Tax & Deductions
Claim everything you are entitled to. Guides to deductions, depreciation, capital gains, and record keeping for Australian rental properties.
June quarter wages grew 3.2%, Cotality has rents at 5.9%, and the 2.7-point spread is what every state's rent-cap debate now runs on
The ABS Wage Price Index for the June quarter 2026, released Tuesday 19 August, printed at 0.8% for the quarter and 3.2% annually. Private sector wages grew 3.1% annually, public sector 3.4%. Cotality's Q2 2026 Quarterly Rental Review has capital city rents running 5.9% annually, the median national dwelling rent at a record $705 per week, and rents up 40.6% cumulatively over five years, adding $204 a week to the average tenant's bill. Wages have now trailed Cotality's rent index for eight straight quarters and the gap has widened to 2.7 percentage points. Here is what the WPI print does to the spring rent-review sheet, the tenant serviceability read, and the rent-cap conversation the states are all quietly having again.
Unemployment climbed to 4.5% in July. The RBA hit its end-of-year forecast four months early
The ABS July 2026 labour force print landed at a 4.5% seasonally adjusted jobless rate, up from 4.4% in June, with employment down 15,800 and the participation rate falling to 66.9%. Full-time employment lifted 16,300 but part-time employment shed 32,200. The number of unemployed people rose 4,200 to 691,500 and the youth rate eased to 10.4%. The headline print matches the RBA's end-of-2026 forecast published in the 11 August Statement on Monetary Policy, four months ahead of schedule. Here is what an early-landing 4.5% does to the cash-rate curve, tenant serviceability, arrears risk and the refinance window running into 2027.
QLD land tax notices for 2026-27 are in the post. Revenue tipped at $3.26 billion after Ipswich site values jumped 51%
The Queensland Revenue Office is issuing FY26-27 land tax assessment notices from this month, and state land tax revenue is forecast at $3.26 billion for the year, up from $2.81 billion in 2025-26. The 2026 statutory valuations that drive the bill were issued on 11 March: 560,000 properties across 15 LGAs, with Ipswich site values up 51%, Sunshine Coast up 24% and Noosa up 37%. In 2024-25 there were 204,586 properties captured and 60,828 individuals liable, up 30% year on year. Here is what a landlord holding QLD investor stock should do with the envelope before the 90-day clock starts running.
Weekend auctions cleared 51.8% versus 73.5% a year ago. Nine straight weeks of sub-50% finals is the winter base rate
About 1,290 auctions went under the hammer across the combined capitals this weekend, and the preliminary weighted clearance rate finished at 51.8%. That is only marginally higher than last week's 50.3% and well below the 73.5% cleared over the same weekend in 2025. Melbourne slipped back under 60% at 59.2% after briefly cracking that ceiling on 9 August, and the combined-capital final clearance rate has now run below 50% for nine weeks in a row. Volumes are 12.5% below the same week last year and less than a third of the autumn peak of 3,983 auctions in late March. Here is what a nine-week final-rate floor around 47% does to a landlord's spring-listing vendor advice, reserve strategy, days-on-market expectations and refinance timing.
CBA lifts its mortgage book $46 billion in FY26 as investor applications fall 28% since 12 May
Commonwealth Bank's 12 August full-year results landed on the desk the day after the RBA held at 4.35%. Cash profit of $10.98 billion, full-year dividend up 20 cents to $5.05, mortgage book at $680 billion across 1.9 million accounts. The uncomfortable number is what has happened since the 12 May federal budget: investor mortgage applications at Australia's biggest home lender have fallen 28%, owner-occupier applications 9%, group applications 17% year on year. Household offset and redraw buffers have drained about $7 billion in six months and 90+ day home loan arrears sit at 0.73%. Here is what an investor buyer pool at 72% of its post-budget baseline does to a landlord's selling calendar, refinancing options, and read on tenant serviceability.
17 banks now feed the ATO's landlord data-match. 1.7 million rental loans in the 2025-26 file
The ATO's Residential Investment Property Loan data-matching program is in its fifth and final year, the 2025-26 income year, with 17 authorised deposit-taking institutions from the Big 4 down to Ubank handing over 1.7 million landlord records annually. A parallel property management data-match covers 2018-19 to 2025-26 across PropertyMe, Console Cloud, PropertyTree, REST, Kolmeo and Ailo. ATO Assistant Commissioner Rob Thomson's line last tax time was that 9 in 10 rental returns contained at least one error. Here is every data field the ATO now cross-checks against a landlord's rental schedule, the four errors that drive the 90% number, and what the 12 May 2026 negative gearing overhaul does to the risk profile.
