Updated regularly · written by the Burbfinder team
News & insights
Plain-language explainers on the Australian property market — the data you need before you sign, in language that doesn't pretend it's news.
Latest articles
116 articles totalBuilding8 min
Builder licence verification by state: the public portals, the insurance to demand, and what licensing actually protects
A current licence proves the builder paid their renewal fee and has not been disqualified. It says nothing about solvency, competence on your project, or whether insurance is actually in force.
News8 min
Reading APRA monthly ADI statistics: what bank-level housing loan composition reveals about the property cycle
APRA's bank-level data shows where credit is actually concentrated. Reading it well gives you the institutional mechanism behind a price cycle a quarter or two before the price indexes catch up.
Finance8 min
Rate lock fees and the pre-approval window: when paying $750 to fix today's rate actually pays off
Rate lock is the option contract most home-loan borrowers don't realise they're being offered. The fee is sometimes worth paying, sometimes a quiet upsell, and the deciding factor is rarely the buyer's view on rates.
Investing8 min
Smoke alarms and safety switches: what landlords must actually do, by state
A failed smoke alarm in a rental is rarely a $50 problem. The compliance gap between what landlords think they owe and what each state actually requires is wider than most insurers will tell you.
Investing8 min
Cross-collateralisation in Australian property: why the bank loves it, why most investors should refuse
Cross-collateralisation looks cleaner than it is. The bank gets one risk position; the investor gets a structure that quietly removes optionality at the exact moment a sale or refinance needs it back.
Insurance8 min
House and contents insurance in Australia: the sum insured trap, and what your policy actually covers
Most Australian house policies are underinsured by 20-40%. The owner picks a sum insured that matches what they paid, not what it costs to rebuild, and the average clause does the rest.
News8 min
Reading the ABS Wage Price Index: what wage growth tells you about property prices that house-price indexes don't
Wage growth is the variable property markets care about more than any single data series the property industry publishes. The ABS Wage Price Index is the cleanest read of it.
Buying8 min
Off-market property purchases in Australia: the real access path, the price premium, and the due-diligence problem
Off-market sales sit between 10 and 20% of capital-city transactions. The pitch is privileged access at a fair price. The reality is a compressed timeline, a premium, and a vendor who didn't want to test the open market.
Buying8 min
Strata vs Torrens vs community title: the three Australian title types and what you actually own
A Torrens owner controls the dirt and the bricks. A strata owner controls the air inside the lot lines and shares the bricks via a body corporate vote. A community-title owner sits in between.
Selling8 min
Selling your house privately in Australia: the actual saving, the actual workload, and when it doesn't work
The gross fee saving on a private sale looks large. Net of marketing, time, and the discount a self-listed property often takes on final price, the answer is closer than the headline suggests.
News8 min
Reading the REIA Real Estate Market Facts: what the quarterly REIA prices tell you that CoreLogic doesn't
The REIA Real Estate Market Facts is the oldest national price series in Australia. It still matters, and the reason is what it captures that the algorithmic indexes don't: settled sales reported by agents.
Selling8 min
Gifting property to family in Australia: the stamp duty, CGT, and 'love and affection' rules
Australia has no gift tax. People assume that means a parent can sign a property over to a child for a dollar and walk away clean. The ATO and the state revenue office disagree, and they both send invoices.
Buying8 min
Buying at a mortgagee auction in Australia: where the discount actually is, and where the risk lives
The folklore says mortgagee auctions are 20-30% under market. The reality is usually 0-8%, and the risk premium can eat the rest. Read the contract, price the friction, then decide.
Buying8 min
Title insurance in Australia: what it actually covers, the one-off premium maths, and when it earns its keep
Title insurance is a one-off premium that backstops the things a conveyancer cannot fix after settlement. Most buyers skip it. The ones who buy it know what their conveyancer's indemnity will and will not cover.
News8 min
Reading the PropTrack Buyer Demand Index: the leading indicator that arrives months before prices move
The PropTrack Buyer Demand Index measures intent before transaction. When the BDI turns, the price indexes follow within a quarter or two. Reading it well is mostly about lag arithmetic.
Buying8 min
Property valuation methods in Australia: bank valuation vs registered valuation vs agent appraisal
Three numbers describe the same house. They are produced for different readers, by people with different incentives and different liability, and the gap between them is where most buyer disputes live.
