Long-term arrivals at new highs

Arrivals power up

The number of permanent and long-term arrivals over the 12 months to November rose to 1.15 million, a new record high.

On a net basis, permanent and long-term movements increased to +476,960, having 'bottomed' out in January 2025.

There's a lot of spirited debate about what this does or doesn't mean for official net overseas migration figures, which will be lower than this when they're eventually reported. 

Even if the official numbers prove to be significantly lower than this, there's little doubt that population pressures are intense at the moment. 

Short-term arrivals also increased to 831,970 for the month, an increase of 19½ per cent from a year earlier. 

It was also reported this week that temporary visa holders are often remaining in Australia after their initial visas expire. 

Rental markets tend to respond to actual demand rather than to debates around visa categories, and as such rental prices have been reaccelerating since the middle of 2025, broadly mirroring the reported uptrend in the figures for net arrivals. 

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Rents are reaccelerating

Cotality Chart Pack

Cotality released its latest monthly housing Chart Pack, which showed the reacceleration in rents.

Rental price inflation over the 2025 calendar year picked up to +5.2 per cent, following on from the +4.8 per cent increase in 2024. 

Source: Cotality

High debt to income lending remained low and far below the newly-imposed 20 per cent speed limit. 

Source: Cotality

Stock levels remained low - total listings remained -20.6 per cent below average at the national level.

Source: Cotality

Home values rose +2.9 per cent in the December quarter, after lifting +2.3 per cent in the September quarter. 

The total value of the residential housing market lifted to an estimated $12.3 trillion in December. 

You can download the full Cotality Chart Pack here. 

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The Australian Property Podcast is rapidly becoming one of Australia's biggest business podcasts, now with over 50,000 audio downloads per month, and growing fast.

And our popular Low Rates High Returns Show also remains available on Spotify.

    3. Subscribe for my free daily blog

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My new book, co-authored with Cate Bakos is available to buy here or on Amazon here - check out our free Buy Right podcast series here. 

4. Work with me privately

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Unemployment to rise as job vacancies ease

Job vacancies ease a bit further

Job vacancies fell only slightly over the 3 months to November 2025, according to the ABS.

Other private measures have tended to show a weaker trend.

Over the 12 months to November, job vacancies were -5.2 per cent lower (-17,800 fewer vacancies).

Western Australia is bucking the trend over recent quarters, with hiring now rising again out west.

There are now more than two unemployed persons per job vacancy, for the first time since February 2021.

The numbers are a bit softer than they look as the labour force expanded by a massive 250,000 over the year to November. 

As such, the job vacancies figures imply that the unemployment rate will likely rise further from here. 

Over the past quarter job vacancies in education were down -15.5 per cent, while over the year manufacturing vacancies fell by a third. 

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Listen in to our podcasts

The Australian Property Podcast is rapidly becoming one of Australia's biggest business podcasts, now with over 50,000 audio downloads per month, and growing fast.

And our popular Low Rates High Returns Show also remains available on Spotify.

    3. Subscribe for my free daily blog

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My new book, co-authored with Cate Bakos is available to buy here or on Amazon here - check out our free Buy Right podcast series here. 

4. Work with me privately

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A small win for US inflation (Core CPI lowest since 2021)

US inflation eases

The BLS released the latest US inflation figures which came in at 2.7 per cent over the year for headline, and 2.6 per cent for all items less food and energy.

The figures are not complete due to the October figures not having been reported, so the figures may be treated with some caution. 

Source: BLS

The headline figure is still above the 2 per cent target, and housing-related inflation still showed signs of inflationary pressures in rising 3.2 per cent over the year. 

Still, the figures for core inflation were slightly better than expected, hinting that most of the tariff-related price rises may have passed through. 

Core inflation is now at the lowest level since 2021.

US Treasury yields were fairly flat, after initially seeing yields fall. 

