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Sydney is pretty infamous for its eye-watering house prices, but when it comes to making money from property, the Harbour City has been knocked off the top spot. New figures from Domain’s latest Profit and Loss Report reveal that Brisbane is now Australia’s most profitable housing market, with 99.5 per cent of house resales recording a profit in the first half of 2026. Although Sydney has been nudged into second place for profitability, it still delivers the biggest median profit in the country. Need this de-coding? Read on.
Essentially, while Brisbane might be winning on the percentage of profitable sales, Sydney homeowners are still sitting on some seriously hefty gains. According to the report, Sydney houses that were resold for a profit generated a median gain of $739,500 – comfortably ahead of Brisbane’s $629,056. Some 97.6 per cent of Sydney house resales were profitable between January and June this year, meaning only 2.4 per cent sold for a loss.
The catch? Sydney’s gains are growing much more slowly than they are elsewhere in the country. Sydney’s median house profit increased by just 5.8 per cent, compared with a whopping 41.9 per cent rise in Perth and a 21.4 per cent increase in Adelaide. And Sydney’s unit market tells a slightly different story. While 88 per cent of Sydney unit resales were profitable, the median gain was $199,000 – well below Brisbane’s $385,000. According to the report, twelve per cent of Sydney units sold at a loss, compared with just 0.5 per cent in Brisbane.
The findings arrive at a pretty interesting moment for Sydney’s property market, with Domain’s latest forecasts suggesting that Sydney’s housing boom has finally come to an end. But before Sydney homeowners start panicking, there’s an important distinction to make. Profitability looks at the money made when a property is sold, while equity reflects the wealth accumulated through years of price growth and mortgage repayments. As Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell points out, someone selling today may have bought their property many years ago – meaning short-term dips can be dwarfed by the gains accumulated over the long term.
If you're lucky enough to own a home in Sydney and want to know what these updates might mean for your bank account, you can check out the full report over here.
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