Finance8 min
Mortgage broker vs going direct to a lender: the economics, the duty, and when each wins
Brokers write the majority of new home loans in Australia, and they're paid by lenders rather than borrowers. That arrangement saves money on average and bends incentives at the edges.
Investing9 min
Subdividing land and battle-axe blocks in Australia: the council process, the costs, the actual ROI
A 1,200 m² block in a 600 m² minimum-lot suburb is worth more than two 600 m² blocks next door, but only on paper. Subdivision turns the gap into cash; the gap is smaller than most calculators assume.
News8 min
Reading the ABS CPI housing component: rents, new dwellings, and what the RBA actually watches
When the RBA cites housing inflation, it is adding two subindexes that move on different drivers. Reading them separately is the difference between understanding the print and just quoting the headline.
Buying8 min
Vendor finance and rent-to-own in Australia: the alternative paths to ownership, and where they go wrong
Vendor finance and rent-to-own are sold as paths to ownership for buyers banks have rejected. The structures are legal, the maths can work, and a small minority of deals are genuine. Most are not.
Investing8 min
FIRB foreign-buyer rules: what non-residents can actually buy in Australia, and what it costs
Australia's foreign-buyer regime is restrictive on existing dwellings, permissive on new builds, and expensive in fees and surcharges either way. The arithmetic for a typical Sydney purchase runs into six figures before any standard duty.
Buying8 min
Settlement-day adjustments in Australia: how council rates, water, body corp and land tax get pro-rated
Settlement adjustments split the outgoings the vendor pre-paid for the rating year. Get them wrong and the buyer overpays by thousands, or inherits a land tax bill nobody warned them about.
News8 min
Reading CoreLogic listings volume: what new vs total stock-on-market signals about the property cycle
CoreLogic publishes two listings numbers most readers compress into one. New listings and total stock move differently across the cycle, and the gap between them carries the signal.
Buying8 min
Easements, encumbrances and caveats: what's lurking on a property title in Australia
Most encumbrances on a title are harmless. The handful that aren't can block an extension, delay settlement by weeks, or quietly strip value off the price you just agreed to pay.
Finance8 min
First Home Guarantee Scheme 2026: the 5% deposit, no-LMI path explained
The First Home Guarantee skips Lenders Mortgage Insurance on a 5% deposit, saving most buyers $20-35k. The trap is trading that saving for a worse rate.
Investing8 min
Capital improvements vs repairs and maintenance: the investor tax line everyone gets wrong
Replace a worn hot water system and it is a repair. Replace it with a solar one and it is a capital improvement. Same job, two tax outcomes.
News8 min
Reading ABS Housing Occupancy and Costs: the 30/40 indicator and what it actually measures
The ABS Housing Occupancy and Costs release is the cleanest national read on affordability, and the 30/40 indicator inside it is the most-cited and most-misused number in Australian housing debate.
Selling6 min
Divorce and property settlement in Australia: how the family home gets split
Whose name is on the title doesn't decide who keeps the house. The Family Court treats every property owned by either spouse as part of one pool, then divides it.
Building6 min
Construction stage payments and the draw schedule: how Australian builds get funded
Every Australian new build runs on the same five or six staged payments. Get the stage definitions wrong and you can pay for work that isn't finished. Here's how the schedule and the construction loan actually fit together.
Finance6 min
Guarantor home loans explained: how a family pledge skips LMI in Australia
A family pledge can get a buyer into a home years earlier with zero LMI. It also puts a slice of the parent's equity on the line. Here's how the structure actually works.
News6 min
How to read major-bank cash rate forecasts without taking them as truth
Bank economist forecasts are a research product and a marketing artefact at the same time. Read the spread, not the headline number, and the consensus starts to mean something.
Investing8 min
Rentvesting explained: buying where you can afford, renting where you want to live
The arithmetic of rentvesting is brutal in some suburbs and benign in others. The difference is rental yield minus mortgage rate minus the opportunity cost of forfeiting the main-residence CGT exemption.
Investing9 min
Land tax by state in 2026: what investors actually pay on top of stamp duty
Land tax is the silent investor bill — payable every year while you hold, calculated on unimproved land value, and structured so a single second property in NSW can push annual cost past $5,000 before the rates notice arrives.
