---
title: Under $750k, more than 1 in 4 Brisbane sellers have already cut their price. Over $1.5m, only 1 in 7 have
date: 2026-08-18
canonical: https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/blog/brisbane-buyers-market-price-staircase
section: Market data
---

# Under $750k, more than 1 in 4 Brisbane sellers have already cut their price. Over $1.5m, only 1 in 7 have

Published 2026-08-18 · [propertyxray.com.au](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/blog/brisbane-buyers-market-price-staircase)

> As of Monday 17 August 2026, there are 5,374 houses and townhouses listed on the market across greater Brisbane, and fewer than half come with a price tag. Group the priced ones into price brackets and you'll quickly find that different sellers behave wildly different. For instance, in the under $750k bracket, more than 1 in 4 have already cut this campaign. Over $1.5m, only about 1 in 7 have, and nearly 1 in 4 up there has been sitting 60 days plus without moving a dollar. I keep a daily record of every Brisbane listing. This week I counted who is cutting and who is not, from the cheapest advertisements up to the dearest.

Cheap end vs top end, whenever the market slows down a tiny bit, everybody has a theory about who blinks first. For me, I always believed that the cheap end would hold their line the hardest. Smaller mortgage, less fat in the price, fight for every dollar. And the top end gives first, they have the most room to give away. However, based on our data, it is the opposite.

As of Monday 17 August 2026, there are 5,374 established houses and townhouses on the market across greater Brisbane (postcodes 4000 to 4199, under contract excluded). Only 2,476 of them, fewer than half, actually show a price. The rest are the common phrases you see online, offers over, expressions of interest, contact agent, that sort of thing. You can't put a home on a price ladder if the advertisement won't name a price, so the table below is the priced advertisements only, split 4 ways.

| Asking price | Priced advertisements | % that have cut | Sitting 60+ days, no change |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Under $750k | 211 | 27.0% | 10.0% |
| $750k to $1m | 679 | 26.7% | 15.3% |
| $1m to $1.5m | 922 | 22.2% | 15.1% |
| Over $1.5m | 664 | 14.6% | 23.5% |

*Shares are of priced advertisements in each band. Advertisements showing wording instead of a dollar figure (more than half the market) cannot be banded and are not in this table. As at 17 August 2026.*

[Download CSV](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/data/brisbane-price-bands-2026-08.csv) (released under CC BY 4.0).

Note that: I didn't sort this table by cut rate. It's ordered by price band, and it just so happens the cheapest group has the highest cut rate and the dearest has the lowest, every step up in price is a step down in cutting. The frozen column climbs the other way, from 1 in 10 at the bottom to almost 1 in 4 at the top, though the 2 middle steps are level pegging this morning. A staircase, running both ways.

And it is not the price bracket creating this. Ignore the bands totally: the listings sitting 60+ days without a single price move ask a median of $1.29m, and the ones who cut sit almost a quarter of a million lower, $1.05m. (Both medians are houses and townhouses showing a genuine dollar figure, 420 sitters and 540 cutters, as at 17 August 2026.)

One honesty note before we go further. These counts move every day, sales, withdrawals and fresh stock coming on. Run the same query next Monday and some cells will have shifted a point or two. The levels wobble daily. The shape is the story.

## Cheap end vs top end

Why the cheap end deals and the top end waits? Why the staircase? Honestly, we can only guess. Data can see advertisements cleanly but it can never jump out of the screen to look into anyone's reality of mortgage. So, who owns these homes and how much they owe is invisible to the dataset. No way we can fix this blind spot ever. But the shape fits a simple story: at the cheap end the mortgage does the deciding, and at the top end equity buys you the luxury of not having to blink. And holding out isn't free either. For anyone who has already moved out, that empty house still costs them every week in interest and rates. The people doing it longest are the people who can.

No mortgage, no hurry.

For a buyer the practical read is this: the two ends of this table are different negotiations. At the bottom you are dealing with sellers who mostly have to transact. At the top you are dealing with sellers who mostly don't. The middle is a gradient between the two. Everything below is what that looks like on actual streets.

## A reader tried to break this table. It got stronger.

I put an early cut of this table in front of a few thousand Brisbane locals over the weekend, and the comments went at it straight away. One of them pushed back before anything else: Russell Island and Macleay Island are unique enough that you should exclude them, properties there are notoriously painful to sell. Fair point, and testable. So I split the under-$750k band into bay islands and mainland and re-ran it.

Mainland under $750k: 96 priced advertisements, 38.5% have cut this campaign. The islands: 115 priced advertisements, 17.4% cut. Take the islands out and the bottom step doesn't soften, it more than doubles the island cut rate. The cheap end of mainland Brisbane is dealing harder than any other group in this post.

I like this exchange more than the finding itself. The objection was supposed to shrink the number, instead the staircase got steeper. This is why you show your working in public. Free peer review, and occasionally it does your best analysis for you.

