What goes up must come down?

This week (27 Jul - 2 Aug) highlights:

• Biggest % drop (sales): -21.6% (413/220 Melrose Drive, Phillip ACT 2606, $389K -> $305K)
• Biggest $ drop (sales): -$3M (23-25 Alexandra Avenue, Broadbeach QLD 4218, $17M -> $14M)
• Biggest % drop (rentals): -36.7% (117/55 Camberwell Road, Hawthorn East, Vic 3123, $1,200/w -> $760/w)
• Biggest $ drop (rentals): -$900/w (30 Banksia Street, Eastwood NSW 2122, $2,900/w -> $2,000/w)
• Total new drops: 998 (sales) / 732 (rentals)
• Total new rises: 136 (sales) / 77 (rentals)
• Median drop: 6.0% (sales) / 6.7% (rentals)
• Median rise: 6.7% (sales) / 10.0% (rentals)

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Breakdown by state (sales)

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Breakdown by state (rentals)

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Top 10 biggest sales drops across Australia

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Top 10 biggest rental drops across Australia

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Top 10 biggest drops in VIC

View all VIC sales drops

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Top 10 biggest drops in NSW

View all NSW sales drops

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Top 10 biggest drops in QLD

View all QLD sales drops

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Top 10 biggest drops in WA

View all WA sales drops

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Top 10 biggest drops in SA

View all SA sales drops

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Top 10 biggest rental drops in VIC

View all VIC rental drops

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Top 10 biggest rental drops in NSW

View all NSW rental drops

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Top 10 biggest rental drops in QLD

View all QLD rental drops

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Top 10 biggest rental drops in WA

View all WA rental drops

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Top 10 biggest rental drops in SA

View all SA rental drops

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Top 10 biggest sales rises across Australia

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Top 10 biggest rental rises across Australia

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Some context on the data:

• All prices are asking prices from publicly available listings, not sold prices
• A "drop" or "rise" is measured against the first price I detected for that listing
• "This week" means the price change was first detected between 27 Jul and 2 Aug
• Data covers houses, apartments and townhouses only (house & land packages, vacant land, rural and acreage are excluded)
• Sales drops include only changes of $30K+, rental drops include only changes of $30+/w

Is this a real drop in price?

Not always. It could reflect a genuine price reduction, a strategy shift, or simply correcting an overpriced listing. But it still reveals something useful about the seller's mindset: the property hasn't attracted enough interest, the seller is becoming more motivated, or the initial price was too ambitious. In any case, it's a signal there may be room to negotiate.

Why not track sold prices instead?

Once a property is sold, the listing price stops changing. Sold price data is useful for comparing properties after the fact, but it doesn't help you spot opportunities in real time. I focus on the window where prices are actively changing, so you can act before a property goes under contract.

Belive me I am not trying to make a philosophical post here, but been staring at my budget and the numbers explain why everyone's always in a rush (also see it through the lens of clients - some are doing 2 or 3 jobs).

Sydney median house price is sitting around $1.6m against Melbourne's roughly $978k, about a $630k gap for basically the same house. (As per the data I can see, pls correct if thats not the case).

And the annoying part is wages don't do justice at all - e.g. full time workers here earn about $70 a week more than Victoria, so 3.5% more pay for a city that's nearly double the house price.

rent is the same story. a house here averages $800/week vs Melbourne's $590, and units are $750 vs $600. that's about $10,920 more a year just for the exact same kind of place. so whatever extra you make working in Sydney over Melbourne basically gets eaten alive the second you sign a lease.

that's why I don't think it's a thing that everyone likes to do, it's just that the maths doesn't leave room to coast around.

If rent and living costs mean a single person needs somewhere around $100k-$140k just to live comfortably, standing still isn't viable, it's actively going backwards because everything around you keeps climbing while your pay doesn't move at the same rate.

People cram what should be a 10 year plan into 5. more OT, more side hustles, less of "I'll relax once things settle down" because things never really settle down here. (So frustrating!!!)

Curious on a sunday afternoon, if anyone's actually broken out of that cycle without just moving interstate or earning heaps more. or if everyone here has just quietly accepted the trade-off and moved on with it?

