What is the best school in Brisbane?

There is no official answer, because Queensland stopped releasing school ATAR tables in 2021. On the results schools published for the Class of 2025, Brisbane Girls Grammar had the highest median ATAR at 96.45, and Brisbane Grammar had the most students on the top score of 99.95, with eight of the 37 awarded across the state. Among state schools, Brisbane State High reported a median of 94.4.

What are the best high schools in Brisbane?

On published median ATARs for the Class of 2025: Brisbane Girls Grammar (96.45), Brisbane Grammar (95), St Aidan's (94.95), All Hallows' (93.4), Somerville House (91.6), Gregory Terrace (91.00) and Churchie (90.85). Brisbane State High reported 94.4, the highest published median of any state school in this guide. The selective Queensland Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology reported 75% of its International Baccalaureate cohort at an ATAR equivalent of 90 or above.

What are the best primary schools in Brisbane?

There is no official ranking. NAPLAN results for every primary school are published on My School. State primaries that sit at the top of published comparisons of 2025 results include Indooroopilly, Ironside, Rainworth, Robertson and Sunnybank Hills State Schools. All are enrolment managed, so a place depends on living in the catchment.

What are the best state schools in Brisbane?

For high school, Brisbane State High reported a median ATAR of 94.4 for the Class of 2025 and takes students from its catchment and by selective entry. Queensland Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology is selective entry only. Mansfield State High, Indooroopilly State High, Kelvin Grove State College and The Gap State High are catchment schools, and all four are enrolment managed. For primary, see the state primary list above.

How do Brisbane school catchments work, and how do I check an address?

Every state school has a catchment, the area its core intake must live in. Schools near capacity run an Enrolment Management Plan and must restrict enrolments from outside it. Enter the address in EdMap, choose the enrolment year and year level, and it shows which catchments cover that address. Popular schools then ask for proof that the home is the family's principal place of residence.

Which Brisbane suburbs have good schools and family homes?

For a house inside a leading state high school catchment: The Gap at about $1.4 million, Mansfield and Wishart at $1.5 million to $1.6 million, Toowong and Indooroopilly at $1.9 million to $2.1 million, and West End and Highgate Hill at about $2.2 million. Those are PropTrack house medians read in September 2026. Check the address, because several of these suburbs are only partly inside the catchment.

Is there an official Brisbane high school ranking for 2026?

No. The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority says its Year 12 outcomes data "is not a league table", and ATARs are shared with schools only when students consent. The 2025 and 2026 rankings online are built from incomplete, self-reported results.

Brisbane PropertyBy Rebecca Daniels7 minute read22 Oct 2026

Why Right Now is an Upsizer's Window

Most buyers are waiting for the market to make up its mind. If you're trading up, you don't have to.

Somewhere in Brisbane tonight, someone is standing in a home that stopped fitting them two years ago, scrolling listings and telling themselves to wait.

It's an understandable instinct. The headlines say wait for rates, wait for clarity, wait for the market to make up its mind. But an upsize isn't a bet on where the market goes next. It's a swap and what it costs you comes down to one number: the gap between what you sell for and what you buy for.

For many Brisbane upsizers, that gap is shrinking right now. It's an upsizer's window. Here's the evidence and here's where it runs out.

Upsize caro 3-1

Is this your window?

The window is for you if:

You own a home with equity in it
You need more space, a better layout, a yard or a better location
Your income can comfortably carry a bigger loan at today's rates, with room for another rise
You could realistically move in the next 6 to 12 months

If you'd have to stretch to the very limit of your borrowing power or you'll be moving sideways into a similar home, the timing probably isn't right yet. Read on anyway, because it will help you work out which side of the line you're on.

The number that matters: your gap

When you upsize, you're swapping your home for another and funding the difference. Here's how a 5% fall plays out if you sell a $2.0m home and buy a $3.5m one:

	Before	After a 5% fall	Change
Your home (you sell)	$2,000,000	$1,900,000	-$100,000
Your next home (you buy)	$3,500,000	$3,325,000	-$175,000
The gap you fund	$1,500,000	$1,425,000	-$75,000

That's illustrative maths, not a forecast. You accept less on the way out, but you save more on the way in. Research firm Hotspotting makes the same point: a 5% fall is $100,000 on a $2.0 million home, but $175,000 on a $3.5 million one.

Work out your own gap: what you'd pay for your next home, minus what you'd sell your current one for. That's the number that decides what your move costs.

