There’s caution tape all over this Woodridge home which is up for sale as Australia’s listings crunch intensifies.
Derelict homes have become hot property as the housing crunch intensifies – with buyers bidding up to $1.2 million on crumbling properties they can’t even inspect because it’s too dangerous.
At 9 Jean Street, Woodridge, potential buyers stand on the footpath, peering through overgrown bushes to spy plants growing out of a swamp-like swimming pool, and windows all boarded up. What they can’t see – and aren’t safely able to see – is the inside. It’s too structurally dangerous to enter, but will still go to auction packing strong interest.
Welcome to Australia’s housing crunch in 2026, where the national median home price – $880,000 as recently as December – buys you a knockdown shell destined for demolition at 704 Samford Road, Mitchelton.
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This is what $880k bought in Brisbane last week. at 704 Samford Road, Mitchelton.
This crumbling property at 704 Samford Road, Mitchelton, sold for Australia’s median home price ($880,000)..
Behind this desperation lies a brutal reality: Australia’s property listings have plunged to crisis levels, with SQM Research finding they’ve dropped by 10 per cent in just 12 months – as the worst-hit cities see falls of twice to triple that pace.
More than one in three properties have vanished off the market in Darwin (down 36.7 per cent) compared to the same time last year, with Brisbane falling by nearly one in five (down 19.6 per cent), and Perth seeing an 18 per cent decline in supply.
The Real Estate Buyers Agent Association of Australia flagged it as one of “the most significant supply shortages in years” coming just as competition intensifies – twin factors that should drive prices even higher.
REBAA president Melinda Jennison said “we’re not just dealing with seasonal fluctuations because there is a structural shortage of listings and buyers are feeling the pressure nationwide”.
“When listings fall nearly 20 per cent or more in a year, as they have in Brisbane and Darwin, buyers simply don’t have enough choice. That’s when access to pre-market and off-market opportunities becomes absolutely critical.”
Realestate.com.au currently lists 19,682 homes tagged “renovate” nationwide, with a further nine openly listed as “derelict” and 26 marketed as “renovate or detonate” – industry code for properties that might need complete demolition.
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As the hunt for land becomes more competitive, buyers seem more willing to look through rdemolition-worthy features like this pool at 77 Nioka Street, Brookfield.
Whoever buys 77 Nioka Street, Brookfield, will have a massive clean up but it is just 8km from Brisbane CBD.
Buyers are willing to pay serious money – from over half a million dollars to as much as $1.2 million for a squatter-trashed home that sold last weekend – for properties they may never step foot in if demolished, or won’t recognise after being stripped back for major renovation.
No house is too grungy to hit the market now – with buyers set to bid blind on properties like 77 Nioka Street, Brookfield, a derelict four-bedroom brick shell with bushes so overgrown they’ve taken over the pool. It’s heading to auction on February 10 with no internal inspections – a mere 8km from Brisbane CBD.
At 8 Swansea Street, Annerley, an 80-year-old home is going under the hammer on February 13. No one knows what condition it’s in. No one can go inside to find out.
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8 Swansea Street, Annerley, is going under the hammer on February 13.
The Annerley property is being sold sight unseen, as is where is, no inspections allowed.
Even waterfront properties aren’t immune, including prime sites like 19 Pebble Beach Drive, Runaway Bay, a home with a green, unswimmable pool that’s being auctioned by the Queensland Public Trustee on February 11. At 40 Murray Street, Birkdale, another Public Trustee sale offers an original three-bed two-storey home on 660 sqm – marketed as a “blank canvas” for renovators willing to take the risk.
These homes aren’t officially “condemned” – that would require council orders and legal restrictions on sale – but they are derelict, downtrodden, overgrown, in desperate need of repair and, in this market, very sellable.
Buyers can’t get enough of them as Tristan Rowland of Bright Property Agents found when he listed a gutted home with no walls – sparking a shock turnout at the open home.
“I had 45 groups through it on Saturday,” Mr Rowland said. “Six carpenters turned up, that’s unheard of right now. It’s so hard to find a chippie, and yet here they were.”
“Some people were saying oh my god as they walked in but the tradies were coming in and saying yes, all the hot demo work is done. They’re looking to finally get into the market themselves.”
The poolwater has turned green as 19 Pebble Beach Drive, Runaway Bay.
But the opportunity the Runaway Bay home presents is undeniable in the sizzling Gold Coast market.
Buyers are shouldering the risk of what lies behind those boarded windows and barricaded doors. The home that sold for $1.2 million last weekend was at 476-478 Loganlea Road, Slacks Creek – a property ripped apart by squatters with a stolen BMW abandoned on site. It drew 11 bidders, six of whom actively battled for the property’s two acres of land.
At 28 Russell Street, Silkstone, a one-bedroom house described as “beyond repair” sold for $545,000 – purely for the land beneath it.
The situation has even seen distressed listings – properties being sold by owners under financial pressure – plunge by 29.4 per cent, SQM found, signalling strong buyer absorption and fewer forced sales.
Older listings have also dropped 10 per cent year-on-year, confirming properties are being snapped up quickly across the board.
In a market this tight, downtrodden homes that would once have languished for months – if their owners dared list them at all – are now snapped up almost immediately.
Buyers who have the skills or capacity to take a chance are looking past condition, focusing on location, land value and renovation potential – even if a home is missing kitchens, bathrooms, or floors.
There’s an entire garden growing out of the pool at 9 Jean Street, Woodridge.
Ms Jennison said their members were adopting alternative strategies to gain access to properties.
“In a tight-supply environment, access is everything,” she said. “Our members are securing quiet, pre-market, and off-market listings because selling agents know they bring qualified, ready buyers to the table.”
“Good properties are always in strong demand, regardless of broader market conditions and supply constraints. When national stock levels are this low, that demand becomes even more concentrated.”
Perhaps the starkest sign of how extreme the market has become: Queensland’s most viewed property going to auction this weekend is 75 Carrington Road, Bonogin – a 3-hectare acreage estate marketed as “renovate or detonate”.
The listing generated more interest than any pristine home, waterfront mansion, or luxury penthouse anywhere in the state. It goes to auction on January 31 at 10am.
The rise of sight-unseen sales and derelict properties sparking bidding wars is the clearest sign yet of how extreme the housing shortage has become. From gutted shells to homes too dangerous to enter, these once “unsellable” wrecks are now hot property – drawing crowds, offers, and fierce competition in a market where supply is disappearing fast.
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