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Kooky
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About Kooky and Shaka →Queensland's statewide median house price fell 0.91 per cent in the June quarter of 2026 to $983,000, the Real Estate Institute of Queensland said in a media release dated 31 August 2026. The median unit price eased 1.22 per cent to $810,000. According to the REIQ, the statewide quarterly medians last moved backwards in the September quarter of 2022.
The institute's own headline is that the market is taking a breath after years of rapid growth, and the annual figures support that reading: the house median is still 16.57 per cent higher than a year earlier, and the unit median 17.29 per cent higher.
The size of the move
A fall of 0.91 per cent to $983,000 implies a March quarter median of about $992,000, so the statewide house figure is roughly $9,000 lower over three months. Over twelve months the picture reverses. Annual growth of 16.57 per cent implies a median of about $843,000 in the June quarter of 2025, which is some $140,000 below today's.
Units tell the same story with slightly bigger percentages at both ends. The quarterly fall of 1.22 per cent works out at about $10,000, from roughly $820,000, while the annual rise of 17.29 per cent starts from a median near $691,000.
| Market | Median | Quarterly change |
|---|---|---|
| Queensland houses | $983,000 | -0.91% |
| Queensland units | $810,000 | -1.22% |
| Brisbane houses | $1.48 million | Steady |
| Toowoomba houses | $850,000 | +3.03% |
| Townsville houses | $700,000 | Steady |
Real Estate Institute of Queensland, media release of 31 August 2026 on June quarter 2026 data. The release gives Brisbane's figure rounded to $1.48 million.
The house median stays just under $1 million. The release notes the point itself, describing the statewide figure as remaining marginally below that mark.
Sixteen markets, three directions
A statewide median blends very different places, and the REIQ is careful to say so. Of the 16 major house markets it tracks, nine recorded soft quarterly growth, two were stable and five dipped.
Related readSouth-east Queensland sellers adjust as homes take longer to sellReal Estate Institute of Queensland, June quarter 2026. The media release does not list which markets fall in each group.
More markets rose than fell, yet the statewide figure went down. That is possible because a median is pulled by where the sales happen: a quarter with fewer sales in the dearest markets, or softer prices in the largest ones, lowers the state number even when most regions edge up.
The release names three markets. Brisbane held steady at $1.48 million and Townsville at $700,000, while Toowoomba kept climbing, by 3.03 per cent to $850,000. That rise implies a March quarter median of about $825,000 for Toowoomba, a gain of some $25,000 in three months. The REIQ suggests the Toowoomba result may reflect buyers putting affordability first and looking beyond the metropolitan area.
The institute's commentary stresses the same point about scale. Queensland is too large for a single description, it says, and the individual markets are more nuanced than the state figure: the capital unchanged, a large inland city growing strongly, and most regions still rising while the aggregate fell.
How the REIQ measures it
The method note in the release explains what the figures are. The REIQ's medians are its own analysis of Cotality sales data. A median sale price is the middle value when the quarter's recorded sales are ranked from lowest to highest, so half sold for less and half for more. Only areas with at least ten sales in the quarter are reported.
That makes the REIQ series a record of what changed hands, not an estimate of what every home is worth. It also explains why three well-known sources give three different readings of the same three months.
Related readSunshine Coast home values ease from their autumn peak after a long run| Source | What it measures | Area | Quarterly change |
|---|---|---|---|
| REIQ | Median of recorded sales | Queensland | -0.91% |
| Domain | Median of sales, adjusted for mix of areas | Greater Brisbane | +0.4% |
| Cotality | Modelled value of all houses | Greater Brisbane | +1.1% |
REIQ media release, 31 August 2026; Domain House Price Report, June quarter 2026; Cotality Home Value Index, June 2026 results as first published on 1 July 2026.
The areas differ as well as the methods. Domain put the Greater Brisbane house median at $1,212,562 for the quarter, well below the REIQ's $1.48 million for Brisbane. The release does not define the boundary of its Brisbane market; in earlier REIQ quarterly reports the Brisbane figure has referred to the Brisbane City Council area, which leaves out the cheaper outer councils that Greater Brisbane includes.
