proving it.
A low clearance rate describes auctions only. Homes sold by private treaty, the more common method in Queensland, are not part of it, and the rate carries no information about the prices paid.
What is scheduled next
Cotality expects volume to recover this week, with about 2,200 capital city homes scheduled for auction as the southern states return from the long weekend, before the count slips back under 2,000 the week after.
For Brisbane, the question the next release can answer is whether 138 was a one-week dip or a new, lower level of bookings. The firm publishes the number of auctions scheduled in each capital on Thursday, together with the final clearance rates for the week ending 7 June. Both are due on Thursday 11 June.
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.
