For most people who buy a home, a mortgage represents the single largest debt they will take on in their lives. But what happens if the market value of a property you’ve bought falls below the amount you still owe on your home loan? This situation is called “negative equity”. In Australia, decades of house…
Australia’s labour market is beginning to show clearer signs of cooling, with unemployment rising slightly, employment falling and wage growth remaining subdued. This matters because the Reserve Bank has repeatedly highlighted the strength of the labour market and the risk of persistent wage and services inflation when explaining its cautious approach to interest rates. The…
Australia’s property markets continue to cool, although the latest employment and wage figures suggest the Reserve Bank may have less reason to raise interest rates again in the near term. Cotality’s latest figures show combined capital city dwelling values fell 0.3% over the past week and 1.0% over the past month, although they remain 2.4%…
Australians are increasingly voting with their feet when it comes to choosing a home loan, with a growing number of borrowers turning to non-bank lenders. A non-bank lender provides credit products, like home loans, but doesn’t hold an authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) licence, meaning it can’t take customer deposits. According to Money.com.au analysis of the latest…
Six months ago the conversation about Australian property was all about resilience, about how our markets kept climbing despite thirteen rate rises and a cost of living squeeze that refused to ease. That conversation has changed. Australia’s property downturn gathered sharp momentum in July, with Cotality’s national Home Value Index (HVI) falling 0.7% – the…
Australia’s housing debate has become dominated by ambitious targets, planning announcements and promises to unlock more land. However, the latest evidence suggests we may be focusing too much attention on the number of homes being approved and far too little on the number that can actually be built. Of course, that distinction matters because an…
Late winter capital city auction numbers generally increased over the past week, and although clearance rates were steady, listings remain well below the same time last year. Weekly Auction Results to Saturday, August 22nd 2026 Capital City This Week Last Week Same Week Last Year Auctions Rate Auctions Rate Auctions Rate Sydney 631 58.1% 561…
![Adelaide housing market update [video] | August 2026](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/adelaide-270x200.jpg)
Adelaide’s July decline was small — home values dipped just 0.2%, following a 0.3% fall in June. Two consecutive monthly declines totalling half a percent hardly constitutes a crisis. But the number that genuinely matters in Adelaide right now is not about prices at all. It is about how many properties are available to buy….
Over the past week, all four of Australia’s biggest banks have reported falls of between 12% to 20% in new home loan applications since the May federal budget. After announcing it would keep interest rates on hold, the Reserve Bank confirmed demand for new home loans has “declined noticeably”. For anyone currently in the market…
![Perth housing market update [video] | August 2026](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Perth-city-270x200.jpeg)
Perth was the only major capital city to record a positive result in July, with home values rising 0.1% over the month. On paper, that makes it the last market standing. In practice, the number tells a considerably more complicated story — because the June figure it followed was revised down to a 0.5% fall,…
