Most Australians think retirement is a fairly linear process. You work hard for 30 or 40 years, pay off your home, build a solid nest egg… and then, when the time comes, you ease into retirement and carefully draw down your savings so you don’t run out. It sounds logical, even sensible. But the more…
Interest rates are back on the move… and if you’re a property investor, this changes the conversation again. Just when many were expecting a more stable rate environment in 2026, the Reserve Bank delivered another increase, taking the cash rate up to 4.15% and signalling that inflation remains stubbornly persistent. But here’s the twist… despite…
There is no doubt that our housing markets are facing challenges from all directions, but clearly, they have remained resilient. To better understand what’s happening, this monthly collection of charts from Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) paints an interesting picture. Buying a home for roughly the same cost as renting might sound unlikely in Australia’s current housing market,…
Over the past decade, I have written over 150 blogs about property investing. That’s enough content to fill four books! I’m always trying to publish thought-provoking and practical blogs that sometimes challenge conventional wisdom and empower investors to make better financial decisions. While each property investing blog that I write is important on its own,…
SQM Research released its latest data on residential rental property vacancy rates. Australia’s national residential vacancy rate fell to 1.1% in February 2026, down from 1.2% in January and notably down from February 2025 (1.3%). The total number of residential vacancies declined to 34,572 dwellings, indicating continued tightening in rental market conditions across most capital…
Here’s the uncomfortable truth many Australians are starting to realise – you can work harder than ever, do everything “right”, yet still fall behind financially. It’s not due to buying too many lattes or smashed avocado sandwiches, and it’s certainly not due to a lack of ambition. It’s because the rules of money quietly changed…
There seems to be ongoing confusion about the role housing is playing in Australian inflation and whether the recently expanded 5% Deposit Scheme has anything to do with the current CPI pulse and the February 2026 official interest rate lift. Let’s start with the facts. Housing carries roughly 21–23% of the CPI basket. Within that, rents account…
Would you like to take a peek behind the curtains to understand what goes on at our Wealth Retreat each year? We’re currently planning for this year’s Wealth Retreat on the Gold Coast in May, which is not really that far away. However, I’d like to share some lessons from last year’s event that have…
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…
