October 2026 · Issue #11
Unsold listings are up 22% nationally — Brisbane’s stale-stock share is still the smallest of the big three
Two data houses published the same story this week from different angles: there are a lot more homes for sale than a year ago, and a lot fewer of them are changing hands. Cotality has capital-city listings up 22% year on year, concentrated in older stock in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, while housing turnover has fallen 19.1% over the same period and sits 13.3% below its five-year average.
Cotality capital-city listings & turnover · past 12 months
| Capital-city listings, year-on-year | +22% |
| Housing turnover, year-on-year | −19.1% |
| Turnover vs five-year average | −13.3% |
| Older-stock growth concentrated in | Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide |
How stale is “stale”
SQM Research’s Total Property Listings report, dated 2 October, puts a sharper number on it: listings sitting on the market for more than 180 days rose 10.5% nationally over the past year, with the steepest increases — above 25% — in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane alike. SQM’s Louis Christopher called it a symptom of a soft and weak market, speaking nationally rather than about any one city.
SQM Research · share of listings on market 180+ days, September 2026
| Melbourne | 21%+ |
| Sydney | 18% |
| Brisbane | 10%+ |
| National, including regional markets | 28% |
Brisbane’s stock is growing just as fast, but it still clears sooner
Brisbane’s stale listings climbed at the same rate as Sydney’s and Melbourne’s over the past year — more than 25% — so the trend line looks identical on a chart. What the chart hides is the starting point: even after that growth, only a bit over one in ten Brisbane listings has been sitting for six months or more, against roughly one in five in Melbourne and almost one in five in Sydney. A bigger number of total listings isn’t the same thing as a slower-clearing market.
It’s the share that’s stuck, not the count that’s grown, that actually tells you how a market is moving.
The Redlands read
Selling, buying or holding
If you’re selling, priced-right homes here are still clearing well inside that six-month window. The listings adding to the stale count are almost always the ones still anchored to last year’s prices.
If you’re buying, more total stock nationally means more to compare and a longer runway before a seller feels real pressure — that’s leverage worth using.
If you’re holding, Brisbane’s stale share is still well under half Melbourne’s. A “listings piling up” national headline is describing Sydney and Melbourne’s problem more than ours.
General information only — not financial, tax or legal advice.
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Greg Leigh — local Redlands specialist, Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty. Published 21 October 2026.
Sources: Cotality capital-city listings and housing turnover data, year to October 2026; SQM Research, Total Property Listings, September 2026 (dated 2 October 2026).