Buying8 min
Using a buyer's agent in Australia: when the fee actually pays for itself
A Sydney buyer's agent fee on a $1.2M house is $20-30k. The honest question is whether the agent extracts that much value back, and the answer depends on the buyer's situation more than the agent's pitch.
News8 min
Reading ABS Net Overseas Migration: how the demand-side number lands in housing
Net Overseas Migration is the single biggest swing factor in Australian housing demand and the most volatile number on the ABS release calendar. Read the trend, decompose the visa mix, and watch the revisions.
Buying8 min
PEXA settlement explained: what actually happens on settlement day in Australia
Settlement in 2026 is a 15-minute orchestrated transfer inside a virtual workspace. Here is who is in the room, what they each sign, and where the day usually goes wrong.
Investing9 min
Buying investment property in a trust: when the structure pays for itself, and when it doesn't
Trust ownership of investment property is the right answer for maybe one in five buyers and a costly mistake for the other four. The deciding factor is rarely tax and almost always asset protection or estate planning.
Buying8 min
Tenants in common vs joint tenants: what your title type actually means in Australia
The choice between joint tenants and tenants in common decides whether your share of the family home passes automatically to a co-owner on death or lands in your estate. The wrong choice costs more than most people realise.
News8 min
Reading the RBA Financial Stability Review: the property signals inside the twice-yearly report
The Financial Stability Review is the RBA's twice-yearly stocktake of how close the system is to breaking. Most of its conclusions are about property even when the chapter headings aren't.
Buying6 min
Subject to finance and inspection clauses: the contract conditions that decide whether you can walk
In WA and Tasmania the contract is binding the second you sign. Subject-to clauses are not extras. They are the entire safety net, and the difference between strong wording and lazy wording can be a $70,000 deposit.
Finance6 min
Pre-approval vs unconditional approval: the four stages of an Australian home loan
Pre-approval is not approval. It's the bank's polite maybe, conditional on a valuation that hasn't happened and a serviceability check that hasn't been re-run. The only stage at which you can safely go unconditional on a contract is the one most buyers confuse with the others.
Renting6 min
Tenancy databases in Australia: how TICA, NTD and TRA actually work
Being on a tenancy database isn't the dead-end most renters fear. The rules for listing are strict, the dispute pathway is cheap, and many listings don't meet the legal test.
News6 min
How to read PropTrack's monthly Home Price Index without overreacting
PropTrack and CoreLogic land within a few tenths of a percentage point most months. When they diverge, the gap is usually the most interesting thing in the release.
Buying6 min
How NT stamp duty is calculated in 2026 (Darwin)
The NT is the only Australian jurisdiction that calculates conveyance duty from a single algebraic formula rather than a bracket table. On a $480,000 Darwin contract the answer is roughly $22,341.
Selling6 min
Section 32, Form 1, and the rest: vendor disclosure across Australia
A Melbourne vendor forgot to mention a 1998 retaining wall built without a permit. The buyer rescinded after exchange. Two months of marketing, gone. Here is the disclosure regime that decided it.
Buying6 min
Cooling-off periods by state: how long you have to walk away after signing
Five days in NSW. Three in VIC. Zero in WA and Tasmania. The statutory right to walk away from a signed property contract varies wildly across Australia, and the auction carve-out catches buyers out every weekend.
News6 min
How to read CoreLogic's Monthly Housing Chart Pack in 15 minutes
The chart pack is roughly 80 pages and the news wrap quotes three of them. The other 77 are where most of the useful reading lives.
Finance6 min
Offset account vs redraw: which one actually wins for Australian borrowers
Offset and redraw save you the exact same dollar of interest while the money sits there. The difference shows up the moment you pull cash out — especially if you ever rent the place.
Buying6 min
Building and pest inspection cost in Australia: is the $550 worth it?
A combined inspection on a metro house runs about $550. The cheapest termite-damage repair starts at $12,000. The maths is not subtle.
News6 min
How to read SQM Research vacancy rates without being misled
A 1.2% vacancy rate sounds dire until you remember it's a count of online listings against an estimated rental base. Here's how to read the SQM series.
