Australia’s Property Market Is Under Pressure
But This Isn’t a Crash Story The Reserve Bank of Australia held the cash rate at 4.35% last week. Unanimously. Normally, no rate rise would qualify as good news for property owners. But there wasn’t much celebrating. Governor Michele Bullock made it clear that inflation remains the priority and further rate increases remain possible. The […]
The Numbers That Should Make Every Australian Investor Wary
Here are a few numbers worth sitting with. So far in 2026, the S&P 500 is up around 14% and the NASDAQ around 15%. The Australian market? Closer to 4%. Stretch the comparison out over five years and the story becomes harder to ignore. The S&P 500 has delivered roughly 12% per annum in price […]
Big Companies Are Cutting. What Does That Mean for Rates?
Two major announcements hit this week that deserve more attention than they got. Coles is outsourcing its finance, HR, technology, and marketing functions to Accenture. A significant number of roles will be made redundant, replaced by offshore operations run through Accenture’s overseas centres. Qantas is doing something similar. Around a thousand back office positions are going, again […]
The Property Softening Has Gone National
For a while, it was easy to write off the property slowdown as a Melbourne and Sydney story. Specific markets with specific problems. Not a national trend. That story is getting harder to tell. Data out this week shows Perth and Brisbane are now joining the softening. Two markets that have been running hot for […]
The CGT Valuation Problem Nobody Is Talking About
Jim Chalmers made headlines this week by walking back part of the government’s negative gearing changes. Good news for a lot of investors. But while everyone was focused on the backflip, a far bigger problem quietly slipped under the radar. On 1 July 2027, the 50% capital gains tax discount will be replaced on gains made […]
Aged Care Just Got a Little More Human
Last week the Senate passed a bill that most Australians will never hear about. But for families navigating the aged care system, it could make a meaningful difference. It’s called the Human Override Bill, and it addresses a problem that’s been quietly frustrating families and clinical assessors for years. How the Current System Works When […]
Payday Super Is Here. Here’s What It Actually Means.
From 1 July 2026, the rules around superannuation payments changed fundamentally. Employers are no longer able to hold super contributions and pay them quarterly. From now on, when you pay wages, you pay super. At the same time. Every single pay cycle. The super payment must be received by the super fund within seven days of […]
The Year That Was: What FY26 Actually Delivered
Another financial year is in the books. And if you’re an Australian investor, the numbers are worth sitting with. The All Ordinaries finished FY26 up 2.4%. The S&P 500 was up 21%. The Nasdaq, which is heavily weighted toward technology, was up 31%. That’s not a one-off. This is the fourth consecutive year that the […]
Why Auction Clearance Rates Just Hit Pandemic-Era Lows
Property clearance rates have fallen to levels we haven’t seen since the depths of COVID. Domain and realestate.com.au are fielding plenty of complaints. Headlines are calling it a correction. But the real picture is more nuanced than a single number suggests — and what’s driving it matters more than the headline figure itself. Three Forces, […]
The Tax Bill Has Passed. Here’s What Actually Changed.
It’s done. Both houses of parliament have passed the government’s tax legislation this week. The Greens came to the table, the government got its package through, and the headline reforms — negative gearing and capital gains tax — are now law. But the detail matters more than the headline. And some of it doesn’t look […]