On units the sources are closer in direction. Domain had Brisbane's unit median down 1.2 per cent in the June quarter, almost the same as the REIQ's statewide fall of 1.22 per cent.
Lending fell faster than prices
The REIQ sets its price figures beside the Australian Bureau of Statistics lending indicators for the same quarter, released on 14 August. New housing loan commitments in Queensland fell 5.9 per cent to 29,543 in the June quarter, a slightly larger fall than the national decline of 5.4 per cent. On those figures Queensland accounts for about 22 per cent of the 134,225 new home loans the ABS counted across Australia.
The split by borrower is the telling part. Commitments to first home buyers fell 1.2 per cent, while commitments to property investors fell 10.1 per cent. Investors, in other words, stepped back about eight times as fast as first home buyers.
The ABS release shows Queensland in the middle of that national pattern. Investor loans fell 8.6 per cent across Australia, the largest quarterly fall since September 2022, with New South Wales down 15.5 per cent and Victoria 14.2 per cent. First home buyer loans fell 2.9 per cent nationally, more than twice Queensland's decline.
Related readUp 0.3% or down 0.2%? Two indexes split on Brisbane prices in JuneIn dollars, the ABS put new home lending across Australia at $97.6 billion for the quarter. Owner-occupier loans fell 3.3 per cent in number, and the bureau noted that their count was lower than a year earlier for the first time since September 2023. The total number of new home loans, at 134,225, was almost exactly where it had been in the June quarter of 2025.
A fall of 5.9 per cent to 29,543 implies about 31,400 commitments in the March quarter, or roughly 1,850 fewer loans in the June quarter. The ABS counts a commitment when a borrower accepts a lender's offer, and it leaves out refinancing, so the series tracks purchases and construction and not the churn of existing loans. Fewer commitments mean fewer buyers able to complete a purchase, and that tends to show up in sales counts and selling times before it shows up in a median price.
What the institute says is happening
The REIQ's explanation is about pace more than price. Agents report that the urgency of the past few years has gone, the release says, replaced by what it calls traditional real estate: fuller marketing campaigns, more due diligence by buyers and longer days on market. It presents those as the conditions that applied before the six-year run of exceptional growth.
It describes both sides of a sale fairly. Sellers face fewer and less hurried buyers while some still hold price hopes anchored to last year's results. Buyers have gained room to negotiate but face affordability hurdles and uncertainty about finance. Most existing owners, the institute adds, have built up considerable gains, and those who bought more lately were assessed under strict lending tests.
Related readBrisbane asking prices drop 1.7 per cent in August as unsold stock agesConfidence is the variable the release returns to. Some households are putting off large decisions until they have more certainty about the economy, tax policy, interest rates and their own finances, it says. The reasons people move, to buy, sell, upsize, downsize or relocate, have not gone away, and the institute lists population growth, lifestyle and the 2032 Games among the supports for demand.
How to read it, and what comes next
Two cautions apply. First, a quarterly median describes the homes that sold in the quarter, so it moves with the mix of sales as well as with prices. Second, the June quarter ended on 30 June, before the Cotality index recorded a 0.6 per cent fall in Brisbane dwelling values for July and before the Reserve Bank left the cash rate at 4.35 per cent on 11 August.
The REIQ's own comparison is with the September quarter of 2022, when the statewide medians also slipped amid higher borrowing costs and economic hesitation. That softness proved short-lived, the institute says, and it argues the state's underlying strengths are still in place. It stops short of predicting a repeat: the next two quarters, in its words, will show whether the fall becomes a pattern or reverses with the spring selling season.
Two dated releases bear on that. The Monetary Policy Board meets on 28 and 29 September, and the ABS publishes its September quarter lending indicators on 11 November. Taken on its own terms, the REIQ's June quarter is a mild one: a fall of less than 1 per cent after annual growth of more than 16 per cent, with a majority of major markets still rising.
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.
