Why Is Property So Hard Right Now?
🔐 Home Loans
Banks must check that you could still afford your repayments at an interest rate three percentage points above the one you would actually pay. At the average rate on new home loans in June 2026, that check reduces the largest loan you can be approved for by about a quarter.
🏠 Social Housing
Social housing — homes owned or managed by governments and not-for-profit providers — has grown more slowly than housing overall. Its share of all homes has fallen every year since 2012.
🏘️ Planning Approvals
In 2026 the homes being approved have tilted back toward detached houses. Townhouses, units and apartments were 38.7% of new homes approved in the June quarter, below their 15-year average of 41.3%.
When you apply for a home loan, the bank does not just check whether you can afford the repayments at the interest rate you would pay. The banking regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), requires every bank to check whether you could still afford them if the rate were three percentage points higher — even though you would never pay that higher rate.
Imagine applying for a car loan at 6% interest, but the lender has to check whether you could afford the repayments at 9% before approving you. Some people who could manage the real repayment are approved for less, or not at all, because the test uses the higher rate. Home loan assessments work the same way.
What this means for you: if you were approved for less than you expected, the stress test is a likely reason. It is a set rule, not a bank’s own caution, and only APRA can change it. Since 1 February 2026 there is also a limit on loans to borrowers whose total debts are six or more times their income: no more than 20% of a bank’s new owner-occupier lending, and 20% of its new investor lending, can go to them. Loans for new homes and new construction are exempt.
Social housing is a safety net for people on low incomes. When it grows more slowly than housing overall, more lower-income households look for homes in the private rental market instead, alongside people who would like to buy but cannot yet get a large enough loan.
What this means for you: if you are renting, more people are looking for the same homes, and fewer of them can turn to social housing. If you are a landlord or an agent, demand for rental homes is coming from more than one direction.
Before a home can be built it needs planning approval. APN tracks the mix of what gets approved: how many of the new homes are townhouses, units and apartments rather than detached houses.
What this means for you: the share of higher-density homes fell because more houses were approved, not because fewer apartments were. Approval is also not the same as building: whether an approved project goes ahead depends on costs and prices.
Stamp duty — the tax paid when property changes hands — is close to its usual level. In 2024–25 the duty collected across all states was 0.303% of the value of every home in Australia, against an average of 0.306% since 2011–12. That figure includes duty on all property sales, not only homes.
Foreign buyers face their own rules. From 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2029, foreign buyers, including temporary residents, cannot buy an established home except in narrow cases. On a new $1,000,000 home, the extra duty and fees set by governments add between 1.56% and 10.56% to the price, depending on the state or territory.
Two areas are being set up as registers of the rules themselves, rather than as readings: the energy standards new homes must meet, and the laws for renting a home. Until each register is built, APN publishes no reading for them.
The 2022 national building code raised the minimum energy rating for a new home to 7 stars and added a whole-of-home energy budget. Each state and territory chose when to adopt it, from October 2023 in New South Wales to May 2025 in Western Australia. Tasmania has not adopted it.
- Home loans are tested at three points above the actual rate. At June 2026 rates, that reduces the largest loan you can get by about a quarter.
- Social housing has grown, but much more slowly than housing overall, so its share of all homes keeps falling.
- The homes being approved have tilted back toward detached houses in 2026.
- Stamp duty is close to its usual level. Foreign buyers face extra costs and cannot buy established homes until at least 30 June 2029.
- These are deliberate settings. They change when governments and regulators change them.
