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.
Imagine spending five days with people who think bigger than the mainstream investor crowd – people who don’t just buy property, they engineer wealth, design business systems, and plan legacies that outlive them. That’s what Wealth Retreat delivers and the profile of our guests reflects it. Just to make things clear, this is not a…
A few weeks back I explored the idea that planning approvals are routinely blamed for Australia’s housing shortage – yet when we dug into the numbers, the story proved far more nuanced. This post I want to explore the interplay between housing supply and demand and to see what an update of the national charts…
![Sydney housing market update [video] | April 2026](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/sydney4-270x200.jpg)
Sydney’s housing market recorded a 0.1% decline in March, marking the third month-on-month fall in the last four months. This subtle downturn has taken housing values 0.2% lower over the first quarter of the year. The weakness is currently confined to the detached housing sector, while units continue to show resilience, reaching a new record…
Australian renters are spending a record share of their gross median household income on housing costs, as a chronic shortage of rental stock drives rents higher across the country. Cotality’s Rental Review Q1 2026 shows national dwelling rents increased 2.1% over the three months to March, up from a 1.2% increase in Q4 2025, indicating…
![Melbourne housing market update [video] | April 2026](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/melbourne-1-270x200.jpg)
Melbourne’s housing market recorded a 0.2% decline in March, marking the fourth consecutive month of falling dwelling values. This persistent weakness has resulted in a cumulative decline of 0.9% since November 2025. The downturn is primarily concentrated in the detached housing sector, while units have shown a relatively milder contraction during this period. The market…
![[PODCAST] The Property Strategy Most Investors Ignore (Financial Buffers Explained) with Brett Warren](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/769-Ignored_Property_Strategy-BW-Youtube-cover-270x200.jpg)
Most property investors think success comes down to buying the right property at the right price. But the truth is… the real difference between successful investors and those who struggle has very little to do with the property itself. It comes down to strategy. Because the investors who build long-term wealth don’t just buy property – they build a…
The national housing market recorded a 0.7% rise in March, taking the quarterly growth to 2.1%. While values continue to trend higher, the pace of appreciation is gradually losing steam compared to the 2.8% lift seen in the final quarter of last year. This national average, however, masks a significant and growing divergence between the…
SQM Research released its latest data on residential rental property vacancy rates. Australia’s national residential vacancy rate fell to 1.0% in March 2026, down from 1.1% in February. The total number of residential vacancies declined to 31,732 dwellings, marking a continued tightening in rental market conditions nationwide. The March result indicates that strong tenant demand…
![[PODCAST] Why Some Property Markets Boom While Others Stall – The Hidden Force in Property Investing with Simon Kuestenmacher](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/777-The_Hidden_Force_in_PI-SK-Youtube-cover-270x200.jpg)
You’ve probably noticed that some property markets surge ahead while others seem to tread water… even when the broader economic conditions are the same. It’s easy to blame interest rates, government policy, or media sentiment, but those factors only tell part of the story. The real drivers sit underneath all of that, and they’re far more predictable if you know where to look. In today’s Wealth Retreat Conversations episode, I want to give you a taste of the type of thinking and insights you’ll experience at Wealth Retreat, where leading demographer Simon Kuestenmacher will be joining us…
One thing I’ve noticed speaking with many property investors is… While on the one hand, a small group has done very well over the last few years, initially spurred on by the recent once-in-a-generation property boom in 2020 – 21 and then by the strong housing markets of 2023-25 and this was despite the property…