Buying6 min
How South Australia stamp duty is calculated in 2026
SA charges nothing on a new-build first-home purchase at any price, and the full schedule on an established one. The gap is the whole story.
Buying6 min
How Tasmania stamp duty is calculated in 2026
TAS doesn't run a flashy first-home exemption like SA. It runs a 50% discount up to $750k and stops there, which on a Hobart median price is worth roughly $11,700.
Finance6 min
Interest only vs principal and interest: the Australian decision in 2026
Interest-only loans look cheaper every month and end up more expensive in almost every scenario except one. That one scenario is why investors still take them.
Buying6 min
Strata fees and body corporate explained: what Australian apartment buyers actually pay
The listing quotes the asking price. It rarely quotes the $7,000 a year you'll keep paying after settlement. Strata fees are the apartment cost line that decides whether the maths still works.
News6 min
How to read ABS Lending Indicators without misreading the market
Lending Indicators is a flow series, not a stock one. Read it as a 1-3 month lead on settlements, and the headline starts to mean something.
Buying6 min
How ACT stamp duty is calculated in 2026 (Canberra)
Canberra is the only place in Australia phasing conveyance duty out entirely. The duty bill on an $850k house is about $25,940 in 2026, and it gets smaller every year on the way to zero in 2032.
Finance7 min
Switching home loans: the Australian refinancing checklist that actually pencils
Half the people who refinance in Australia end up worse off because they modelled the rate gap and not the switching costs. The math is simple once you put every number on the same line.
Renting6 min
Can my landlord refuse a pet? Tenant pet rights in Australia 2026
A blanket 'no pets' clause is no longer enforceable in most states. Here's what each jurisdiction allows in 2026, plus the strata twist that catches apartment renters out.
News6 min
How to read the RBA Statement on Monetary Policy without the headlines
The post-meeting communiqué is roughly 600 words. About forty of them carry signal. Knowing which forty pays off in concrete dollars on your repayment.
Finance7 min
Lenders Mortgage Insurance explained: how much LMI costs in Australia
Most buyers assume LMI protects them. It doesn't. Here's what the premium really buys, what it costs at 5% and 10% deposits, and when paying it still makes sense.
Finance7 min
Bridging loans in Australia: how they actually work, and when they bite
Every extra month your old home sits unsold can cost roughly $11,000 in capitalised interest at peak debt. Here's how bridging loans really work.
Investing8 min
Granny flat investment in Australia: the 15% yield math nobody talks about
A standalone investment property yields about 3%. A granny flat on land you already own can yield 15%. Here's why the math works, and where it bites back.
Investing7 min
QLD suburbs with the strongest gross rental yields in 2026
Queensland holds five of the highest gross-yield suburbs in the country right now, and they aren't the postcodes the headlines fixate on.
Buying8 min
NSW suburbs priced well below their neighbours in 2026
Some New South Wales suburbs trade well under the median of the suburbs that sit beside them, and the gap is wider than most buyers assume.
Buying7 min
VIC stamp duty: how it's calculated and what you'll actually pay
Victoria hits hardest at the $750k-$960k band, then flattens to a single 5.5% slab to $2M. Here is the bracket map and where buyers actually overpay.
Buying6 min
Conveyancer or solicitor: who do you actually need to buy property?
Most buyers don't need a solicitor. A handful absolutely do, and picking the wrong one costs more than the fee gap. Here's the honest split.
Investing8 min
Landlord tax deductions in Australia: the checklist that actually matters
Most investors leave three to five thousand dollars of legitimate deductions on the table every year. Usually because they treat repairs and improvements as the same category.
News7 min
Reading CoreLogic's Pain & Gain: what loss-making sales tell you
A median price index can climb while the bottom decile of resellers crystallises real losses. Pain & Gain is the series that catches what the headline number hides.
News8 min
The 50% CGT discount under threat: what the 2026 Budget actually proposes
Tonight's Budget proposes ending the 50% CGT discount for new investor purchases from July 2027. Announced, not legislated. Here's what it does to the numbers.
News8 min
Negative gearing 2026 Budget: the 12 May cutoff and grandfathering
7:30pm AEST, 12 May 2026 is the line. Contracts signed before it keep negative gearing for the life of the holding. Contracts signed after lose it from 1 July 2027.
