National property data — May 2026

Australian property market dashboard

The complete national property data set in one place. Seven sections, twenty-plus metrics, sourced from the public releases of the RBA, ABS, APRA, Cotality, SQM Research, Domain and S&P Global Ratings. Every figure carries its own attribution and update timestamp.

Section 1

Interest rates

What the RBA has done, what lenders are charging, and the spread between the best advertised rate and the market average.

RBA cash rate
Step chart of every Board decision since 2022
3.4%4.0%4.6%May 2023Nov 2023May 2024Nov 2024May 2025Nov 2025Mar 2026
RBA — Cash Rate Targetas of 5 May 2026
Last 12 board decisions
  • 5 May 2026hike+25bp4.35%
  • 18 Mar 2026hike+25bp4.10%
  • 11 Feb 2026hike+25bp3.85%
  • 10 Dec 2025hold3.60%
  • 4 Nov 2025cut-25bp3.60%
  • 23 Sep 2025hold3.85%
  • 12 Aug 2025cut-25bp3.85%
  • 8 Jul 2025hold4.10%
  • 20 May 2025cut-25bp4.10%
  • 1 Apr 2025hold4.35%
  • 18 Feb 2025cut-25bp4.35%
  • 10 Dec 2024hold4.60%
Best vs market average
Owner-occupier variable, May 2026
5.94
Best advertised
cheapest broker rate
6.91
Market average
RBA F6
0.97pp gap = ~$6,790 p.a. on a $700k loan
Rate by product type
Owner-occ var.6.8%Investor var.7.2%3yr fixed6.5%APRA buffer9.8%
APRA serviceability buffer
Stress test rate above offered
+3.0ppfloor since Oct 2021
Every $700k loan is assessed at 9.85% — not the contracted 6.85%.
APRAas of Oct 2021
Section 2

Prices & values

Where prices are, how they've moved, and the spread between metro median and premium suburbs.

National median dwelling value
$832,500+4.8% YoY
May 24May 26
Capital city YoY change
Sydney
$1,205,000
+3.1%
Melbourne
$815,000
+1.2%
Brisbane
$1,010,000
+8.4%
Adelaide
$845,000
+9.2%
Perth
$875,000
+11.6%
Hobart
$692,000
+0.4%
Darwin
$530,000
+6.8%
Canberra
$855,000
+1.8%
Sydney — premium vs median suburbs
Selected suburb medians plotted against the metro median
Sydney median$1.21MBondi$2.45MMosman$4.85MVaucluse$8.12MParramatta$1.18MPenrith$805kLiverpool$875k
Top-end harbourside suburbs (Vaucluse, Mosman) trade at 4–7× the metro median.
Section 3

Rental market

The numbers behind Australia's rental crunch — vacancy, asking rents and gross yields city-by-city.

National vacancy
1.1%healthy: 3%
Tighter = more competition for tenants
Vacancy by capital city
Sydney1.2%Melbourne1.4%Brisbane0.9%Adelaide0.6%Perth0.7%Hobart0.8%Darwin1.5%Canberra1.9%
Anything below ~2% = landlord's market.
SQM Researchas of May 2026
Median rent — houses vs units
Houses
$645
+6.6% YoY
Units
$615
+7.8% YoY
$/week, combined capitals
Gross rental yields by capital city
Higher yield = better cashflow, typically lower capital growth
Sydney3.2%Melbourne3.6%Brisbane3.9%Adelaide3.8%Perth4.4%Hobart4.1%Darwin6.3%Canberra4.0%
Section 4

Housing supply

The Housing Accord targets vs reality. Approvals lead construction by ~12 months — they're a forward indicator of supply 2027 onwards.

National Housing Accord progress
1.2M homes target, Jul 2024 → Jun 2029
71%of pro-rata target
Delivered: 314,000 / target by now: 444,000
Shortfall: 130,000 homes
Dwelling approvals — monthly
Leading indicator. Target = 20,000/mo to hit the Accord
22,0000targetMay 25Nov 25Apr 26
Dwelling completions — quarterly
What's actually being delivered. Trending sideways for 3+ years
49k0Q2 23Q4 24Q1 26
41,220-3.4% YoYdwellings, Q1 2026
Section 5

Market activity

How fast properties are selling and at what discount to the original asking price.

Auction clearance
Combined capitals, week ending 10 May 2026
66.8%+2.6%
Sydney
68.4%
Melbourne
64.1%
Days on market by city
Lower = faster-moving market
Sydney32.0 daysMelbourne38.0 daysBrisbane26.0 daysAdelaide24.0 daysPerth19.0 daysHobart42.0 daysDarwin51.0 daysCanberra40.0 days
Vendor discount (median)
How much below the asking price properties actually sell for
-3.4%+0.5% vs 12mo
Negative = buyers paying less than asking. Closer to zero = stronger market.
Section 6

Lending & credit

Where the borrowed money is going and who's writing the loans.

New lending composition
$31.8bn in new commitments per month
$31.8bnper month
Owner-occupier (existing)41.3%
Investor36.9%
First home buyer18.4%
Construction / new3.4%
Big-Four vs the rest — new lending share
CBA25.1%
Westpac19.3%
NAB14.7%
ANZ13.8%
Macquarie6.1%
Other lenders21.0%
Big Four (72.9%) still dominate, but Macquarie and non-major lenders now write 27.1% — up from ~15% five years ago.
Average new mortgage size
Owner-occupier
$678,500
Investor
$702,800
First home buyer
$558,200
All categories +5.1% YoY — implying buyers are leveraging higher into a rising rate environment.
Section 7

Mortgage stress indicators

Early-warning signals from the prime RMBS pool. Arrears lag rate hikes by 6–12 months.

30+ day arrears
National prime RMBS — last 8 quarters
1.32%+0.28% vs 2yr ago
1.5%0Q2 24Q2 25Q1 26
What this means
Loans 30+ days late1.32%
Loans 90+ days late (serious)0.58%
Long-run average (30+)~1.10%
GFC peak (30+)1.81%
Current arrears are above long-run average but well below GFC peak. The 8-quarter trend is climbing, consistent with the cumulative rate-rise pressure on fixed-rate borrowers who rolled to variable in 2024–25.
S&P Global Ratingsas of May 2026

Model your specific position

National numbers are useful for context. To model what they mean for your repayments, borrowing power, deposit and tax position, use the calculators:

Methodology: All figures reflect the most recent public release at the time of the page update. Sources are linked under each tile. We do not republish proprietary data — only headline figures from publicly released reports. Visualisations are hand-rolled inline SVG, generated server-side from the snapshot data file. There is no user tracking on this page.

Update cadence: RBA cash rate after each Board meeting (8x/year). RBA F6 lender rates monthly. Cotality Home Value Index monthly. SQM vacancy weekly. ABS building approvals monthly. ABS dwelling completions quarterly. ABS Lending Indicators monthly. APRA monthly ADI statistics monthly. S&P RMBS Performance Watch quarterly. Domain rental report quarterly.

Australian Property Market Data Dashboard (2026) | RealEstateCalc