Well, you didn’t need a crystal ball to be able to predict that property prices would do exactly what the government hoped they would.

It’s the great theme park of property: What you lose on the swings you win on the roundabouts, and let’s not even mention the ‘rollercoaster of emotions’ that property buyers and sellers are on.

It’s still early days but it looks like investors have shifted out of the market for existing homes, easing the upward pressure on prices, although there is no sign yet of panic selling of older properties.

The replacement of investors by first-timers who have a limit on what they can spend is also calming the market.  Predictions of a 10 per cent drop in property prices are overly simplistic – if that occurs and attracts more buyers into the market then they will go back up again.

The downside for tenants is that their rents will go up – some already have done – as negative gearing is no longer a factor, but that can’t happen overnight to everyone due to the limitations on how often landlords can raise rents.

All that said and done, there are other things happening in property right now and here is a selection from our friends at Leftfield.

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Domain

Playbook for rent-roll growth in a tight market
Australia’s rental squeeze is creating a rare rent-roll-growth window for property managers willing to stop acting like rent collectors and start behaving like trusted investment advisers.

Suburbs that lost their ‘million-dollar club’ badge in just 90 days
The first quarter of 2026 has seen a handful of suburbs shed their million-dollar club status. In just 90 days, their median house or unit prices have slipped below the $1 million and $2 million mark – and those that fell from their pedestal were all located in Greater Sydney and Greater Melbourne..

Auction clearance rates expected to fall below 2022 downturn levels
If Australia’s auction market is the housing sector’s canary in the coal mine – where confidence is measured one raised hand at a time – the first warning warbles are already beginning to reverberate ahead of what experts say could become the market’s biggest test in years.

ABC Online

Budget won’t be ‘main driver’ if house prices fall, housing minister says
Clare O’Neil says suggestions the government’s proposed tax changes could knock 10 per cent off the price of homes are overblown, and Treasury expects only a “mild” impact on price growth. The housing minister says if prices did fall sharply, it would not be due to the proposed changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.

Realestate.com.au

Inside the nation’s record $2.48 trillion mortgage gamble
Australians are piling into a record $2.48 trillion mortgage mountain despite back-to-back interest rate hikes, amid fears could leave them locked out of the home dream.

Money move Aussies are making instead
Surprise new bank figures show a rise in Aussies giving up on buying their next home – and doing something else entirely with their money instead.

LMR: Saviour or ‘farce’? Two prominent mayors have their say
The first apartments under the state government’s Low to Medium Housing Policy are being rolled out and property developers are confident there will be plenty of buyers, despite the challenging property market.

Sydney suburbs set to be hit hardest by rent rises
Sydney tenants have been told to brace for another financial squeeze due to the government’s controversial decision to axe negative gearing. Economic modelling from property analytics group FoundIt has forecast rents will rise by up to $34 a week in some Sydney areas over the next three months alone.

Downsizers rush at new program for stamp-duty free homes
South Australia’s move to scrap stamp duty for downsizers is already gaining traction, with hundreds of buyers eyeing new homes and apartments.

Home prices fall in half Aus capitals – the other half hit records
Home prices in Australian capitals have split in two – four falling and four smashing all-time records, with one crashing below $1m – as a regional city hunts Sydney down hard. The latest PropTrack Home Price Index for May 2026 – out Monday – shows the national median flat at $908,000, down just 0.04 per cent for the month. But that headline figure masks one of the most dramatic divides in Australian property history.

Victoria’s ‘broken’ rental system: 38,573 landlords seek resolution
More than 38,500 desperate Victorian landlords have resorted to taking legal or dispute resolution action against their tenants in the past 12 months. Experts have labelled this a “red alert” and are calling for a formal investigation into Victoria’s “broken” rental system following the state government’s 150-plus industry reforms, since 2021.

Construction of luxury Josephine tower in Burleigh Heads fast-tracked after huge sales
Mosaic Property Group has brought forward construction of its latest Burleigh Heads luxury apartment project. This follows more than $180m in sales within months of the $200m beachfront project, Josephine by Mosaic, being launched.

Queensland renters face price hikes nine times higher than government forecast
Queensland renters are set to be slammed with price hikes up to nine times higher than the federal government’s modelling, exposing the Treasury’s estimate of a mere $2 rent rise as “pure fantasy”.

Mum-and-dad investors say tax grab forces them to hike tenant rents
Investors Prabhat Kumar and his wife Ashvini Bharti say the federal government has broken their trust, leaving them little choice but to slap their tenants with rent hikes to survive a brutal tax overhaul.