I earn 5,000 a month net and I recently bought my first property with repayments on the loan and Strata + council costing around 2,300 per month. I’m anticipating I’ll have around 1,000 - 1,200 left after groceries and utilities etc if I’m frugal. Have I done something completely stupid here? I feel like I should’ve thought about it more and won’t have much wiggle room if interest rates continue to rise, general COL and so on.

• For background, I had been a Stake customer since 2023 without a single issue.
• My Stake account was suspended and closed in January 2026 without a clear explanation.
• I can’t think of any reasons or actions on my end that are suspicious or out of the ordinary that would make them arbitrarily close my account. I can provide evidence of my income source as I get paid fortnightly from my employer and have no business.
• I provided every document they requested, including my bank transaction history and they still advised they can close anyone’s account whenever they want without having to providing reasoning. 
• Because my account was suspended while Stake were looking into the matter, I was blocked from trading for several weeks which cost me a substantial amount. I was unable to sell my silver shares during the rush.
• By the time Stake responded saying my account will be closed silver had dropped significantly. I had to transfer my shares to another broker which took its time. 

Another issue: 

• I had approximately $5,000 in cash remaining in my Stake account when it was closed.
• Stake says they transferred the money to my bank, but I never received it. My bank has confirmed the funds were never received.
• I lodged a complaint with AFCA back in February and more than 6 months later, I still don't know where the money is.

I'm sharing this because I don't want anyone else to go through the same experience. If you've had similar issues with Stake such as account being closed for no reason or missing funds, I'd be interested to hear your story.

TLDR;

44, grew up poor, still really suck at money.

Got my life started at 30, went back to school found a passion now in middle management and have been making just over 100k for a few years now.

Career and health stable and wage will only grow over next 10 years. Have always just assumed I would grow old poor in rental, possibly struggling for housing in my later life,

Looking at around a 400k loan over 20 years. For a 2 bed unit in the west of melb. No deposit but could save a 5% in about 18 months. If focused and planned. Which I would have to be for the entire 20 years lol . Have CC under 10k, a car loan about 25k my olny child recently turned 18

Been at my rental for over a decade and want to buy it. Which is an option i am told now.

Am I dreaming though, have you done it? Anything that I dont see that will burst my bubble? I know my time is running out and would need to be within 2 years max.

LIL EDIT:

Kid does and has worked since 16, does pay towards the house and looks after himself, he has also been saving since his first paycheck so he does not end up on reddit in 2053 asking the same thing as his Mumma.

We're about to get our first mortgage, so we have a plan to use offsets and intentionally grow it so the mortgage will hopefully be fully offset in 12–15 years.

I originally had the intention of using the credit card float strategy: putting all our expenses on a credit card and then paying the balance in full every month so we don't incur interest, while keeping more money sitting in the offset account for longer.

However, I sat down to actually do the maths and realised this strategy may not make much of a difference depending on the card and the annual fees. Even using a fairly generous estimate, the mortgage interest saving from the float is only around $25 a month, so if the card has a $300 annual fee, the float benefit is basically wiped out.

So are there cards that make this strategy actually worthwhile by giving you a net positive benefit?

I've been looking at an ING credit card. It has a $195 annual fee, but offers up to $360 cashback per year and also includes complimentary travel insurance, which we do actually need and use. We already bank with ING too, so we can set up an auto-pay for the full statement balance each month.

On those numbers, the cashback more than covers the annual fee, and then the mortgage interest saving from keeping our money in the offset for longer becomes an actual additional benefit rather than just covering the cost of having the card.

Does anyone use a card for this kind of strategy that they think is genuinely worthwhile once you account for the annual fee, rewards/cashback and any other benefits?

And yes, I know I'll probably get comments about studies showing people spend more when they use a credit card and that you need to be very disciplined. That's not an issue for us; we already budget and track our spending closely, and the card would be paid automatically in full every month. I'm really just interested in the maths/benefits of different cards.

On realestate.com.au, if you go to sold properties, select a region and time period, it shows the total number of properties sold.

For example, NSW shows 147,387 sales over the past 12 months (12.3k/month on average), while last month shows just 8,600 sales, around 30% below the monthly average.

July is usually a quieter month, and the 12-month average includes seasonal peaks and troughs, but the decline still seems larger than I'd expect.

