Auction clearance rates are beginning to claw their way back with results rising over the past two weekends.
In the week ending July 26, the combined capital city auction clearance rate rose to 49.7% and last weekend it rose to 53.6%.
Despite the increases in recent weeks, clearance rates remain below the 68.5% rate of the same time last year.
Cotality Head of Research Tim Lawless says there were fewer properties withdrawn in the past week as well – although the number of properties being taken to auction does remain lower than would normally be expected.
Melbourne’s clearance rate was 59.6% - its highest result since late May. Adelaide was 52.6%, Sydney 49.7%, the ACT 43.9% and Brisbane 42%.
Perth had ten auctions last week with a 20% clearance rate and Tasmania did not have any.
According to Cotality there are already 1,400 homes scheduled for auction for the second weekend of August- compared with 1273 in the previous week.
Building approvals increased in June, but not enough to reach housing targets, according to new Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
Approvals are up by 7.2% in June to 18,328 dwellings. ABS head of construction statistics Daniel Rossi says private sector house approvals rose 0.4% in June – the sixth month in a row with more than 10,000 approvals.
As at the end of FY2026, there have been 205,000 approvals – up 9.2% on the previous year. There are 253,000 approvals needed every year to reach national housing accord targets.
"The increase saw dwellings approved in the FY2026 financial year at its highest level since FY2021," Rossi says.
Property Council of Australia executive Matthew Kandelaars says while it is encouraging that approvals are starting to rise, the more important data is how many homes are completed.
"Approvals are an important indicator of future activity, but they are only the first step in the delivery process," he says.
A Productivity Commission interim report says that changes are needed to building regulations to improve supply and affordability.
It says poorly designed regulations are preventing homes from being built where people want to live.
Some of the nation’s biggest banks have been caught short-changing borrowers with mortgage offset accounts.
A review by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission of 204,000 loans settled between March and August 2025 shows administrative errors resulted in some customers unknowingly paying thousands more in interest and adding years to the life of their loans.
Banks have paid out more than $55 million in compensation for offset account failures.
The ASIC report says 55% of home loan holders have an offset account.
One of the biggest issues is when banks do not properly link a savings account to the home loan.
According to ASIC, many issues also arise when changes are made to the original loan, such as changing from a variable to a fixed rate, refinancing or changing loan products.
It advised home loan holders to:
Check the bank created the offset account
It is linked to the correct loan
Interest calculations accurately reflect the reduced balance of your loan as per how much has been offset
One in three older Australian homeowners are postponing plans to downsize.
A new survey from Seniors First shows that 33.7% of homeowners aged over 55 have put their sale plans on hold as the property market softens.
Two thirds of those surveyed say they would prefer to access equity through a reverse mortgage rather than sell under current conditions.
Darren Moffatt of Seniors First says while in the past downsizing was the natural step for older Australians to unlock wealth from their home, a change in confidence has changed that.
“People are taking more time, watching the market closely and looking into alternative options before making major housing and retirement decisions,” he says.
He says that Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that there are 5.5 million homeowners in Australia who are aged over 55.
"We are seeing growing interest from homeowners seeking greater flexibility and looking for ways to access housing wealth without putting their home on the market," he says.
While median property prices dropped again slightly in July, most markets are still higher than they were 12 months ago.
PropTrack’s latest data shows dwelling values dropped in all but two locations – Regional South Australia (up by 0.6%) and Darwin (up by 0.1%).
Prices remain steady in Regional Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and Northern Territory, while all declines recorded in the past month are less than 1%.
Overwhelmingly, median dwelling prices remain higher than at the same time last year with the biggest increases 14.9% in both Perth and Darwin and 14.2% in Regional Western Australia.
Sydney (-1.6%), Melbourne (-2.7%) and ACT (-0.9%) are all lower than at the same time last year.
PropTrack senior economist Anne Flaherty says regional areas are continuing to outperform capital city markets.
“Home prices in Australia’s regional areas continued to show greater resilience than the capital cities, with the combined regional areas seeing prices hold steady over the month,” she says.