If you listened to the typical real estate commentary, you’d think property prices are basically driven by interest rates, immigration and whatever the Reserve Bank might do next month. But when you strip away the noise and look at what actually moves property values over the medium term, one factor quietly dominates everything. It’s jobs….
Something strange is happening in Australia’s housing market right now. In some of our major cities rents have actually fallen slightly over the past month. Sydney house rents, for example, dropped by about 2.4%, while Brisbane rents slipped nearly 2%. But before renters start celebrating, there’s a much bigger story unfolding beneath the surface. Vacancy…
Some commentators are already calling the top of the property market. After all, interest rates are likely to rise again, geopolitical problems and wars may cause a recession, and Sydney and Melbourne finished the last couple of months prices flat to slightly down on the headline numbers – enough to feed the “downturn is coming”…
SQM Research’s Weekly Asking Prices Index for the week ending 23 February 2026 showed continued upward momentum in dwelling prices nationally, signalling ongoing vendor confidence in the rising market Nationally, house asking prices rose 1.9% over the month, while unit prices increased 1.7%, with combined dwelling prices up 1.9% month-on-month and 13.6% year-on-year. Sydney recorded…
Two months into 2026, and we have seen a clear divergence in housing trends, with Sydney and Melbourne values flatlining while the mid-sized capitals continue to record a solid rate of gain at more than 1% month on month growth. Perth is showing the strongest trend, with home values jumping 2.3% in February, adding more…
Booming capital city housing markets have continued to surge over February despite an increase in official interest rates. Overall results however were mixed, with seasonal impacts continuing to subdue notably the Melbourne and Sydney markets. The national capital city median house price increased marginally by 0.1% over the February quarter to $1,281,612 compared to the…
Every investor eventually faces this uncomfortable question: How do I know when it’s time to sell an underperforming investment property? It’s not an easy decision. In fact, it’s one of the hardest decisions property investors make because it challenges two powerful human forces – loss aversion and the sunk-cost fallacy. We hang on because we’re…
You can feel it building again, can’t you? Watch a YouTube video, listen to a podcast or scroll social media and you’ll hear the same confident line being repeated like it’s gospel: “Property moves in an 18-year cycle… and 2026 is the year it all blows up.” A surprising number of commentators are quoting it,…
Markets shift, technology evolves, governments adjust policy, yet the core drivers of property wealth don’t change. What does matter – human behaviour, scarcity, quality and patience – stays constant even when everything else seems uncertain. So today I’d like to discuss a few things that never change in a world that never stops changing, because…
If you’ve been watching Australia’s property markets lately, you’d be forgiven for thinking everything comes down to interest rates. Every headline tells the same story. Rates up. Rates down. Rate cuts coming. Rate cuts delayed. Apparently, that’s all that matters. But here’s the uncomfortable truth. Interest rates don’t decide where housing demand shows up. They…
