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…
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…
