What Our Last 50 Brisbane Purchases Tell Us About Buying Property

We went back through our last 50 purchases. Homes, investments and development sites, almost all in south east Queensland. We looked at how each one was bought, how long it took and where it was.

Here is what the numbers say.

The short version

• 44% were bought off market or pre market. They never appeared on a public listing.
• 12 of 13 development sites were bought that way.
• 26 days was the median time from signing with us to signing a contract.
• Only 3 of 50 were bought at auction.
• 41 different suburbs across 50 purchases.

1. Almost half the market never gets advertised

Of our last 50 purchases, 22 were off market or pre market. That's 44%. Those buyers never saw the home on realestate.com.au or Domain, because it was never there.

If you're only searching the portals, you're only looking at part of the market.

2. The more strategic the purchase, the less of it you'll see

The off market share climbs sharply with what's being bought:

Family homes still mostly sell on the open market. Development sites almost never get listed. Of the 13 sites in this group, only one was publicly advertised.

The reason is simple. Sellers of higher-value or harder-to-sell property want a quiet, certain sale, and agents take those opportunities to buyers they know are ready. That's where daily agent relationships matter. We go into how we find these homes, and how to avoid overpaying for them, in how to buy off market without overpaying.

3. Buying takes weeks, not months

The median time from signing with us to signing a contract was 26 days.

• 15 of 50 (30%) were under contract within two weeks
• 29 of 50 (58%) within a month
• 38 of 50 (76%) within two months

Family homes took a median of 31 days. Off market purchases were a little quicker than on market ones (22 days against 27), likely because there's no public campaign to wait out.

That doesn't mean we rush anyone. Some briefs are tightly held and take longer, and we'd rather wait than buy the wrong home. But most buyers are surprised how quickly it moves once the search is running properly. Here's how our process works, step by step.

4. Auctions are a small part of how property actually changes hands

Only 3 of our last 50 purchases were bought at auction.

Auctions get the headlines and the Saturday crowds, so it's easy to think they're how Brisbane property sells. For our buyers, most purchases were private negotiations, on or off the market.

When auction day is the right path, we set the strategy and the limit with you beforehand, then bid for you so the room never sets your price.

5. There's no such thing as one hot suburb

The 50 purchases were spread across 41 suburbs. 32 of them appear only once.

No suburb came up more than twice. The repeats were Alderley, Camp Hill, Chermside West, Hendra, Newstead, Northgate, Wavell Heights and Wynnum, plus North Lakes further out.

Buyers didn't all want the same postcode. They wanted the right home for their budget and plans, and that led them all over south east Queensland. That's why we start with your brief, not a suburb list. You can explore the areas in our Brisbane suburb guides.

6. What it costs to buy in the Brisbane property

The median purchase price across the 50 was about $1.1 million. It varied by what was being bought:

We work with buyers from around $750,000 up, and a first home gets the same attention as a multi-million dollar purchase. 10 of the 50 were first home buyers.

What this means if you're in the market

1. Don't treat the portals as the whole market. Nearly half of what we bought was never listed.
2. Be ready before you start. With a median of under four weeks to contract, finance, a clear brief and a solicitor need to be lined up early.
3. Don't fixate on auction day. Most homes change hands through negotiation, and that's where preparation pays off.
4. Keep an open mind on suburbs. The right home often turns up one suburb over from where you started.

What surprised me most is that a lot of the homes we end up buying on market, we'd already seen off market or pre market weeks before they hit the portals. We've usually been through them already, so when they do go public we're in a position to move and secure them fast.

How we worked this out

We took our 50 most recent settled purchases. Almost all were in south east Queensland, with three interstate or overseas. The figures come from our own records:

• How it was bought means on market, off market, pre market (bought before the public campaign started) or at auction.
• Time to contract is from the date the buyer signed our agreement to the date contracts were exchanged.
• Prices are the contract price. Two records with obvious entry errors were left out of the price figures.

This is one agency's book, not the whole market. We've shared it because it's real, recent and first-hand, and because most buyers never get to see numbers like these.

Frequently asked questions

How much Brisbane property sells off market?

As of October, 2026 our last 50 purchases, 44% were bought off market or pre market. It was 22% for family homes and 92% for development sites.

How long does it take a buyers agent to find a property?

For our buyers, the median was 26 days from signing with us to signing a contract. 58% were under contract within a month and 76% within two months.

Do most Brisbane homes sell at auction?

Not in our experience. Only 3 of our last 50 purchases were bought at auction. Most were private negotiations.

Ready to see the part of the market that isn't listed?

Book a free discovery call. It's a relaxed chat about what you want to buy, your budget and your timeline, with no obligation.

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