Brisbane’s median house price is $1,207,039, and the market that produced it has turned. Brisbane peaked in May 2026 and has fallen in each of the two months since, which puts it 0.7% below its high.
That makes the Brisbane question a different one to the one investors were asking in March. The numbers below are current to 31 July 2026.
Brisbane median house price right now
Cotality’s Home Value Index at 31 July 2026 puts Brisbane houses at a median of $1,207,039 and units at $875,135. The combined dwelling median is $1,104,094.
Values fell 0.6% in July and 0.6% over the quarter. The annual figure is still +14.8%, but that number is almost entirely the boom that ran through to autumn. Brisbane was rising at an average 1.9% a month through the March quarter. It is now going backwards.
PropTrack’s index has Brisbane at a $1,060,000 median, down 0.3% in July and 1.3% off its peak. The two indices measure differently, so the direction matters more than the decimal.
The national market Brisbane sits in
The national market peaked in March 2026. Values have now fallen for four consecutive months and sit 2.0% below that peak. July’s 0.7% national fall was the largest single month since December 2022.
Rates are the reason. The RBA has raised the cash rate three times in 2026, a total of 75 basis points, and held at 4.35% on 16 June. Anyone still modelling on the cuts that were expected a year ago is working from the wrong number.
Liquidity has gone with it. Capital city sales over the three months to June were 16.2% below the same period a year earlier, and 14.5% below the five-year average. Auction clearance rates have sat under 50% since late May.
Brisbane yields are now among the lowest
This is the change that matters most for investors, and it gets missed because the growth headline is still positive.
Brisbane’s gross yield is 3.4% on dwellings, 3.2% on houses and 4.0% on units. Cotality now names Brisbane and Sydney as the two lowest-yielding capital cities in the country.
Vacancy tells the same story. Brisbane sits at 1.9%, which Cotality has as the equal-highest capital city vacancy rate alongside Sydney. The inner postcode 4000 is at 2.7%, up from 1.6% in March.
Brisbane spent five years being sold as the high-yield capital. On the current numbers it is not, and a brief built on that assumption needs revisiting.
Where the yield actually is
The city average hides the part investors care about. Vacancy in the outer corridors is a different market: postcode 4114 sits at 0.3%, and 4300 and 4207 both sit at 0.7%.
These are the affordable house markets. Growth below covers the twelve months to May 2026:
| Suburb | Median | 12m growth | Rent | Yield | Vacancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bundamba | $782,500 | +23.23% | $580 | 3.85% | not published |
| Woodridge | $800,000 | +23.08% | $570 | 3.71% | 0.3% |
| Kingston | $822,500 | +20.96% | $590 | 3.73% | 0.3% |
| Deception Bay | $850,000 | +14.79% | $600 | 3.67% | not published |
| Springfield Lakes | $921,250 | +16.61% | $670 | 3.78% | 0.7% |
| Browns Plains | $925,000 | +25.76% | $630 | 3.54% | not published |
Yields are calculated from the median rent against the median price in the same row, so the three numbers reconcile. SQM publishes no vacancy series for the Bundamba, Deception Bay or Browns Plains postcodes.
Read those growth figures as history. They cover the twelve months to May 2026, which is the boom, and they end at the month Brisbane peaked. They tell you where demand was, not where the next twelve months go.
What survives the turn is the vacancy column. A suburb renting at 0.3% is a different proposition to a city renting at 1.9%, and that gap is the case for buying the corridor rather than the average.
What the forecasters expect
The spread between forecasters is wide, and most of it is a disagreement about interest rates rather than housing.
NAB moved to -5% for the eight capitals over 2026 on 4 August, having been at -2% in June. It puts the mid-sized capitals, Brisbane’s cohort, at -2% to -4%. AMP sees roughly -7% peak to trough by the June quarter of 2027. CBA has the year flat, cut from +5% in March.
KPMG’s number reads more positive at +4.6% for Brisbane houses, and it is worth understanding why. That is a full calendar year figure that already banks the very large January to May gains, so it is entirely compatible with Brisbane falling from here. It is not a forecast of growth from today.
One caution on all of it. The RBA meets again on 11 August 2026, and Westpac has said publicly it will revise its housing forecasts straight after. Any number in this section could move within the week.
What to weigh up before buying
The average is falling and the corridors are not, yet. Outer vacancy at 0.3% to 0.7% is real. But Brisbane is two months into a downturn, and the suburb data here predates it.
Yields no longer carry the argument. At 3.4% gross, a Brisbane purchase leans on growth, and growth has just turned negative. Our view on growth and yield together applies with more force in a market at this point of its cycle.
Negative gearing changed in the May 2026 Budget. Cotality’s read is that modest yield increases will not be enough to encourage purchases of existing property under the new framework. The 2027 negative gearing and CGT changes shift the arithmetic on anything bought from here.
Revisions have been running one way. Cotality revised Brisbane’s June result down 41 basis points in the following month’s release, and warns revisions run larger during rapid transitions.
Where this leaves a Brisbane brief
Brisbane is no longer the trade it was in 2023. The city median has peaked, the yield is among the country’s lowest, and the vacancy rate is among its highest.
What remains is specific rather than citywide. Outer corridors under $850,000 with vacancy under 1%, bought on numbers that work at 4.35% rather than on the growth of the last three years. That is a narrower brief than Brisbane has needed for a long time, and it is the kind of market where the suburb decides the result. Our Brisbane buyers agent page sets out the suburbs we target and why.
This is general information only and not financial advice. Speak to a qualified professional before making investment decisions.
If you want a Brisbane brief built on current numbers rather than last year’s, book a free discovery call.
Sources
- Median values, monthly and annual change, yields, peak dates and vacancy: Cotality Home Value Index, August 2026 release, index results as at 31 July 2026
- Corroborating index: PropTrack Home Price Index, July 2026, published 3 August 2026
- Suburb medians, growth and yields: Your Investment Property, CoreLogic data for the twelve months to May 2026
- Postcode vacancy rates: SQM Research, June 2026
- Cash rate: RBA monetary policy decision, 16 June 2026
- Forecasts: NAB Housing Monitor (4 August 2026), AMP (7 August 2026), CBA (4 June 2026), KPMG (4 August 2026)
