If you judged the market this week by the mainstream headlines, you’d think we were staring down the barrel of a property downturn. Interest rates rose, affordability pressures are the dominant narrative, and confidence looks shaky. Or at least that’s the story being told. Yet when you peel back the sensationalism and look at the…
![Melbourne housing market update [video] | February 2025](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/melbourne-1-270x200.jpg)
Melbourne’s housing market showed a marginal recovery at the start of 2026, with home values inched 0.1% higher in January. This subtle uptick partially reversed the 0.2% decline recorded in December, though the city continues to trail the stronger growth seen in mid-sized capitals. Despite the slight gain, Melbourne values remain 0.7% below the record…
Want to know what’s happening to the housing markets around Australia? Well… this monthly collection of charts from Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) paints an interesting picture. Australian rents have surged almost three times faster than wages over the past five years, pushing rental affordability to record lows and stretching household budgets across the country. Cotality’s analysis…
Capital city auction markets reported overall steady results despite the usual surge in early year listings and the added impact on confidence of recent increases in official interest rates. The national weekend auction market reported an average clearance rate of 69.0% over the past week, slightly lower than the 71.0% reported the previous week but…
If you’ve been wondering who’s really driving Australia’s property market right now, the latest lending figures give us a very clear answer. First home buyers are making a comeback. But here’s the twist… they’re coming back armed with bigger loans than ever before, in a market where investors are also doubling down and refinancing activity…
The Australian housing market started the year on a positive note, with national home values rising by 0.8% in January. This represents a slight acceleration from the 0.6% increase seen in December. While growth remains broad-based, with every capital city and rest-of-state region recording gains, the market is showing signs of a “multi-speed” dynamic as…
SQM Research released its latest data on residential property vacancy rates. Australia’s national residential vacancy rate fell to 1.2% in January 2026, down from 1.4% in December The total number of residential vacancies declined to 37,630 dwellings, reflecting a post-holiday tightening in rental conditions as seasonal listings were absorbed. The January result reverses much of…
Anthony Albanese has done what many Australians dream of doing. He bought property. He held it. He watched it grow in value. And then he sold down investment properties and locked in some very healthy profits. So far it’s practically the Australian dream, but here’s where the story gets interesting… Much of that profit was…
2026 is shaping up to be another year of solid, though uneven, growth. At its first meeting for 2026, the Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 3.85%, up from 3.6%, exactly as most economists expected. That move officially ends the shortest and most modest rate-cutting cycle since the RBA began inflation targeting back in…
There has been a spate of articles and commentary in recent days calling on the Australian government to reduce spending. Those calling for government cuts – mostly long-time advocates of smaller government – claim this would lower inflation, and as a consequence reduce interest rates. In fact, claims that government spending is now a very…