KPMG cuts its 2026 house price forecast to -1.1%. Sydney tipped for a 5.0% fall, then a 3.3% rebound in 2027
KPMG's August 2026 Residential Property Market Outlook, released this week by chief economist Dr Brendan Rynne, has scrapped January's 7.7% growth call. National house values are now forecast to fall 1.1% in 2026 before rebounding 3.4% in 2027. Units are the resilient side of the ledger at +2.2% in 2026 and +3.7% in 2027. Sydney houses are marked for a 5.0% fall this year before a 3.3% recovery. Rents are pencilled to keep rising at about 3.5% per year through 2026 and 2027. Here is what a V-shaped correction actually means for a landlord's cash flow, refinancing calendar, and buy-vs-sell call two days out from the 11 August RBA decision.
278,984 properties were for sale in July, the biggest winter inventory pool in over a year. Melbourne stock is 42.8% higher than a year ago
SQM Research's July 2026 Stock on Market release landed on 6 August. National residential listings rose 12.4% for the month to 278,984 dwellings, 22.8% higher than a year ago. Melbourne stock is now 42.8% higher than July 2025, Brisbane 29.5%, Sydney 28.0%. Distressed listings rose for a third consecutive month to 4,330, with ACT distressed stock up 70.0% year-on-year. Capital city asking prices eased 1.2% for the month. Here is what the winter supply glut means for a landlord's next buy, the exit calendar for a Melbourne investor, and the leverage a cashed-up buyer now carries into a Sydney negotiation five days out from the 11 August RBA decision.
Apartment approvals rebounded 17.8% in June, reversing May's 11% fall. QLD +33.4%, VIC -13.9%, and only new builds keep negative gearing from 1 July 2027
The ABS Building Approvals for June 2026 landed on 30 July with total dwellings up 7.2% to 18,328 seasonally adjusted, apartments and townhouses up 17.8% to 7,138 after May's 11% fall, and residential building value up 15.1% to $11.75 billion. Queensland led the state split at +33.4%, while Victoria fell 13.9% and Tasmania fell 22.5%. This is the first monthly print landlords should read against the 12 May 2026 negative gearing grandfathering. From 1 July 2027, only eligible new builds keep full negative gearing, so this apartment pipeline is the pool investors will be buying from. Here is what the June print signals for a Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane landlord's next investment purchase.
National HVI fell 0.7% in July, the sharpest monthly drop since December 2022. Sydney -1.4%, Melbourne -1.2%, annual growth halved to 5.3%
Cotality's July 2026 Home Value Index landed at -0.7% on 1 August, the sharpest single-month decline since December 2022. Sydney fell 1.4%, Melbourne 1.2%, and both capitals now sit more than 5% below their 2026 peaks. Combined regional posted its first monthly decline since January 2023. Annual growth halved to 5.3%. Here is what a 5% peak-to-trough drop does to a Sydney investor's LVR, why the mid-sized capitals stopped propping up the national number, and how the 12 May 2026 negative gearing grandfathering rule is now bending buyer behaviour into two very different markets.
3.6% trimmed mean undershoots the RBA's 3.8% May pencil. Westpac drops hike call, CBA holds through 2026
The June quarter 2026 CPI landed at 3.8% headline and 3.6% trimmed mean on 29 July, both below the RBA's May Statement on Monetary Policy forecast and below the market consensus of 3.7%. Westpac has scrapped its hike call for the year. CBA sees the RBA on hold through 2026. The 11 August board decision is now a hold-versus-cut question, not a hold-versus-hike question. Here is how the mortgage math on a $600k investor loan changes when scenario 2 dies and scenario 4 opens up.
Valuers now rank negative gearing reform ahead of rate hikes as the top drag on house prices
The Australian Property Institute's Q3 2026 Property Directions Survey landed with 82% of 265 respondents flagging negative gearing reform as a downward pressure on residential values, ahead of CGT reform and the interest rate outlook at 77% each. Residential sentiment slid from 6.0 to 5.0 on the API's ten-point scale in a single quarter, the steepest fall of any asset class. The tax changes do not take effect for 11 more months. Here is what the survey actually says and what a leveraged landlord should do about it before the 29 July CPI and 11 August RBA decision.