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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Queensland had 1,655 homes advertised under distressed selling conditions in September 2026, according to the monthly listings report SQM Research published on 2 October. That is 10.6 per cent more than in August and 47.5 per cent more than in September 2025, and it is the largest count of any state.
The same report shows the wider market those sellers are in. Brisbane had 21,153 residential properties for sale in September, 43.5 per cent more than a year earlier, the largest annual rise of any capital. Most Queensland vendors are nowhere near distress, but all of them are selling into the stock that SQM has just counted.
SQM Research, Total Property Listings, September 2026, published 2 October 2026.
What SQM counted in September
SQM Research counts every residential property advertised for sale in a calendar month and sorts the total by age. New listings have been advertised for less than 30 days. Old listings have been on the market for more than 180 days. Everything else sits in between.
Nationally, the September total was 276,839 dwellings, 2.6 per cent more than in August and 21.6 per cent more than a year earlier. New listings rose 8.7 per cent over the month to 80,496, which is the seasonal lift every spring brings. Old listings rose 2.3 per cent to 79,134.
SQM's managing director Louis Christopher argues that the spring lift is not what explains the annual surge. "The bulk of the increase is property that has been on the market for one to six months," he said in the release. In other words, the extra stock is neither fresh nor stale. It is the middle of the pile: homes listed in autumn and winter that have not yet found a buyer.
Related readSelling a tenanted property in Queensland: notice, entry, tenant rightsBrisbane's rise is the steepest in the country
Brisbane's total of 21,153 listings was 3.8 per cent higher than in August, when SQM counted 20,374. Against September 2025 the rise is 43.5 per cent, which implies a total of roughly 14,700 a year ago. No other capital comes close on the annual measure except Adelaide.
Source: SQM Research, Total Property Listings, September 2026. All residential listings advertised during the month.
The composition of Brisbane's stock changed over the month in a way that matters to anyone selling. New listings rose 4.5 per cent, about half the national seasonal lift of 8.7 per cent. Old listings rose 16.0 per cent in a single month, and are 26.8 per cent higher than a year ago. Within Brisbane's September count, it is the category growing fastest.
The three releases since winter began show how the stock was built. In July, SQM counted 20,273 Brisbane listings, a jump of 18.0 per cent on June. August added only 0.5 per cent, to 20,374, and September another 3.8 per cent. The total has therefore barely moved since July's surge, while its make-up has aged: old listings rose 6.0 per cent in July, 13.8 per cent in August and 16.0 per cent in September. Homes that arrived in the autumn and winter rush are now crossing the 180-day line in growing numbers.
Mr Christopher draws a contrast with Sydney that helps to read the Brisbane figures. Fewer Sydney vendors are listing than a year ago, he notes, yet total stock there is up almost a fifth, which he attributes to weak demand, not to a flood of supply. In Brisbane both forces are at work: owners have kept listing, and buyers have slowed.
Related readSmoke alarm rules a Queensland seller must meet before settlementAsking prices moved with it. SQM's measure of combined asking prices in Brisbane fell 2.1 per cent in September, after a fall of 1.7 per cent in August recorded in the previous release. Asking prices are still 2.6 per cent higher than a year earlier. They measure what vendors advertise, not what buyers pay, which makes them a direct reading of how sellers are adjusting their expectations.
The distressed count, state by state
SQM's distressed series is built from the way properties are advertised: it counts the listings marketed as sales that must happen, as distinct from sales the owner has chosen. It is published by state, not by city.
Nationally the count reached 4,872 in September, up 8.0 per cent in a month and 29.2 per cent in a year. Queensland's 1,655 is 34 per cent of that total, about a third of the country's distressed listings in one state. New South Wales, with a much larger housing market, had 1,054.
| State | Listings | Month | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queensland | 1,655 | +10.6% | +47.5% |
| New South Wales | 1,054 | +10.5% | +10.6% |
| Australia | 4,872 | +8.0% | +29.2% |
Source: SQM Research, Total Property Listings, September 2026.
Queensland's annual rise is not the fastest. SQM reports increases of 91.1 per cent in South Australia, 93.9 per cent in the ACT and 64.3 per cent in Western Australia, each from a smaller base, while Victoria's count was 0.4 per cent lower than a year earlier. Mr Christopher's summary is that national distressed stock is now almost 30 per cent higher than a year ago, with South Australia and the ACT close to doubling and large annual increases in Western Australia and Queensland.
Queensland's count has now risen in five consecutive SQM releases: 8.9 per cent in May, 17.0 per cent in June, 4.0 per cent in July (release of 4 August), 8.2 per cent in August (release of 1 September) and 10.6 per cent in September. After slowing in July, the monthly rise has widened again in each of the last two months.
Related readVendor discounts hit a three-year high and valuers warn of unsold homesKeeping the number in proportion
A count of 1,655 across a state of Queensland's size is small. Brisbane alone had 21,153 listings of every kind in September, and the state total is larger again. Distressed sales are a thin slice of the market, and SQM's managing director said in the August release that they were still contained while trending upward and deserved close monitoring.
The figure also describes advertising, not outcomes. A listing marketed as urgent is not necessarily a forced sale, and a forced sale is not always advertised as one. What the series does well is show direction, and the direction in Queensland has been upward for five months.
Distressed listings are a signal, not the market
Queensland's 1,655 distressed listings compare with 21,153 homes of all kinds for sale in Brisbane alone. The series tracks how properties are advertised, so it shows a trend among sellers under pressure without measuring how many sales are actually forced.
Why Queensland should hold so large a share is not something the release explains, and it offers no breakdown by region within the state. The figures establish the count and its direction, not its causes.
What it means for a seller this spring
For the great majority of Queensland vendors, who are selling by choice, the report's message is about competition and time. There are roughly 6,400 more homes for sale in Brisbane than there were last September, on SQM's figures, and the fastest-growing group among them is the one that has been waiting longest.
A home that has sat for months changes the conversation around the homes near it. Its owner may have reduced the asking price once or twice already, which is what a 2.1 per cent monthly fall in asking prices looks like street by street. A buyer who has watched that happen brings the comparison to every new listing they inspect.
Related readWhat it costs to sell a home in Queensland: the seller's ledgerCotality's national figures for September, published on 1 October, describe the demand side of the same market. It counts sales volumes 19.1 per cent lower than a year earlier across Australia, with the sharpest fall in Brisbane at 27.2 per cent, and records a 1.5 per cent fall in Brisbane home values over the month. More homes offered and fewer sold is the arithmetic that makes stock build. The Reserve Bank's decision at the end of September to raise the cash rate to 4.60 per cent came on top of that.
None of this fixes the outcome for an individual property. Suburb, price bracket, presentation and the number of comparable homes nearby decide far more than a city-wide count, and well-priced homes continue to sell. What has changed is the margin for error in the first asking price, because the alternative to selling quickly is joining the part of the market that is growing fastest.
What comes next
Mr Christopher's conclusion is that conditions are shifting in favour of buyers, with stock building and national asking prices easing 0.4 per cent over the month. He does not forecast how far that goes.
SQM's next listings release, covering October, is due in the first days of November. Cotality's five-year figures show new listings nationally rising from the end of August until the middle of November, so the next two counts will show whether Brisbane's new listings pick up to the national pace and whether the stock of older listings keeps growing or begins to clear. For Queensland's distressed series, a sixth monthly rise would take the state's count further above a level that is already nearly half as high again as a year ago.
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.
