Do you have equity sitting idle in your home? Most Australian homeowners are sitting on a fortune they never touch, not because they choose to, but they are not sure what to do with it or how they could use it. We’ve likely all been told and likely the very same thing: pay down your…
Back in May, tucked away on page 158 of Budget Paper No. 1, Treasury made a promise to Australia’s renters. It said the government’s changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax were “likely to have a small impact on rents,” with an expected increase of less than $2 a week for a household paying…
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, home values across Australia’s combined capital cities fell for the…
Have you ever considered how much of your life disappears simply getting from one place to another? For many Australians, commuting has become such an accepted part of everyday life that we rarely stop to calculate its true cost. Someone travelling 45 minutes each way to work spends around 345 hours commuting over a typical…
Every so often, a housing market forecast comes along that deserves a second look. Not because it is necessarily wrong, but because the comparison being made is rather extraordinary. Last weekend, I read commentary suggesting Australia could be facing its worst housing downturn since the Great Depression. Really? Take a beat. I have spent much…
Australia’s rental markets are tightening again, even though October’s asking rents offered tenants a little breathing space in several capitals. Meanwhile, another interest rate increase is adding to household pressures, with the Reserve Bank warning that inflation will take longer to return to target. Yet the weekend’s auction results were reasonably steady, and Melbourne once…
At the start of this year the cheapest homes in our capital cities were the stars of the property market, outpacing their more expensive neighbours almost everywhere you looked. Then the May Budget landed, and within a few months that advantage had disappeared. A new analysis by Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee shows just…
Are you looking to buy a home but feeling uncertain about what lies ahead? Investors may not want to hear that prices are falling, but if you are a home buyer, that should be music to your ears. The next three to six months could present a rare opportunity and set you up for decades,…
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…
SQM Research’s Weekly Asking Prices Index for the week ending 03 November 2026 showed mixed monthly price movements nationally, with combined asking prices edging lower over the month while annual growth held at 1.2%. Nationally, house asking prices eased 0.6% over the month, while unit asking prices increased 0.6%. Combined dwelling asking prices declined 0.4%…