Real Commercial

Former TV chef Pete Evans lists wellness retreat for the third time
Former television chef Pete Evans and his wellness advocate wife Nicola Robinson have relisted their Northern Rivers business retreat. The Byrrill Creek rainforest property consists of a main house plus seven cabins, which they have run as Evolve Sanctuary.

Urban Developer – Partly Free

‘Whipping Boy’ to Front-Runner: BtR a Clear Winner in Federal Budget
Australia’s housing sector is in a state of cautious recalibration.  The federal government’s sweeping tax changes to investment property, still pending Senate passage, have sent ripples through every corner of the market.

Coronation’s $600m Factory-to-BtR Play Wins Approval
Coronation has won approval to turn a former Taubmans paint factory in Sydney’s inner west into a 464-apartment build-to-rent precinct, more than doubling its original housing yield.

Ozcare Plots Gold Coast Multi-Midrise Retirement Village
Queensland-based aged care provider Ozcare has revealed plans for a major expansion of its Gold Coast footprint, lodging a proposal for a multi-building midrise retirement village at Labrador.

Social Housing Full Steam Ahead at WA’s ‘Transit-Rich’ Bayswater
Plans for a $36-million, nine-storey social and affordable housing tower a stone’s throw from Bayswater train station in north-eastern Perth have been filed for state approval.

Anchor Group Greenlit for 46-Storey Parramatta Skyscraper
Anchor Group has secured approval to move ahead with a Parramatta skyscraper after bidding to raise permitted heights on the site last year. The developer submitted planning proposals for its site at 90-94 Phillip Street, 23km west of Sydney centre in the city’s “second CBD”.

Time & Place Plots $181m Surry Hills Adaptive Reuse Project
A wave of heritage warehouse conversions in inner Sydney rolls on, with two adaptive reuse projects progressing in Surry Hills. Time & Place is exhibiting plans for a 10-storey, 172-home project at 47-97 Marlborough Street (pictured above), which would incorporate three existing industrial facilities on the southern fringe of the suburb.

Billionaire Racing Titan’s Gold Coast Twin Towers Out of The Gates
He’s off and racing on Surfers Paradise’s exclusive Garfield Terrace. Billionaire horse racing titan John Camilleri’s Celestino Developments has been given the green light for a landmark twin-tower project spanning a sprawling 4000sq m beachfront site along the Gold Coast dunal strip.

Boutique Midrise Proposed for Consolidated Neutral Bay Site
A $12-million Lower North Shore land assembly is being pushed into a $22-million apartment proposal under NSW’s Low and Mid-Rise Housing rules. Under the Primo Developments Neutral Bay scheme, 10 apartments would rise across 6 Raymond Road and 25 Thrupp Street, about 600m from the Neutral Bay local centre.

Apartments.com.au

Locals, interstate holiday makers, drive early sales at Lumara, Broadbeach’s newest luxury apartment tower
A mix of Gold Coast locals, fly-in, fly-out purchasers from Sydney and Melbourne, and Brisbane-based families has driven early sales success at Broadbeach’s newest apartment tower, Lumara.

Pace offers five per cent deposit match at Fabbrica Fitzroy ahead of Spring completion
Often when it comes to purchasing property, the biggest barrier to entry is the deposit. Buyers of established homes typically aim for a 20 per cent deposit to avoid the added cost of Lenders Mortgage Insurance, while most property transactions require around a 10 per cent deposit when contracts are exchanged.

CPG unveils Castile Newstead ahead of upcoming sales launch
Consolidated Properties Group (CPG) is approaching the launch of its latest Brisbane riverfront development, Castile, on the dress circle Skyring Terrace in Newstead. VIP buyers are now being engaged, with a full public sales launch coming later this year.

Perth apartment sales hit strongest pace since late 2021 as builder capacity tightens
Perth’s new apartment market recorded its strongest quarter of sales since Q4 2021, with 412 apartments sold in Q1 2026 and a record quarterly sold value of $537 million, according to Urbis’ latest Apartment Essentials results.

Sammut secures approval for debut Brisbane apartment development in Toowong
Sammut Group has secured development approval for its latest Brisbane apartment project, marking the Sydney developer’s next step in expanding its Queensland pipeline following the success of its debut Gold Coast development, Coast.

Lanevick to cater for Hunters Hill downsizers with new Gladesville apartment development
Developer Lanevick is heading back into Sydney’s apartment market after focusing more heavily on the luxury townhouse and terrace sector in recent years.

