We Australians are very good at finding fault with the cities in which we live. We complain about congestion, expensive housing, crowded trains, planning delays and infrastructure that often seems to arrive years after it is needed. Sure, many of those concerns are justified, but every so often an international comparison allows us to step…
![Sydney housing market update [video] | August 2026](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/sydney4-270x200.jpg)
Sydney has now been falling for six straight months, and July delivered the sharpest instalment yet. Home values dropped 1.4% over the month, extending a decline that has run continuously since the market peaked in January. The cumulative loss now stands at 5.3% — roughly $69,000 stripped from the median dwelling value in just over…
Higher interest rates and uncertainty over the Federal Government’s proposed property tax changes are clearly taking some heat out of Australia’s property market, with new mortgage lending falling sharply in the June quarter. According to the latest ABS lending indicator data the total value of new housing loans settled in the June quarter was $97.6…
![Melbourne housing market update [video] | August 2026](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/melbourne-1-270x200.jpg)
Melbourne has now recorded eight consecutive months of falling home values, and the July figure — a 1.2% decline — brings the total loss since the November 2025 cyclical peak to 5.1%. In dollar terms, that represents approximately $46,000 removed from the median dwelling value in eight months. But the more revealing number is a…
There is no doubt that our housing markets are facing challenges from all directions, but clearly they have remained more resilient than the property pessimists had predicted. To better understand what’s happening, this monthly collection of charts from Cotality paints an interesting picture. According to Cotality, double-digit declines in home values would make little dent in…
The Australian housing downturn has stopped being a two-city story. Cotality’s Home Value Index recorded a 0.7% national decline in July 2026 — the largest monthly fall since December 2022 — and for the first time in this cycle, the weakness has reached almost every corner of the country. Brisbane fell 0.6%. Adelaide slipped 0.2%….
Are you wondering where property prices are headed and how long we will remain in the doldrums? Every property cycle eventually poses the same question to investors: is this a genuine crash, a soft landing, or something in between? Right now, with national prices falling and confidence at near record lows, those questions are louder…
SQM Research today released its latest data on residential property vacancy rates. Australia’s national residential vacancy rate remained steady at 1.3% in July 2026, unchanged from June. The total number of residential vacancies increased to 40,771 dwellings, up from 39,229 in June, indicating a modest increase in available rental stock despite the unchanged headline vacancy…
If a picture paints a thousand words, then this collection of charts should do a pretty good job of painting the landscape as it affects our economy and our property markets. Each month the RBA summarises macroeconomic and financial market trends in Australia by providing a detailed chart pack. World Economy Australia’s economy doesn’t operate in…
The Reserve Bank of Australia has left the cash rate unchanged at 4.35% as it assesses whether the three interest rate rises delivered earlier this year are doing enough to slow the economy and bring inflation back under control. The RBA faces a difficult balancing act. Inflation remains too high and another rate rise is…