## The cheapest suburbs in Brisbane are not where they used to be

Someone always asks where the under-$750k houses went. So here is the answer straight from the record: of the 211 priced advertisements under $750k across all of greater Brisbane, 115 (more than half) are on the bay islands. The mainland has 96. Ninety-six priced advertisements under $750k, in a corridor of 5,374 homes for sale.

![Aerial view of Russell Island on its suburb page at propertyxray.com.au, with the island's boundary traced in gold and orange pins marking 141 development applications lodged near its streets in the last 12 months, surrounded by the waters of southern Moreton Bay.](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/images/russell-island-suburb-hero-2026-08.png)

*Russell Island, home of a third of greater Brisbane's priced under-$750k houses. Suburb page map, propertyxray.com.au.*

| Suburb | Priced advertisements under $750k | Cut this campaign |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Russell Island 4184 | 80 | 15 |
| Macleay Island 4184 | 24 | 3 |
| Woodridge 4114 | 15 | 6 |
| Kippa-Ring 4021 | 8 | 2 |
| Lamb Island 4184 | 8 | 1 |
| Slacks Creek 4127 | 6 | 3 |
| Marsden 4132 | 5 | 3 |
| Waterford West 4133 | 5 | 3 |
| Crestmead 4132 | 4 | 1 |
| Ellen Grove 4078 | 4 | 1 |
| Kingston 4114 | 4 | 3 |

*Houses and townhouses advertised with a dollar figure under $750,000 as at 17 August 2026, suburbs with 4 or more. Cut = at least one recorded drop this campaign.*

[Download CSV](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/data/brisbane-under-750k-by-suburb-2026-08.csv) (released under CC BY 4.0).

Read the mainland half of that list: [Woodridge](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/woodridge-4114), Slacks Creek, [Marsden](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/marsden-4132), Waterford West, [Crestmead](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/crestmead-4132), [Kingston](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/kingston-4114). That is the Logan corridor, plus [Kippa-Ring](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/kippa-ring-4021) holding the line up on the peninsula and a few in [Ellen Grove](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/ellen-grove-4078). Entry level houses didn't get expensive, they got pushed out to the next onion ring.

And the islands deserve their own honesty note. [Russell Island](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/russell-island-4184) is cheap for a reason: the suburb page counts 359 active listings of every type on the island right now, a lot of it vacant land, and its houses take a median 52 days just to go under offer. Endless supply, boat-access only, famously slow to sell. The reader was right that it is its own market. It is also, for better or worse, where a third of Brisbane's priced sub-$750k houses now live.

## The corridor where nobody blinks in public

A reader asked about the [Corinda](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/corinda-4075), [Sherwood](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/sherwood-4075), [Graceville](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/graceville-4075), Chelmer corridor, and it turned out to be the top step of the staircase in miniature. Between the 4 suburbs there are 53 houses and townhouses on the market this morning. About half don't name a price at all. Public price cuts across all 4 combined: 2. Frozen past 60 days: 19.

The inner north runs the same play. [Paddington](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/paddington-4064) has 39 up, only 11 with a dollar figure, 1 cut, 11 frozen. [Ashgrove](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/ashgrove-4060) is 37 up and 2 cuts. [Bardon](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/bardon-4065) 30 up, 1 cut, 8 frozen. Red Hill 19 up and only 3 even show a price. And the extreme of the whole exercise is [Auchenflower](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/auchenflower-4066): 11 on the market, ONE shows a price, zero cuts, 8 frozen past 60 days. The siege has not made a dent in that city wall yet.

This is what the top of the ladder does in a slow market. It doesn't cut, it hides the number and waits. Which means suburb-level averages up there are built on the handful of advertisements that do show a price, so treat them gently. Any discount that happens in that corridor happens in the negotiation room, not on the advertisement. More on that in a moment, because a reader sent me the receipt.

## Wynnum and Wynnum West, the staircase drawn on a map

My favourite pair in the whole record right now. Two suburbs, same postcode, next door to each other, behaving like different markets. [Wynnum](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/wynnum-4178): 39 on the market, 3 cuts, 11 frozen past 60 days. [Wynnum West](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/wynnum-west-4178): 38 on the market, 10 cuts, 4 frozen. Nearly identical stock counts, opposite personalities. Wynnum sits and waits, Wynnum West cuts and deals.

![Aerial view of Wynnum on its suburb page at propertyxray.com.au, with the suburb boundary traced in gold along the Moreton Bay waterfront and orange pins marking 138 development applications lodged near its streets in the last 12 months.](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/images/wynnum-suburb-hero-2026-08.png)

*Wynnum, the suburb that sits. Its neighbour one street back cuts. Suburb page map, propertyxray.com.au.*

I am not a bayside local, so I asked why, and a local drew me the map: Wynnum is the water views, the cafes and the esplanade. Wynnum West is the suburbia one street back, the McDonald's and the state school. The waterside sits and waits, the suburbia side blinks. Which is the whole staircase again, drawn on one map, at one price point. Local knowledge beats my spreadsheet on the why, every time.