Silver prices have resumed their extraordinary run this week, rising by a further 3 per cent tonight to a new high of $87.49 per ounce, with gold prices also at record highs. 

The recent surge in part may represent a threat of the erosion of Federal Reserve independence. 

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1. Download our property buying guide

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You can also check out a few of our recent property purchases here. 

Get in contact with us today if strategic property investment is your thing. 

    2. Subscribe to our Top 10 Podcasts for Investors

Listen in to our podcasts

The Australian Property Podcast is rapidly becoming one of Australia's biggest business podcasts, now with over 50,000 audio downloads per month, and growing fast.

And our popular Low Rates High Returns Show also remains available on Spotify.

    3. Subscribe for my free daily blog

Subscribe for my free daily blog with 4½ million hits here. 

You can also catch up with me daily on Twitter here, where I'm far too active daily and have over 15,800 followers. 

By the way, I'm an 8-times published author on finance, investing, and business, so you can check out some of my books here. 

My new book, co-authored with Cate Bakos is available to buy here or on Amazon here - check out our free Buy Right podcast series here. 

4. Work with me privately

For a limited time you can book in a free diagnosis call with me here, so book in a call today.

Podcast summer series: Property or shares in 2026

Podcast: property or shares?

In the 3rd episode of our summer series of podcasts, Chris and I discussed whether to invest in property or shares in 2026, and our own personal plans for the year. 

Tune in here (or click on the image below):

You can also watch the YouTube version here:

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1. Download our property buying guide

Download our free property buying guide here. 

You can also check out a few of our recent property purchases here. 

Get in contact with us today if strategic property investment is your thing. 

    2. Subscribe to our Top 10 Podcasts for Investors

Listen in to our podcasts

The Australian Property Podcast is rapidly becoming one of Australia's biggest business podcasts, now with over 50,000 audio downloads per month, and growing fast.

And our popular Low Rates High Returns Show also remains available on Spotify.

    3. Subscribe for my free daily blog

Subscribe for my free daily blog with 4½ million hits here. 

You can also catch up with me daily on Twitter here, where I'm far too active daily and have over 15,800 followers. 

By the way, I'm an 8-times published author on finance, investing, and business, so you can check out some of my books here. 

My new book, co-authored with Cate Bakos is available to buy here or on Amazon here - check out our free Buy Right podcast series here. 

4. Work with me privately

For a limited time you can book in a free diagnosis call with me here, so book in a call today.

2-Sense podcast: Will property go up in 2026?

Property predictions for 2026

Just me on the poddie this week, so I ran through the big property news stories of the week, and got across a few property predictions for 2026.

I also managed to briefly get into a listener question in the Listener Q&A segment. 

Tune in here (or click on the image below):

You can also watch the YouTube version here:

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1. Download our property buying guide

Download our free property buying guide here. 

You can also check out a few of our recent property purchases here. 

Get in contact with us today if strategic property investment is your thing. 

    2. Subscribe to our Top 10 Podcasts for Investors

Listen in to our podcasts

The Australian Property Podcast is rapidly becoming one of Australia's biggest business podcasts, now with over 50,000 audio downloads per month, and growing fast.

And our popular Low Rates High Returns Show also remains available on Spotify.

    3. Subscribe for my free daily blog

Subscribe for my free daily blog with 4½ million hits here. 

You can also catch up with me daily on Twitter here, where I'm far too active daily and have over 15,800 followers. 

By the way, I'm an 8-times published author on finance, investing, and business, so you can check out some of my books here. 

My new book, co-authored with Cate Bakos is available to buy here or on Amazon here - check out our free Buy Right podcast series here. 

4. Work with me privately

For a limited time you can book in a free diagnosis call with me here, so book in a call today.

November inflation flat...lower than expected

Prices discounted

The ABS released the latest monthly inflation figures, which again showed very little headline inflation (actually 0.0 per cent) in the month of November. 

Headline inflation for the 12 months to November was thus plenty lower than market expectations, dropping from 3.8 per cent to 3.4 per cent.

