Michael has been once again voted Australia’s leading property investment advisor by the readers of ‘Your Investment Property Magazine’, but he’s not a theorist… He has been successfully investing in property since 1971 and is a leading property commentator and Australia’s most widely read property investment blogger. Join over 115,000 others who get their updates from Michael and his group of expert guest bloggers and benefit from their perspective.
I expect many participants in the property industry will spend the coming months devising ways to navigate the negative gearing and CGT changes, to maintain investor interest. As a business that is completely independent, with no vested interest in any asset class, including property, I wanted to examine some of these potential strategies. Remember: property is not the only game in…
![[PODCAST] Property Investors: Why Playing It Safe Could Cost You a Fortune](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/811-Property_Investors_Fortune-MY-Youtube-cover-270x200.jpg)
What if the decisions that make you feel safest as a property investor are actually the ones most likely to cost you a fortune? Waiting for interest rates to settle sounds sensible. Keeping your money in cash feels secure. Avoiding investment debt appears responsible, while buying in the same locations everyone else is talking about…
Every year, property investors are presented with a fresh collection of forecasts telling them where interest rates, house prices, rents and the economy are heading. Some forecasts will be broadly right, many will miss the mark, and almost none will accurately predict the unexpected events that ultimately shape the market. Yet investors continue to search…
This month the Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 4.60%, its fourth increase this year and the highest level since late 2011. Sydney home values are now around 7% below their February peak, the top end of the Melbourne and Sydney markets has fallen more than 10%, and plenty of investors are quietly wondering…
What if interest rates don’t fall? I keep seeing charts like the ones below. They all tell much the same story. Rates rise some more, inflation eventually behaves itself and sometime around late 2027 or early fiscal 2028 the cost of money starts heading south again. Maybe. But for mine, there is a growing risk…
Most Australians imagine scams arriving as suspicious emails from strangers or obvious phishing attempts riddled with spelling mistakes. The reality is much more sophisticated. Today’s scammers are increasingly inserting themselves into the moments when we’re making important decisions, whether that’s buying a property, applying for a job, lodging a tax return or making a major…
Australia’s capital city property markets rarely move together for long. One city surges ahead, another loses momentum and the price gaps that once looked permanent eventually begin to close. We have seen this pattern repeatedly, although every cycle arrives with a fresh explanation for why this time may be different. Melbourne is currently trading at…
For years, we’ve talked about Australia’s property market as though there were one type of buyer responding to one set of conditions. Interest rates rise, borrowing capacity falls, affordability deteriorates and buyers supposedly react in much the same way. Of course, property markets don’t work like that. Australia is made up of hundreds of individual…
SQM Research’s Weekly Asking Prices Index for the week ending 29 September 2026 showed a modest easing in asking prices nationally over the month, while annual growth remained positive. Nationally, house asking prices eased 0.4% over the month, while unit asking prices declined 0.2%. Combined dwelling asking prices fell 0.4% month-on-month and remain 3.6% higher…
Have you noticed how worry never fixes anything? Yet, worry is a feeling that many of us are all too familiar with. It can range from a mild sense of unease to all-consuming anxiety, and it can feel like an unavoidable part of life. But have you ever stopped to think about what exactly worry…
