The government’s message sounds simple enough: make property investing less attractive, reduce the advantages investors supposedly have, tilt the playing field back toward first-home buyers, and more young Australians will finally be able to get a foot on the property ladder. On the surface, that sounds fair, and I can understand why many frustrated first-home…
This article discusses the proposed Local Infrastructure Fund and extended ban on foreign ownership of established homes across Australia. Both items were announced in the Federal Government’s Budget on May 12th 2026. Local Infrastructure Fund Australia’s new Local Infrastructure Fund sounds impressive at first glance. A $2 billion housing infrastructure package certainly makes for a good Budget…
![Sydney housing market update [video] | May 2026](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/sydney4-270x200.jpg)
The Sydney property market is moving through a distinct structural transition, with Cotality’s latest figures showing a dwelling value contraction of 0.6% in April. This decline marks the fourth monthly downturn out of the last five for the harbor city, leaving the local market sitting 1.0% below the peak recorded in November last year. While…
![Melbourne housing market update [video] | May 2026](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/melbourne-1-270x200.jpg)
The Melbourne property market continues to face persistent downward pressure, with the latest Cotality data showing a dwelling value dip of 0.6% in April. This extended downturn represents the fifth consecutive monthly decline for the Victorian capital, pulling overall values down a cumulative 1.9% from the November cyclical high and leaving them 2.3% below the…
Every few years property investors are told the game is over. A new tax. A new regulation. A new lending rule. A new reason to sit on the sidelines. And yet, after 50 years of investing through booms, busts, recessions, credit squeezes, banking reforms, political interference, rising interest rates, falling interest rates, a global financial…
The national housing market is navigating a distinct cyclical turning point, with Cotality’s National Home Value Index rising by just 0.3% in April, taking the slowest monthly growth recorded since January 2025. While values continue to trend higher on a national level, the pace of appreciation is clearly losing momentum as the housing cycle moves…
For many Australians, most of their retirement wealth is tied up in their home. A simple, well-designed program to tap into those trillions in home equity could help boost their retirement incomes. Such a program exists. However, it remains little known and underused. The federal government’s Home Equity Access Scheme (HEAS) allows older Australians to…
I believe most people spend too much of their lives trying to reduce perceived financial risk. The opportunity cost of this approach is very high and puts lifestyle goals at risk. Too much focus on risk reduction Many people buy a home and then focus on repaying debt. They then upgrade their home and once…
According to Cotality, since its daily index began at the start of 2010, Melbourne house values have risen by around 4% p.a., which is only about 1.3% p.a. above inflation. But of course, not every property has delivered such a mediocre result. That begs the real question: which types of properties have outperformed over this period, and what…
For decades, Australia’s housing market has been powered by a dependable demographic conveyor belt. People pair up, get married, start families, need more space, trade up, and eventually downsize. That tidy progression created suburbs, justified infrastructure, and underwrote a century of housing supply assumptions. But the engine room of household formation is changing – quietly,…