Source: ABS

Retail discounting and Black Friday sales may have helped somewhat to dampen prices in the month (although to some extent the same would hold true for the November 2024 figures).

The trimmed mean inflation figure declined slightly to 3.2 per cent for the 12 months to November 2025, down from 3.3 per cent in October. 

Source: ABS

A significant driver of the inflation related to the housing component (5.2 per cent), with rents and new dwelling costs both contributing. 

The wrap

Overall, it seems that inflation risks may be a bit lower than thought, though the next interest rate policy decision will ultimately be decided by the quarterly inflation figures due for release on January 28. 

Markets are discounting about a 1 in 3 chance of rate hike at the next central bank monetary policy announcement on February 3. 

I was a bit late getting to the release, but you can read Westpac's review here: Momentum not as strong as first thought.

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1. Download our property buying guide

Download our free property buying guide here. 

You can also check out a few of our recent property purchases here. 

Get in contact with us today if strategic property investment is your thing. 

    2. Subscribe to our Top 10 Podcasts for Investors

Listen in to our podcasts

The Australian Property Podcast is rapidly becoming one of Australia's biggest business podcasts, now with over 50,000 audio downloads per month, and growing fast.

And our popular Low Rates High Returns Show also remains available on Spotify.

    3. Subscribe for my free daily blog

Subscribe for my free daily blog with 4½ million hits here. 

You can also catch up with me daily on Twitter here, where I'm far too active daily and have over 15,500 followers. 

By the way, I'm an 8-times published author on finance, investing, and business, so you can check out some of my books here. 

My new book, co-authored with Cate Bakos is available to buy here or on Amazon here - check out our free Buy Right podcast series here. 

4. Work with me privately

For a limited time you can book in a free diagnosis call with me here, so book in a call today.

Apartment approvals jump driven by the regions

Regional apartments approved

Building approvals increased 15 per cent in November to a seasonally adjusted 18,406, for the highest result since early 2022.

The monthly jump was driven by a 34 per cent rebound in attached dwelling (i.e. mostly apartment) approvals, according to the ABS. 

However, there wasn't so much of note happening in the capital cities, although the higher-density segment of the capital city markets have picked up since bottoming out in 2024.

The monthly jump was also driven by regional Queensland (in particular the Gold Coast, which has seen some some huge towers approved of late) and the regional New South Wales, Victorian cities. 

Whether some of these proposed towers at Gold Coast are actually built and when are other matters for consideration.

Detached home approvals are trending higher in Perth but not so much elsewhere. 

Overall, there were approximately 195,000 dwellings approved over the year. 

On average, approvals have been running at around 16,000 per month over the past 17 months, or about 80 per cent of the implied desired level. 

The total estimated value of residential building approved rose to an all-time high of $11.3 billion, while non-residential work approved also increased solidly as demand for data centres picks up.

However, the recent shift in interest rate futures may temper some of the optimism for development ahead. 

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1. Download our property buying guide

Download our free property buying guide here. 

You can also check out a few of our recent property purchases here. 

Get in contact with us today if strategic property investment is your thing. 

    2. Subscribe to our Top 10 Podcasts for Investors

Listen in to our podcasts

The Australian Property Podcast is rapidly becoming one of Australia's biggest business podcasts, now with over 50,000 audio downloads per month, and growing fast.

And our popular Low Rates High Returns Show also remains available on Spotify.

    3. Subscribe for my free daily blog

Subscribe for my free daily blog with 4½ million hits here. 

You can also catch up with me daily on Twitter here, where I'm far too active daily and have over 15,500 followers. 

By the way, I'm an 8-times published author on finance, investing, and business, so you can check out some of my books here. 

My new book, co-authored with Cate Bakos is available to buy here or on Amazon here - check out our free Buy Right podcast series here. 

4. Work with me privately

For a limited time you can book in a free diagnosis call with me here, so book in a call today.