Brisbane housing over 20 years: what the government data shows

At a glance

1. House prices have outrun wages

The chart sets three things to 100 in early 2002 so they can be compared on one scale: the median price of houses sold in Greater Brisbane, Queensland wages, and everyday prices in Brisbane (the Consumer Price Index). A line at 300 means that measure has tripled since 2002.

From early 2002 to mid-2026 the median house price rose ×6.2, from $185,000 to $1,155,000, an average of about 7.9% a year. Wages rose ×2.1 and everyday prices about ×2.0. After removing inflation, houses rose about ×3.1.

The gap opened in two bursts: the mid-2000s boom, and the rise from 2020. From 2008 to 2012 prices barely moved ($425,000 to $435,000), and after inflation they fell about 7%. Since the end of 2019 prices have risen ×2.1 while wages rose ×1.2.

Years of pay to buy the median house

Dividing the median price by a year of full-time pay gives a rough measure of how stretched prices are. We use the ABS figure for average full-time ordinary-time earnings in Queensland, before tax: $2,040 a week in May 2026, or about $106,000 a year.

From 2004 to 2019 the ratio stayed between about 6 and 8 years. It is now close to 11.

2. What a mortgage takes from a wage

Price alone does not tell you what owning costs, because interest rates change what a loan costs each month. This chart estimates the monthly repayment on the median Brisbane house and shows it as a share of one full-time Queensland wage before tax.

• Lower rates hid the price rise until 2022. At the end of 2021 prices were far higher than in 2019, but a 3.45% rate kept the repayment share at 37%.
• Then rates rose. By mid-2026 the same calculation gives $6,023 a month, 68% of one full-time wage. The previous high in this data was 58% in early 2008.
• The September rise adds to it. If the 0.25 percentage point rise on 29 September is passed on in full, the June-quarter repayment rises to about $6,178 a month.
• Two incomes change the picture. With two full-time earners the share is about half, around 34%. The trend is the same.

3. Interest rates and inflation over 30 years

• Rates are not high by historical standards. The cash rate averaged 5.5% from 1996 to 2007, 3.0% from 2008 to 2019 and 2.5% since 2020. Today's 4.60% is below the pre-2008 average.
• Inflation has stayed above target. It averaged 2.7% from 1995 to 2007 and 2.3% from 2008 to 2019, but 3.7% since 2020, peaking at 7.9% at the end of 2022. Against that backdrop, the RBA has raised the cash rate four times in 2026.
• The real interest rate is still low. Subtracting inflation, today's cash rate is about 0.7%. Before 2008 it averaged about 2.9%; in mid-2022 it was -5.5%.
• What has changed is the size of the debt. Australian households owe housing debt equal to 135% of their yearly disposable income, against 51% in 1995. With bigger loans relative to income, each rate rise adds more to household repayments than it did when debt was lower.

4. Brisbane compared with Sydney and Melbourne

Since the end of 2019 Brisbane's median house price has risen ×2.1, against ×1.5 in Sydney and ×1.1 in Melbourne. In the June quarter 2026 the medians were $1,155,000 in Brisbane, $1,487,600 in Sydney and $850,000 in Melbourne. At the end of 2019 Brisbane's median ($550,000) was well below Melbourne's ($760,000); it is now about $305,000 above it. This data shows how far prices have moved, not whether they will move back.

5. Fewer houses changing hands

35,839 established houses were sold in Greater Brisbane in the 12 months to June 2026. The June quarter alone was about 31% lower than a year earlier, on preliminary figures, in line with private-sector estimates of a sharp fall in sales. Sales volumes usually fall before prices do: buyers step back first and sellers adjust later.

6. Rents

The ABS rent measure covers existing as well as new leases across Australia, so it moves more slowly than advertised rents. Since 1995 rents have risen ×2.6, against ×2.3 for everyday prices. They have risen 26% since the end of 2019 and 3.6% in the year to September 2026. Rising rents and a slowing sales market can exist side by side: they answer to different buyers and different costs.

7. What is pushing up living costs, and the costs of owning a home

The ABS monthly Consumer Price Index shows which prices are rising fastest. It is a different series from the quarterly figures used above: in the 12 months to September 2026, monthly CPI inflation was 4.3% nationally and 4.4% in Brisbane, and trimmed mean inflation, which the RBA watches for the underlying trend, was 3.6%.

Housing is the biggest single contributor

Housing costs rose 5.2% over the year and added 1.14 percentage points to inflation, about 26% of the total. Within housing, the cost of building a new home added 0.35 points, electricity 0.30 and rents 0.23.

Costs that home owners pay, year to September 2026 (Australia)

• Building costs are rising faster again. The price of a new home rose 4.7%, up from 1.5% a year earlier. See our Greenbank building cost analysis for what that means for one build.
• Holding costs are rising faster than inflation. Water, council rates and insurance all rose faster than the 4.3% headline rate, and owners pay them whether or not the home is mortgaged.
• Electricity swings a lot. Government bill rebates change what households pay, so electricity can jump or fall sharply from one year to the next as rebates start and end.

Brisbane compared with other capitals

Brisbane's inflation is close to the national rate, so the pressure on Brisbane households is not mainly a local cost-of-living problem. What sets Brisbane apart is how far house prices rose relative to incomes.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Consumer Price Index, Australia, September 2026, tables 1, 3, 4 and 6 (CC BY 4.0). National figures are the weighted average of the eight capital cities.

What this data can and cannot tell you

Find this data yourself

• House prices and sales by city: ABS Residential Dwellings (quarterly).
• Wages: ABS Wage Price Index (quarterly) and Average Weekly Earnings (twice a year).
• Inflation: ABS Consumer Price Index (monthly and quarterly, including which items are driving it), or RBA table G1.
• Interest rates: RBA tables F1.1 (cash rate) and F5 (mortgage rates).
• Household debt: RBA table E2.

All are free to download. For what is happening this month, see our Brisbane property market, October 2026 article.

How we compiled this article

• Data was downloaded on 31 October 2026 from the ABS Data API and RBA statistical tables. All series are official published figures; PropertyMaths has only indexed, totalled and divided them as described under each chart.
• House prices are the ABS median price of established house transfers for Greater Brisbane, Greater Sydney and Greater Melbourne. A median moves with the mix of homes sold, so a quarter with more expensive sales lifts it.
• Repayments assume an 80% loan of the quarter's median price over 30 years, principal and interest, at the RBA's discounted variable owner-occupier indicator rate (available from June 2004). The June 2026 rate is before the 29 September rise.
• Earnings are Queensland full-time adult average weekly ordinary-time earnings, before tax, published each May and November; quarters in between use the latest figure.

Limits

• One earner's gross pay is a simple yardstick, not typical household income; many buyers have two incomes and many owners bought earlier at lower prices.
• Indicator rates are benchmarks. The average rate actually paid on new loans can differ.
• Greater Brisbane figures cover very different suburbs; a city median says nothing about any one of them.
• Recent quarters can be revised.