Tax & Deductions
Claim everything you are entitled to. Guides to deductions, depreciation, capital gains, and record keeping for Australian rental properties.
Roy Morgan pegs July mortgage stress at 32.5%, an 18-year high. SQM's distressed listings up 10% year on year
Roy Morgan's 1 September release put 1,786,000 Australian mortgage holders in the 'at risk' zone for July 2026, up 2.2 percentage points on June and the highest share since September 2008. Extreme mortgage stress sits at 19.8%, or 1.06 million holders, driven by borrowers on household incomes below $100,000. SQM Research's August total listings report counts 4,510 distressed listings nationally, up 4.2% for the month and 10% year on year, with Queensland +25.3%, Western Australia +39.6%, South Australia +50.7% and the ACT +59.5% all well above last year while New South Wales and Victoria drift lower. The 12- to 24-month lag between stress readings and forced-sale prints is the story for landlords holding stock 21 days out from the 29 September RBA sit.
NSW's domestic violence tenancy reforms commence 21 September. Landlords now own the co-tenant notification within 7 days
The Residential Tenancies Amendment (Domestic Violence Reform) Act 2025 commences in New South Wales on 21 September 2026. From that date the landlord or agent, not the victim-survivor, must notify remaining co-tenants within 7 days of a domestic violence termination notice being served. The Act also expands the categories of 'competent persons' who can sign the supporting declaration to include prescribed employees for people with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tenants, migrants and refugees, and people in rural or remote areas. Locks may be changed without landlord approval where a court order, bail or parole condition excludes the alleged perpetrator. Damage caused by domestic violence is quarantined from the departing tenant's bond in defined circumstances. Privacy protections around photos and advertising are strengthened, and residential tenancy database operators face penalties of up to $49,500 for failing to remove a victim-survivor listing on Fair Trading's order. Here is what a NSW landlord needs to change in their process in the 15 days before the reforms commence.
Mortgage interest costs climbed 10.4% in the June quarter as households pushed savings back to 6.5%
The ABS released June quarter 2026 national accounts on 2 September, with GDP growth of 0.4% seasonally adjusted and annual growth of 2.1%. Household consumption rose only 0.4% and the household saving-to-income ratio climbed to 6.5% from 6.4%. The line that matters for landlords sits deeper in the release: mortgage interest costs paid by households were up 10.4% in the quarter. Compensation of employees rose 1.5% for the quarter and 6.0% through the year, above the wage price index reading of 3.2% for the same period. State final demand was flat in NSW, down 0.3% in Victoria, up 1.1% in Queensland and up 1.0% in WA. Dwelling investment picked up. Here is what the print does to the 29 September RBA sit and to the operational cash flow work sitting on a landlord's desk this week.
Dwelling approvals fell 3.6% in July to 17,687. The supply pipeline behind Australia's 1.3% vacancy rate is shrinking again
The ABS released July 2026 building approvals data on 1 September, showing total dwellings approved fell 3.6% seasonally adjusted to 17,687. Private sector houses fell 4.2% to 10,199, off the strongest June print since September 2021. Private sector dwellings excluding houses eased 0.4% to 7,119. Queensland dropped 13.9%, New South Wales 8.1% and Western Australia 0.3%, while Victoria rose 9.7%, Tasmania 15.2% and South Australia 5.9%. The value of total residential building fell 4.9% to $11.26 billion. The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council has already pushed the 1.2 million homes deadline from June 2029 to September 2030, and the July print pulls the run rate further away from the 240,000 a year the Accord needs. Cotality's August Home Value Index landed the same day at -0.9% nationally, a fifth straight monthly fall. For a landlord holding stock right now, the supply and value data lock in the same story from opposite directions.
Fresh Sydney listings sit 14% below average as spring opens. Every capital city fell over the four weeks to 10 August
Fresh listings for sale across Sydney's rolling four-week window to 23 August 2026 are running roughly 14% below the five-year seasonal average, with Melbourne down about 9% and Brisbane about 5%. Cotality's rolling four-week measure to 10 August has every major capital in negative territory: Sydney -1.4%, Melbourne -1.0%, Brisbane -0.5%, Adelaide -0.3% and Perth -0.3%. Annual dwelling value growth has slowed to 5.3% nationally, with Sydney -2.0% and Melbourne -2.8% on the year. The August Cotality Housing Chart Pack models what a 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% peak-to-trough decline means across each capital, and Sydney is already through the first stop at roughly -6.7%. Here is what the softer spring open does to a landlord's sell-vs-hold math before the RBA sits on 29 September.
July trimmed mean stuck at 3.6% missed every Big 4 forecast. Here's what a September 29 RBA hike costs a $600k investor loan
The ABS monthly CPI indicator for July 2026, released Tuesday 26 August, has headline inflation at 3.5% and the RBA's preferred trimmed mean stuck at 3.6% for a second consecutive month. All four major banks had forecast the trimmed mean would edge down to 3.5%. Housing remained the largest contributor at 5.0% annually, with rents at 3.6% and new dwellings at 5.7%. The print landed 24 hours after the RBA's 25 August release of the August 2026 minutes, which showed the Monetary Policy Board debated a 25 basis point hike before opting to hold at 4.35%. Futures now price roughly a 17% chance of a September 29 hike and a 4.50% cash rate by year end. Here is what the two prints do to investor mortgage math before the next Board meeting.
NSW Smart Rental Bonds went live 10 August. State pays landlord claims upfront and chases the tenant for repayment
NSW's Smart Rental Bonds scheme switched on Monday 10 August 2026 in Parramatta, Penrith and the Central Coast, the first stage of a state-wide rollout targeted to reach every NSW renter by 31 December 2026. Tenants can now digitally transfer an existing bond to a new tenancy for a $25 service fee, avoiding the double-bond crunch and cutting up to $4,000 out of a typical move. The mechanic sitting behind that transfer is a NSW Government guarantee that pays the outgoing landlord in full on any agreed or NCAT-ordered claim, then recovers the money from the tenant. There are around 988,603 active bonds in NSW worth about $2.29 billion sitting on the Rental Bonds Online register. Here is what the guarantee, the fee, the LGA rollout and the transfer workflow actually mean for a NSW landlord facing a re-let this spring.
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.