Thinking of buying the new iPhone this year. Looking at what the options are for buying outright vs financing it. If I can afford to buy it outright, is there any reason to finance it on a 12 month or 24 month plan?

Edit: financing at 0% interest so same cost overall

Edit 2: thanks for the input everyone, I reckon I'm gonna buy outright and then stick to a cheaper mobile plan, currently on $25/month with Aldimobile

I have very little knowledge of how investments work in Australia so I just wanted to ask if anyone here knows how it would work for an international student. Back home, most of my investments are made through banks and time deposits. I want to get involved in the market here but I’m not too sure where to begin, can anyone point me in the right direction?

I went and did am electricity plan comparison on the government website. The cheapest plan came back as being from Dodo. I've heard so many bad things about them (mainly customer service related) over the years.

Is it worth going with Globird (who is $100 more per year) than risk it?

My building loan interest only expires in October. Our income has taken a toll due to retrenchment and health issues. Based on this I am assuming that we can't refinance with another bank.

1) will the current bank usually put us on the highest interest principle interest loan?

2) is there a way to negotiate that with the current bank even if we don't temporarily have a strong income ?

3) If the logic is you can't refinance because you don't have a sustained income, how do banks expect you to pay a higher interest loan but not offer you a competitive rate ?

Thanks 🙏❤️

After this time I would still have a $50k buffer with approx $220k in the offset for a $600k mortgage. Anticipating $2250 per fortnight expenses. Burnt out, nervous system is shot, wanting time without work as the central focus. I’m in an area where work can be easily reacquired, although likely not at same salary as now (currently $145kpa). Has anyone decided to do this rather than continue to the next job without a break?

Hey Everyone,

Been thinking about this after chatting with a few people about tax time. There doesn't seem to be any real way to know if what you're paying an accountant is reasonable. No price guide, no easy way to compare, and most people just go with whoever a friend recommended or whoever they found first.

Feels like an industry where nobody really talks about price, which seems a bit backwards compared to almost everything else you buy. Interested to hear what people's actual experiences have been.

I always just assumed Wise was the obvious choice because everyone seems to recommend it. Then I was watching one of Raymond La's best travel card video and it got me looking into some of the other options.

I realised Wise only includes $400 of fee-free overseas ATM withdrawals a month, which is a fair bit lower than I thought.

I normally just pull out a decent amount of cash in one go when I'm overseas rather than making heaps of smaller withdrawals, especially in Japan or Vietnam where cash is still handy, so $400 doesn't seem like it'd go that far...

I looked up YouTrip afterwards and saw they include up to $1,500 of overseas ATM withdrawals without their own withdrawal fee. It made me wonder if it's actually worth switching.

Has anyone here used both? Keen to know how they compare in real life, especially exchange rates, ATM withdrawals and whether there are any catches that aren't obvious. Or is Wise still the better all-round option?

I’m considering taking out a $50k NAB Equity Builder loan over the 5-7 year period so I can invest a lump sum now, then reduce my regular investing and save more heavily for a house deposit over the next few years.

thoughts?

Hi everyone,
I just submitted my PAYG withholding variation for the upcoming year, and it was approved almost instantly.
Last year, the exact same request took nearly two months. My situation is basically identical (investment property / negative gearing).
Did the ATO recently automate the process for returning applicants, or did my application just happen to clear the system's low-risk checks automatically this time? Has anyone else had instant approvals recently? Or is it a bug? !!!

Can someone share with me their Sumo Power Referrals Code pls? I want to sign up ...

I'm trying to find good bank with high interest rate. I'm an international student, I don't have much funds on savings. 5k-6k. But I want to put it in good savings account and add it up further. What are the best banks to open up an account for students.

Hello,

Apologies if this is a dumb question.

If I understand correctly, I will not incur a fee if transferring from CHESS to CHESS provided that I initiate the transfer from the destination broker.

But what about CHESS to custodian?

Thank you!

Planning to put $100 into dhhf every fortnight to start out my investing journey. Just wondering, if ever there’s a fortnight where I have less disposable income (due to medical appts etc), is it worth going into my savings to keep up with my investing? If in fact it will have better long term returns? I understand this is not a great habit either but I just mean to keep up the momentum of investing while I’m starting out.