Investing9 min
50% discount vs inflation indexation: 5 CGT scenarios compared
Headlines say the CGT discount is being abolished. The arithmetic across five scenarios says the 30% floor is doing most of the damage, not indexation itself.
News7 min
Foreign-resident CGT withholding is now 15%: the one CGT change already law
Every Australian buyer transacting with a foreign-resident vendor must now withhold 15% of the price at settlement and remit it to the ATO. The threshold is gone.
News9 min
Would CGT and negative-gearing reform cool property prices?
The headlines say reform will crash prices. The serious modelling says 1 to 3% over a decade. The compositional effect is the bigger story.
Finance7 min
APRA's 3% serviceability buffer: how the mortgage stress test caps your borrowing
Every Australian home loan is tested at the offer rate plus three percentage points. That single rule shaves tens of thousands off what most buyers can borrow.
Investing8 min
Buying property through an SMSF: what it actually costs and what you can't do
An SMSF can buy investment property, but the rules are stricter and the costs are higher than most explainers admit. Here's what the numbers actually look like.
Selling6 min
Real estate agent commissions in Australia: what you actually pay to sell
Two agents quote you to sell the same $900,000 house. One says $19,800. The other says $9,995. Neither is wrong. Here is how the commission market actually works.
News7 min
Wages vs mortgage rates: how to read the serviceability gap
Three percent wage growth doesn't mean serviceability is improving. It depends entirely on what mortgage rates did in the same year.
Buying6 min
Off-the-plan property: the risks every Australian buyer underestimates
Off-the-plan looks like a tidy way to lock in tomorrow's home at today's price. The fine print, and a soft 2024–25 settlement market, said otherwise.
Building7 min
Knockdown-rebuild in Australia: when the numbers actually work
Most KDR pitches skip the only question that matters: is the existing house worth more than the demolition saves? Here's how to tell before you swing a hammer.
Finance6 min
How Queensland stamp duty is calculated in 2026
QLD transfer duty looks gentler than NSW until you cross $1M. Here is how the brackets, the home concession, and the post-2024 first-home rules actually combine.
Finance6 min
How WA stamp duty is calculated in 2026
WA transfer duty tops out at 5.15%, with no NSW-style premium bracket. The first-home rules end abruptly at $600k, and the off-the-plan rebate quietly resets the math.
Selling6 min
Auction vs private treaty: which sale method actually wins in 2026
Auction is not a default. It is a $5–15k bet on a hot Saturday, and at 55% clearance the maths stops working. Here is how the two methods really stack up.
Investing6 min
Renovation ROI in Australia: which improvements actually pay off
Most renovations don't return what they cost. Here's the room-by-room ROI ranking, the ceiling-price trap that burns margin, and a worked $75k example.
Insurance5 min
Landlord insurance in Australia: what it actually covers (and what it doesn't)
Landlord insurance is the policy that pays when a tenant trashes the place or stops paying rent. Here's what it covers, what it skips, and when it earns its premium.
Downsizing6 min
Downsizing in Australia: the financial moves nobody warns you about
A retired couple sells the family home for $1.6M and buys back at $850k. The cash freed isn't $750k. Here's the maths the brochures skip.
Renting7 min
Renters' rights in Australia: what each state actually allows in 2026
Bond caps, rent-rise frequency, no-grounds eviction, pets, bidding wars: the rules diverge sharply between states. Here is what each one allows in 2026.
Moving6 min
Moving house in Australia: the real cost checklist
The headline removalist quote is rarely more than two-thirds of what a move actually costs. Here is the full line-item breakdown for an Australian move.
Finance7 min
First Home Owner Grant by state in 2026: what you actually get
Every state still calls it the First Home Owner Grant, but in 2026 it only pays out on new builds. Here is what each state hands over, and the duty concessions that stack on top.
Investing6 min
How to read ABS Building Approvals like a property investor
Building Approvals tell you about supply 1 to 3 years out, not next quarter. Here's what the monthly ABS release actually says, and how to read it.
News7 min
How the RBA cash rate flows through to Australian property prices
A 25bp RBA cut does not lift prices by 25bp. It lifts the marginal buyer's borrowing capacity by roughly $15-20k, and prices follow with a lag.
