The Gold Coast has defied housing trends across the country, growing its median home price while Brisbane and the rest of Australia sank. PropTrack’s Home Price Index for July 2026 revealed the city’s median rose 0.05 per cent in July, hitting $1.182m again after a drop in June. Queensland’s lifestyle city outperformed Brisbane and the national average, which both fell 0.3 per cent.
“Gold Coast home prices managed to rise again in July despite a 0.3 per cent national drop, going up after dipping last month for the first time in three and a half years.”
Kollosche managing director Michael Kollosche said while fears over interest rates and the federal budget created a few months of opportunity for Gold Coast buyers, he expected the window to be short.
“It’s turned into a solid market that is not really tied to any of the capital cities anymore,” Mr Kollosche said.
“There are not as many bidders at auction and not as much competition, but sellers are remaining firm on their prices and the ability to negotiate with them is going to become harder.”
Kollosche managing director Michael Kollosche said buyers looking for prices to fall further in the Gold Coast could be out of luck.
The Gold Coast’s median home price sits well above Brisbane’s, which sank to $1.06m in July. The capital’s latest drop was larger than in June, which was the first time home price fell since November 2022. Mr Kollosche said severe undersupply in the Gold Coast and a lack of pressure to sell meant buyers would soon be pressured to start competing for new homes again.
“At the moment we need 9250 homes a year just to meet the current migration levels, and I think we only had about 4000 dwellings approved last year,” he said.
The city has been unable to build homes fast enough to meet migration levels, leading to tight supply and rising home prices. PropTrack senior economist Anne Flaherty said a domino effect of interest-rate hikes, changes to the federal budget and reduced competition had led to unstable market conditions.
“I do think [Australia] is going to continue to become even more of a buyers market,” she said. “We’re predicting prices have further to fall before the end of the year.
PropTrack senior economist Anne Flaherty said areas such as Brisbane were becoming more of a buyer’s market in comparison to the Gold Coast, with prices expected to fall further Ms Flaherty said announced restrictions on negative gearing and changes to the Capital Gains Tax meant buyers were dealing with less competition from investors.
“It is pretty reasonable to assume we’ve seen an overall decrease in buyer demand from a decrease in investor demand,” she said.
“I think the rush to get into the market that we see when prices are rising rapidly isn’t there at the moment … so I think buyers are in a better position to bargain.”
Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns all saw price falls in July, with the Gold Coast and Darwin managing to see growth as the nation’s market stalled. Regional markets that managed to hold firm last month were finally hit in July, with median prices in Townsville and Cairns falling 0.07 per cent and 0.16 per cent.
Nationally, Australia’s monthly growth for all dwellings dropped 0.3 per cent, sinking 0.4 per cent for houses and 0.2 per cent for units. Darwin was the only capital city to rise in price, outpacing the rest of the country by jumping 0.1 per cent over the month.
Article originally written for the Gold Coast Bulletin and shared here.
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