Pay-walled

The Australian Financial Review

Fear drives first home buyers to pay $666,000 for unit
A 1960s, top-floor, two-bedroom apartment at 6/11 Henry Street, Hawthorn, Victoria. Sold at auction for $666,000.

Weekly auction clearance rates to sink to six-year low
More capital city homes failed at auction than sold in the week to Saturday, dragging the clearance rate below 50 per cent for the first time in six years, upcoming Cotality data is expected to show. While preliminary data published on Sunday showed a 54.5 per cent clearance rate, Cotality’s research director Tim Lawless said the final figure due to be published later this week would likely be revised down.

Inside Sydney’s One Circular Quay where the penthouse costs $150m
AFR Weekend went inside Lendlease’s latest lux Sydney Harbour apartment tower which will be home to some of the country’s priciest apartments. While New York has Central Park and London has Mayfair, when it comes to prestigious Australian residential addresses, it would be hard to beat One Circular Quay in Sydney.

The Australian

Fall in auctions ‘good thing’, Chalmers says, amid trillion-dollar blow to housing
Australians could face a $1 trillion hit to home values if the property market nosedives, with Jim Chalmers saying a fall in auction clearance rates is a “good thing” despite fears house prices could fall by 10 per cent.

Australia’s biggest housing correction in 40 years looms
Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson’s plan to “change the distribution of home ownership” requires reducing the price of dwellings, led by Australia’s largest property market, Sydney. A large number of recent buyers could soon owe more on their dwelling than it is worth – so-called negative equity.

The Sydney Morning Herald

Secret RBA notes reveal harsh judgment of Labor’s housing policies
Reserve Bank officials judged that Labor’s first-term housing agenda did little to improve supply and possibly raised prices, directly linking migration to affordability as Labor battles to prove the budget will increase the availability of homes.

The Age

State defies inquiry over secrecy of $12 billion public tower knock-down plan
Redeveloping the state’s public housing towers will cost at least $12 billion, it has been revealed, as the government digs its heels in over a refusal to hand over 146 secret cabinet documents backing the project.

Follow-the-money powers to be announced for IBAC amid Big Build corruption
Victoria’s peak corruption-busting agency will be given the power it has long asked for to investigate the misuse of public funds on the state’s Big Build construction sites.

Leaked audio reveals strata giant caught asking contractor for kickbacks
For nearly 30 years, James* had operated under a simple assumption about the building services game: you pitch a competitive price, you deliver high-quality work, and the best quote wins.

Brisbane Times

New luxury apartment tower planned near future Olympic stadium
New luxury apartments are planned a stone’s throw from the future Olympic stadium site at Victoria Park. The 15-storey tower at 290 Water Street in Fortitude Valley will have 132 one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

The Daily Telegraph

‘The worst is yet to come’ for NSW as vital housing approvals plunge
NSW approved just 4,030 new homes in April – and experts warn that figure is only heading in one direction.

Treasury admits major error in key figures used to justify tax package
Labor has been forced to make a correction over its $77 billion CGT and negative gearing package after understating the benefit of the current housing system for average workers by nearly half.

The Gold Coast Bulletin

Gold Coast on track to become Australia’s priciest housing market in a year
New data shows the Gold Coast is closing the gap on Sydney so rapidly it could claim the title of Australia’s most expensive housing market within 12 months.

Well-known Gold Coast resort sells for $7.8m after fierce bidding war
Eight bidders battled for ownership of a 27-unit Gold Coast resort in a sale that smashed expectations, reaching $7.8 million amid a property buying frenzy.

The Adelaide Advertiser

Playford Alive development secures $50m for 400 homes for first-time buyers
The state budget has earmarked $50 million for an exclusive development delivering 400 first-homebuyer homes, as affordability concerns mount.

The West Australian

‘Disastrous’ prediction for thousands of new homeowners amid market downturn
Tens of thousands of Australians are staring down the barrel of a housing horror show, with experts warning a potential downturn could send new homeowners into negative equity.

The Newcastle Herald

Beachfront apartment sells at single-bidder auction as buyers grow ‘gun shy’
A Newcastle East apartment with front-row views across Newcastle beach has changed hands for the first time in more than three decades.

The Illawarra Mercury

New property data shows Illawarra house prices rising, while units have fallen
While house values are up slightly, the Illawarra region’s unit market took a surprising dip during the past month. That’s according to Cotality’s latest national Home Value Index.

‘House-like feel, low maintenance’: why luxury duplexes are attracting top dollar in Kiama
Recent major sales are a strong indicator that buyers – especially those from out of the area – have their eyes on Kiama’s duplex market. Meanwhile, another listing of this type is now for sale.