News8 min
Federal housing policy in 2026: Help to Buy, Home Guarantee, and the schemes that actually pay out
Help to Buy shared equity, the three Home Guarantee tiers, and the stacking rules that decide whether a federal scheme actually saves a first-home buyer real money in 2026.
News7 min
Australian property market outlook 2026: what the major forecasters are saying
The 2026 forecast spread is wider than the headlines suggest. Here's how to read CoreLogic, PropTrack, SQM, and the major banks without picking a side.
News6 min
Rental vacancy rates in Australia 2026: what the numbers actually tell you
A 1.5% vacancy rate signals rent growth ahead. A 3.5% rate signals stagnation. Here is how the number is measured, what it means, and where each capital sat in 2025-26.
Investing8 min
Investment property vs shares in Australia: an honest comparison
Property's reputation as the higher-returning Australian asset is mostly a leverage story. Here's the honest after-tax comparison with shares over a 10-year hold.
Buying6 min
Buying property with a partner in Australia: joint tenants vs tenants in common
Joint tenants vs tenants in common in plain English: survivorship, contribution splits, lending traps, and what title structure actually protects.
Finance6 min
First Home Super Saver Scheme explained: how to save your deposit through super
FHSS turns voluntary super contributions into deposit cash taxed at the concessional rate. For a 37% earner, that is roughly 22 cents in the dollar back.
Selling7 min
Main residence CGT exemption: when it works and when it breaks
An expat sells the family home from London and pays $200k of CGT on a property that would have been fully exempt 12 months earlier. Here is why.
News7 min
How to read CoreLogic's daily home value index without getting fooled
The HVI ticks every weekday and the headlines treat each tick like news. The daily number is mostly noise; the monthly change is where the signal lives.
Investing7 min
Depreciation schedules for investment properties: what they cover and what they save
A quantity-surveyor depreciation schedule typically pays for itself in the first month it lands in your tax return. Here's what's in it and why most investors leave money on the table.
Renting6 min
Breaking a lease early in Australia: costs, steps, and your rights
Breaking a fixed-term lease isn't just paying out the remaining rent. The state-by-state cost structure ranges from a fixed-percentage break fee to uncapped agent recovery.
Building7 min
Building contracts in Australia: HIA vs MBA, fixed price vs cost plus
Most disputes between owners and builders trace back to a clause that someone signed without reading. Here's what HIA and MBA contracts actually say, and where the negotiating leverage lives.
Buying6 min
How to choose a suburb using public data
Skip the agent's pitch and the influencer's lifestyle shot. Five public-data signals that actually predict whether a suburb is right for you.
Buying7 min
First home buyer guide: deposits, stamp duty, and concessions
What a first home actually costs after stamp duty, LMI, and conveyancing — plus which state concessions are worth the paperwork.
Investing5 min
Understanding rental yield (and why net yield is the honest number)
Gross yield sells the property. Net yield reveals whether you should buy it. Here's how to read both and what most calculators leave out.
Investing6 min
Negative gearing in 2026: what changed and what it means for your numbers
Negative gearing is a tax mechanism, not a strategy. Here's how it works, what's on the policy table, and how to model your own numbers without the slogans.
Buying5 min
How to read SEIFA scores when comparing suburbs
SEIFA isn't one number. It's four. Here's what each index measures, why the deciles can disagree, and how to use them when shortlisting suburbs.
Buying6 min
Stamp duty in NSW vs VIC: which state actually costs you less?
Which state really stings less on stamp duty? The answer flips three times between $600k and $1.5M, and it depends on whether you're a first-home buyer.
Investing7 min
Capital gains tax on investment property: a 6-step worked example
Capital gains tax on a sold investment property, walked through in six numbered steps with a single $700k-to-$1.05M example carried end to end.
Buying5 min
How much can I borrow for a home loan in Australia?
Generic '4-5x your income' rules of thumb don't survive contact with a bank's serviceability calculator. Here's the real math.
Buying7 min
How is stamp duty calculated in NSW?
NSW transfer duty runs on a six-bracket sliding scale that surprises most buyers at the $1M and $3M thresholds. Here is how the math actually works.
Buying7 min
Borrowing power vs serviceability: what banks actually check
Borrowing power is what a calculator says you can borrow. Serviceability is what a bank's assessor actually approves. The gap is where loans fall over.
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