The rest of the bayside reads like Wynnum, not Wynnum West. [Manly](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/manly-4179) 26 up and 2 cuts. Manly West 24 and 1. Lota 20 and zero. [Tingalpa](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/tingalpa-4173), one ring inland, 18 up and 3 cuts. Hemmant is a 9-listing market with none.

And hold both of these in your head at once, because they are both true: Wynnum's homes that DO sell are moving at a 29-day median. So the suburb sells quick and sits long at the same time. A slow band is not a discount bin, it is a queue of sellers who priced for a market that left, standing next to homes priced right that sell in a month. Your job as a buyer is telling the two apart.

![Supply and demand panel from the Wynnum suburb page on propertyxray.com.au reading 74 active listings, a 29-day median days on market for houses off 25 recorded sales, and 7 asking-price cuts in the last 90 days, with the market flagged soft and worth caution.](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/images/wynnum-supply-demand-2026-08.png)

*Wynnum on its own suburb page, as at August 2026. The panel counts every property type, 74 active listings, and cuts over a 90-day window including sold and withdrawn homes. The counts in this post are houses and townhouses genuinely on the market this morning, 39. Different cohorts, both true. Suburb page, propertyxray.com.au.*

## The $150k discount that never appeared on any advertisement

This is the story that matters most if you are buying, and it came from a reader, not from my database.

He had been looking with a $900k ceiling and walked through a 3-bed townhouse in [Moorooka](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/moorooka-4105). The ask was $1.1m plus, so he walked away. Recently he bought elsewhere, a townhouse in [Annerley](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/suburb/annerley-4103) at $950k. Then his phone rang. It was the Moorooka agent, calling to ask if he was still interested, because the seller would now accept $950,000.

That is a $150,000 move. Now go and check my record for Moorooka: 26 on the market, 2 recorded cuts. That seller's retreat never appeared on any advertisement and never will. To my data, and to every portal, that campaign still looks firm.

So let me say the quiet part loudly: every cut number in this post is a floor. The advertisements look firm while the phone calls get soft. Asking-price data can only understate how soft this market really is, because the real cuts happen in the negotiation room, one buyer at a time. The staircase you can see is real. There is a second, steeper one you can't.

The advertisement tells you the ask and nothing else. Flood, easements, what's been approved next door, what the block has done before. Check any Queensland address, free and no signup:

And the practical lesson from that reader is the best negotiation advice in this post: leave your number and walk. In this market, they call back.

## How to negotiate house price, band by band

What all of this means when you are actually standing at an open home, band by band.

- Under $750k (mainland): you are in the band where sellers deal. Nearly 4 in 10 mainland advertisements here have already cut, and it is the least frozen band on the ladder. If the one you want hasn't cut yet, that is not a wall, this band has form. Make the conversation happen. The harder question in this band is not the negotiation, it is the stock: decide the Logan-or-islands trade-off honestly before you fall in love with a price tag.
- $750k to $1.5m: the middle of the staircase, and the widest spread of seller behaviour. Roughly 1 in 4 cuts, but the frozen share climbs to 1 in 7. So the job here is sorting fresh stock from stale: ask how long it has really been on the market and when the price last changed, and check the address yourself rather than trusting the advertisement's day counter. A 70-day campaign at an unchanged price is a different conversation from a fresh listing, even when the two advertisements look identical.
- Over $1.5m: the ask is more like a wish, but the person behind it is comfortable waiting you out. Only 1 in 7 has publicly budged and almost 1 in 4 has sat 60 days plus without touching the price. Up here the advertisement often doesn't even name a number, so the entire negotiation is invisible. More room in the price, longer wait to get it, and no guarantee they ever say yes. Patience is the currency.
- Every band: two questions for the agent. What was the last advertised price and when did it change. What offers have been declined. Then the Moorooka move: put your number down, in writing, and walk. A seller who says no in July has your phone number in September.

How much below asking should you offer? There is no percentage rule, and anyone who gives you one is guessing. What the data gives you instead is the shape of the room: at the bottom of the ladder the gap between ask and deal is small but the seller engages. At the top the gap can be six figures, the Moorooka case was $150k, or it can be zero because the seller doesn't need you. Read the band, read the campaign age, then make the offer you can defend with recent comparable sales, not a percentage. Recent matters: in a market that is moving, a comp from last spring justifies last spring's price, and you are not buying in last spring.

## What I'll watch from here

One snapshot is not a trend, and I'll keep publishing this count, same rules, every week. What I want to know next is whether the staircase holds when the spring stock arrives. If the top step starts cutting publicly, something changed.

