Brisbane recorded its steepest quarterly house-price fall on record in the September quarter, according to Domain's latest House Price Report, released on Thursday (22 October). The median fell 5.4 per cent, or $66,001, to $1,152,122, ending a 14-quarter run of growth.
The result was the city's first quarterly house-price decline in almost four years. Domain said the median was below its June 2026 peak, although houses remained 5.3 per cent dearer than a year earlier. That annual growth rate was the weakest in three years.
Units also lost ground, with the median falling 3 per cent to $783,357 during the quarter. The report described that as the sharpest quarterly unit-price fall in more than six years, while annual growth slowed to 10.5 per cent.
Brisbane unit prices have now fallen for two consecutive quarters. Domain said houses and units declined together for the first time in 6.5 years, describing an increasingly broad-based slowdown rather than weakness confined to detached homes.
Local markets
The citywide fall did not extend uniformly across every area. Brisbane Times reported that house prices held at $950,000 in the Loganlea-Carbrook region, while Springwood-Kingston rose 1.8 per cent to $946,500 and Brisbane Inner City edged up 0.2 per cent to $2,087,500.
Domain's methodology distinguishes between those smaller areas and capital-city figures. The report says capital-city medians are stratified, while other geographies use a middle sale price. The regional figures are therefore reported on a different methodological basis from the Brisbane-wide measure.
Buyer conditions
Nationally, the report recorded house-price falls in every capital city for the first time in 15 years and only the second time on record. Domain attributed weak confidence to higher interest rates, persistent living costs and changes to housing investment tax policy, while saying signs of distressed sales remained largely contained.
There was also a more favourable side for buyers able to transact. Australian Associated Press reported in the Guardian that Domain chief residential economist Nicola Powell saw longer selling times, greater scope to negotiate and more realistic seller expectations. She said buyers with secure finances and the capacity to purchase had opportunities that had been difficult to find in recent years.
Domain's report said a broader recovery would depend on improvements in buyer confidence and purchasing capacity. It expected performance to remain uneven between cities, reflecting local supply conditions, affordability pressures and the extent of their preceding growth cycles.