The principle scales with price. 1% of a $3.5 million home is $35,000, against $20,000 on a $2.0 million one. The higher you go, the more dollars a percentage move is worth.

The equity you've built is still there

Brisbane owners are sitting on a long run of growth (Cotality):

+55.4% over five years
+105.3% over ten years
99.8% of Brisbane resales in the June quarter sold at a profit, with a median gain of $525,000 (OpenAgent)

Check your own number, because the resale figure only covers homes that actually sold. Whether or not you're planning a move, that's a solid base to stand on.

More time, more choice, more leverage

A slower market favours the buyer with equity behind them. Cotality's September data shows:

Capital-city homes take a median of 39 days to sell, up from 23 years ago
Advertised stock is 23.1% higher than a year ago
Vendors are discounting by a median 4.2% across the capitals, the most since January 2023 (chart pack)

With borrowing power tighter for many buyers and investor demand lower since the Federal Budget's changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, you may face fewer rivals at the open home.

We're not alone in reading it this way. Nobody is predicting a boom. The argument is simpler: the cost of your move is falling.

Where the window runs out

We'd rather you hear the limits from us.

Interest rates are the big one. The RBA lifted the cash rate to 4.60% on 29 September, its fourth rise of 2026 and it left the door open to more (CommBank newsroom). Higher rates cut how much you can borrow, so your limit is usually serviceability, not equity. Brisbane values are 5.4% below their May peak and could drift further and forecasters disagree on what's next: CBA expects Brisbane down 1% in 2026 and up 2% in 2027 (Hunter Galloway), while Domain tips new highs (Property Update).
Don't expect a cheap premium tier in Brisbane. The deepest top-end discounts have been in Sydney and Melbourne. Cotality says Brisbane's falls are spread more evenly across price tiers, so your edge here is the gap maths and your negotiating power.

Your 5-step game plan

Get your real numbers. Ask for a valuation range that reflects today's market, not February's and have a broker test your borrowing power with room for another rate rise.
Write down what your next home must solve. Extra bedroom, second living space, a yard, a school catchment. A clear brief stops a soft market tempting you to stretch.
Choose your order of play. Sell first, buy first with bridging finance or run both together. Each carries a different risk, so settle it before you start looking.
Use the extra time. Slower conditions let you negotiate price and terms and do proper building and pest checks.
Price the whole move. Add agent fees, stamp duty, moving and holding costs before you decide it's worth it.

Two dates for your diary: September-quarter CPI on 28 October and the RBA's next decision on 3 November (Savings.com.au). Another rise would trim your borrowing power further, so get your finance position confirmed before then. That's a reason to prepare, not to panic.

Want to see your gap?

Book in a discovery call and we'll walk you through what your gap looks like in today's market. At Hunter Gather we work for buyers, not sellers and we'd rather help you make one confident move than three anxious ones.

This article is general information only and isn't financial, legal or tax advice. Figures are drawn from the sources below as at 20 October 2026 and may change.

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it really safe to move when interest rates are high?

Higher rates mean strict lending rules, but they also clear out the market for you. While other buyers are spooked by headlines, you get more time to inspect, more leverage to negotiate and fewer rivals outbidding you at auctions. As long as your income comfortably covers your repayments under today's stress-testing rules, a high-rate environment is actually what creates your negotiating power on the buy side.

What if prices drop another 2% or 3% after I buy?

If you're moving into a long-term family home, a minor short-term fluctuation doesn't change your outcome. Remember, as a trade-up buyer, every percentage point the market drops actually saves you money on the overall gap. More importantly, when market sentiment shifts and prices turn back up, premium family homes are usually the first to rebound. Trying to time the absolute "bottom" usually means missing the best properties.

How do I know if my equity is enough to make the jump?

If you’ve owned your home for more than a few years, you're likely sitting on substantial gains.

In Brisbane, values are up over 55% across the last five years. Equity funds your deposit and covers your move, but your income dictates your borrowing power. The easiest way to check is to have a broker run your serviceability under current interest rate buffers. That gives you a clear, realistic price ceiling before you start looking.

We can help with this, book a discovery call.

I own a unit/townhouse—can I really step up to a freestanding house right now?

Yes and unit owners currently hold a huge strategic advantage. Because entry-level housing and units have seen strong demand from first-home buyers and downsizers, unit values in Brisbane have held up better than upper-tier houses. That means your unit has retained its value while the target house higher up the ladder has trimmed its price, narrowing your dollar gap significantly.

Rebecca DanielsHunter Gather