Australian renters are spending a record share of their gross median household income on housing costs, as a chronic shortage of rental stock drives rents higher across the country. Cotality’s Rental Review Q1 2026 shows national dwelling rents increased 2.1% over the three months to March, up from a 1.2% increase in Q4 2025, indicating…
![Melbourne housing market update [video] | April 2026](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/melbourne-1-270x200.jpg)
Melbourne’s housing market recorded a 0.2% decline in March, marking the fourth consecutive month of falling dwelling values. This persistent weakness has resulted in a cumulative decline of 0.9% since November 2025. The downturn is primarily concentrated in the detached housing sector, while units have shown a relatively milder contraction during this period. The market…
The national housing market recorded a 0.7% rise in March, taking the quarterly growth to 2.1%. While values continue to trend higher, the pace of appreciation is gradually losing steam compared to the 2.8% lift seen in the final quarter of last year. This national average, however, masks a significant and growing divergence between the…
There’s a lot of noise in the property market right now, and most of it is coming from people who are either reading the data too quickly or using it to make a political point. The auction clearance rates came in softer this week across most cities, and a number of commentators are treating that…
SQM Research released its latest data on residential rental property vacancy rates. Australia’s national residential vacancy rate fell to 1.0% in March 2026, down from 1.1% in February. The total number of residential vacancies declined to 31,732 dwellings, marking a continued tightening in rental market conditions nationwide. The March result indicates that strong tenant demand…
Every week I sit down with the latest property data and try to cut through the noise to find what actually matters for serious investors. Right now, there’s quite a bit of noise swirling around – global uncertainty off the back of trade tensions and Middle East conflict, oil prices still elevated, inflation sitting stubbornly…
2026 is shaping up to be another year of solid, though uneven, growth. At its first meeting for 2026, the Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 3.85%, up from 3.6%, exactly as most economists expected. That move officially ends the shortest and most modest rate-cutting cycle since the RBA began inflation targeting back in…
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,…
Capital city auction clearance rates were steady following the Easter break; however listings were relatively low reflecting the current school holiday period. Capital City This Week Last Week Same Week Last Year Auctions Rate Auctions Rate Auctions Rate Sydney 832 64.0% 1895 64.1% 1185 69.6% Melbourne 822 59.1% 1781 61.4% 1363 66.8% Brisbane 103 52.8%…
SQM Research’s Weekly Asking Prices Index for the week ending 30 March 2026 showed mixed short-term movements, though annual growth remains strong. Nationally, asking prices eased slightly over the month, with houses down 0.5%, units up 0.3%, and combined dwellings falling 0.4%, while still 12.0% higher year-on-year. Sydney (-0.8%) and Melbourne (-0.1%) recorded slight monthly…