But there is a third door I haven't opened yet. All winter I have watched homes that never cut, never sell, and then one day quietly leave the market altogether. No sold sticker, no price drop, just gone. Where do they go, and how many come back wearing a fresh advertisement and a reset day counter? That is next week.

Meanwhile the weekly cut list lives on the [Deal Radar page](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/deals), free, every Friday. And the two companion pieces to this one: [the silent sitters](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/blog/brisbane-days-on-market-silent-sitters), on the homes that sit 60+ days without cutting, and [price cuts aren't working in Brisbane](https://propertyxray.com.au/qld/blog/brisbane-property-market-price-cuts), on the four moves sellers make when the price fails.

## How I counted this

The definitions carry this post, so here they are straight.

- "Brisbane" means postcodes 4000 to 4199: the council area plus Logan, the Redlands and the southern Redcliffe peninsula.
- Everything is as at Monday 17 August 2026. Houses and townhouses only, matched on exact type. Units, land and acreage are out. So is project stock: house-and-land packages, staged releases, lot addresses, anything advertised "From $X". So are homes already under contract.
- A "priced" advertisement shows a genuine dollar figure. Figures under $50,000 are treated as parse junk and excluded. Advertisements that show wording instead of a number, more than half the market, cannot be put in a price band, so every share in this post is a share of priced advertisements.
- A cutter has at least one recorded drop in its advertised price this campaign. Drops deeper than 22 percent are treated as bad price parses and thrown out, and listings with 3 or more recorded drops are treated as hidden-price advertisement flicker rather than a seller deciding things, and thrown out too.
- Frozen means advertised 60+ days on the same campaign, counted from the day I first saw the advertisement, with no recorded price change of any kind: no cut, no rise, no dollar figure quietly swapped for wording, and no earlier campaign on record. The campaign clock does not reset when a home relists.
- Every campaign age is a floor. My record starts in late April 2026, so campaigns older than the record look younger than they are.
- These counts move every day as homes sell, withdraw and list. Cut the same table 2 days apart and cells shift a point or two. The companion posts carry their own earlier snapshots, each stamped with its own date, so compare the shape across posts, never the decimals.

## FAQ

### What are the cheapest suburbs in Brisbane to buy a house?

On asking prices, as at 17 August 2026, the cheapest stock in greater Brisbane sits in 2 places: the bay islands and the Logan corridor. Of 211 houses and townhouses advertised under $750,000 with a visible price, 115 are on Russell Island, Macleay Island and Lamb Island, and most of the mainland remainder is in Woodridge, Slacks Creek, Marsden, Waterford West, Crestmead and Kingston, with a pocket at Kippa-Ring on the Redcliffe peninsula. The islands are cheap for real reasons: boat access, huge supply and slow resale, so treat them as a different market. On the mainland, the honest headline is scarcity: 96 priced advertisements under $750,000 across the whole corridor, out of 5,374 homes for sale.

### What is a buyers market, and is Brisbane one right now?

A buyers market is when there are more sellers who need to sell than buyers ready to buy, so the negotiating power sits with the buyer: campaigns run longer, prices get cut, and offers under the ask get taken seriously. Brisbane right now is a buyers market that depends on which band you shop in. Under $750k on the mainland, sellers are engaging like it's a buyers market, nearly 4 in 10 priced advertisements have already cut. Over $1.5m, the behaviour says the opposite, 1 in 7 cut and almost 1 in 4 frozen for 60+ days, because those sellers can afford to wait it out. One reader's experience says it plainest: a townhouse he walked away from at $1.1m came back to him by phone at $950k. The market has softened. The advertisements just don't all say so.

### How much below asking price should I offer in Brisbane?

There is no safe percentage, and the data in this post shows why: seller behaviour differs completely by price band. Under $750k the asks are closer to real, sellers there have already adjusted publicly. Over $1.5m the ask is often aspirational and the real discount, when it exists, is negotiated privately, sometimes six figures deep. Instead of a percentage, price the home off recent comparable sales, ask the agent what the last advertised price was and when it changed, ask what offers have been declined, and anchor on how long the campaign has really run. Then make your offer and be prepared to walk. Sellers in this market keep buyers' numbers.

### Why do so many Brisbane listings have no price?

Fewer than half of greater Brisbane's houses and townhouses on the market, 2,476 of 5,374 as at 17 August 2026, show a dollar figure. The rest use offers over, expressions of interest or contact agent. Some of that is auction rules, but much of it is strategy: a hidden number can't be seen being cut, and at the top of the market hiding the price is close to standard practice, in Auchenflower just 1 of 11 current advertisements names a figure. For a buyer the workaround is to price the home yourself from comparable sales and campaign age, because the wording on the advertisement tells you the seller's posture, not the home's value.