Brisbane home values fell again in September. Here’s what that means if you’re thinking about selling.
Buyers have more choice and are taking their time, which makes preparation, pricing and good follow-up more important than they were twelve months ago.
Even after the recent falls, Brisbane home values are still higher than a year ago: up 5.9% according to Cotality and 4.1% according to PropTrack. That’s the citywide picture. Your own result will depend on your suburb, your home and when you bought. Conditions have changed, but that doesn’t wipe out the growth many owners have built up over the years.
What happened in September
The RBA lifted the cash rate again, 0.25 percentage points to 4.60%, the fourth rise this year, a unanimous call. The Board’s statement was blunt: inflation’s “still too high,” and the risks they flagged back in August are “now materialising.” (RBA Board Statement, 29 September 2026)
Two major property research firms don’t agree on the size of September’s fall, but they agree on the direction. Cotality has Brisbane home values down 1.5% for the month, the largest monthly fall of any capital, and now 5.4% below the May peak. PropTrack recorded a smaller fall of 0.2%. Either way, annual growth has slowed: Cotality’s figure dropped from 10.8% in August to 5.9% in September; PropTrack’s from 7.5% to 4.1%.
There are more homes on the market and sales are taking longer. Cotality has total Brisbane listings 53.3% higher than the same period a year ago, though a bigger pool of homes for sale isn’t the same as a flood of new sellers; a lot of that stock is existing listings sitting for longer rather than a wave of fresh ones. Cotality’s October home value report estimates Brisbane sales over the past three months are down 27.2% on the same period last year, the largest fall of any capital, and the median time to sell in Brisbane has risen to 35 days, up from 19 days a year earlier. (Listings: four weeks to 6 September, vs. the year-earlier period. Sales: three months to September vs. a year ago. Days on market: three months to August vs. a year ago. All Cotality.)
What the experts are saying
Cotality’s research director Tim Lawless summed up the broader downturn plainly: “97% of capital city suburbs were down in value over the three months to end of September.” That’s across the combined capital cities, not Brisbane alone, but it shows how widespread this slowdown has been. In commentary shared directly with Agent Up, Domain’s Chief of Research and Economics, Dr Nicola Powell, described conditions as “clear signs of moderation after several years of exceptionally strong conditions,” with buyers now “more selective” and taking longer to decide.
Buyers agent Melinda Jennison (Streamline Property Buyers), writing in early August, called the slowdown “a genuine correction rather than simply a loss of momentum,” and said Brisbane should now be viewed as “a collection of local markets rather than a single uniform market.” Back in February, property analyst Michael Matusik pointed out that Brisbane started the year strongly, but buyers’ budgets were becoming a limit on further growth.
What it means if you’re selling in Brisbane or Ipswich right now
The market’s genuinely cooler than six months ago. A slower market still has opportunities for sellers, but it does call for a different approach to selling than the one that worked through 2024 and early 2025.
You can’t control the wider market. What you can control is how your home is presented, how it’s priced, and how well your agent follows up buyers and negotiates once an offer lands.
Here’s some useful context while you weigh that up. In the June quarter, 99.8% of Brisbane resales analysed by Cotality sold for more than their previous purchase price, with a typical gain of about $525,000, before buying, selling and other ownership costs. Brisbane has held the top spot among the capitals on this measure since mid-2024. Most of those sellers had owned for a while, too: Cotality puts the median holding period for a profitable Brisbane resale at 8.2 years, which is a big part of why the gain is so large. It’s built up gradually over years of growth, not just what’s happened in the last few months.
If you bought more recently, closer to the top of the market, your position could be quite different, and that’s a conversation worth having honestly rather than glossing over. Those figures show what years of ownership have delivered, rather than what every seller can expect today.
In a market like this, the work matters: making inspections easy to arrange, following up every enquiry, listening to buyer feedback and negotiating properly when an offer comes in. A well-researched price range gets the campaign started in the right spot. The selling still has to happen.
This is where a clear plan earns its keep. We explain the recent sales behind our recommended range, agree on the approach together, and keep you informed as buyer feedback comes in. Our commission is 1% + GST (minimum $11,000 inc. GST), with marketing costs kept separate and agreed upfront.
Want a straight read on where your place sits in the current market? Book a free discovery call.