The weekly round-up of the biggest news stories from across Momentum Media’s property brands from the week ending 13 November.
To compile this list, not only do we consider the week’s most-read stories and the news that matter most to you, but we also curate it to include stories from our sister brands that also have an impact on the Australian property landscape.
New home loans suffer largest drop on record
New Australian home loan commitments recorded their largest quarterly fall since records began in 2002, with Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures revealing a sharp investor retreat.
Data released by the national statistics agency on Wednesday (11 November) showed that the value of new housing loans dropped 15.5 per cent to $81.157 billion in the September quarter of 2026. The number of new loans meanwhile fell 15 per cent to 111,878, leaving commitments 21.4 per cent below their level a year earlier.
Mortgage borrower sentiment sinks to all-time low
Australian mortgage holders have recorded historically weak sentiment readings in separate ANZ–Roy Morgan and Westpac–Melbourne Institute surveys, as elevated interest rates and living costs deepen concerns about household finances.
Upgraders drive mortgage demand as first home buyers stall: AFG
Existing home owners looking to trade up are dominating mortgage activity as buyers attempt to leverage accumulated equity before property values rebound, according to AFG chief executive David Bailey.
Addressing Australian Finance Group (AFG) brokers at the ASX-listed aggregator’s national conference in Melbourne on Tuesday (10 November), Bailey revealed that upgraders have surged from around 42 per cent of AFG’s flow to “closer to 50 per cent these days”, as the cooling property market, high house prices and tight borrower servicing constrain the number of new mortgagors in market.
Building industry raises alarm over next tranche of tax reforms
Industry groups have warned that the definition of new housing and changes to discretionary trust taxation in the latest tranche of federal budget tax reforms could undermine the building industry.
Both the Housing Industry Association (HIA) and Master Builders Australia (MBA) used their opening statements to the Senate economics legislation committee to raise concerns about the proposed changes, arguing they could increase costs for builders and restrict the types of development recognised as new housing.
[Related: Mortgage borrower sentiment sinks to all-time low]
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