Aussie Real Estate Podcast
Sydney Property Prices Force Smarter Investing | Strategy Over Speculation
30 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What factors are influencing Sydney property prices?
It's the Real Estate Podcast, brought to you by ANZ Home Loans for financial well-beings.
It's the Real Estate Breakfast too, back for another weekend as we break down for you the Australian property market. And yes, tomorrow is the first day of February. We'll be right back. It is a Saturday, January the 31st and good morning to Stevie and Caitlin in Melbourne. Now we received your email about wanting to move to the Gold Coast.
You're looking as a result of some of our conversations that we've been talking about. These are these locations, these satellite areas between the Gold Coast and Brisbane. Hey, great choice too, by the way. You've got parts of your family on both sides. You want to be closer to them as well as enjoying the lifestyle and the weather.
You asked for a couple of our recommendations regarding agents, which we have passed on. So keep in touch and keep listening. And let's go from the Gold Coast this morning to Sydney, where the cost of buying a typical Sydney home is now at record highs. Yes, it is pushing many buyers towards units. That has been happening for some time. Or the housing in outer ring suburbs.
These affordability pressures are also reshaping investor behaviour. as both home ownership and property investment become more and more expensive, as well as more complex. So let's take you to Anthony Landau, our mortgage broker at Equilibria Finance. But he's not in the finance house. He's in the camping ground in the snowy mountains. Good morning to you, Anthony.
Also, last day, as I mentioned, for Jan, which means we've got the RBA decision time for the first time this year coming up. But how's the camping going first off?
Yeah, good morning, Craig. Great to be here. Starlink is obviously working at the tail end of my annual camping trip in the Snowy Mountains, which is always a fantastic week just to Refreshed before the year, as you say, kicks off in full swing from February with early next week, the first muchly anticipated RBA meeting for the year will be taking place.
Yes, a lot of people will be rightly feeling a little nervous come Tuesday. But let's have a look at Sydney's median house price, which keeps on nudging higher. And it's happening quietly rather than in big spikes. Limited stock, yes, that is a factor. Steady demand and people holding on to homes longer are keeping these prices pretty firm.
Buyers are adjusting expectations, but the reality is clear. Sydney's housing remains expensive. It is competitive and it's increasingly segmented between houses and units. What does the Sydney median house price currently sit at? We should sort of start there, I guess.
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Chapter 2: How is affordability reshaping investor behavior in Sydney?
A Real Estate Saturday setting you up for what might be a busy couple of days at looking at Australian real estate around the country. Affordability. Now, that is forcing investors to be sharper and more selective, no question. Cash flow matters more than capital growth stories. Borrowing capacity is tighter and mistakes can cost you more.
Many investors are reassessing locations, dwelling types and holding strategies. And the days of buy anything and wait... are gone and numbers and strategy now lead the decision. Let's go back to you, Anthony. How is affordability influencing investor decision-making right now?
Yeah, it's interesting. We often focus on the challenge for owner-occupiers. Investment properties and home ownership, I guess, are becoming more and more difficult and complex. So there's a number of emerging issues for investors that they now need to be factoring in when they're looking for properties. One of the big one is around affordability.
A lot of owner occupiers are now being priced out of the market. So we're seeing a lot more younger people looking at, do I get into an investment property? Do I rent vest? Do I buy in an affordable area just to get into the market?
But affordability is also impacting investors on the other side when they're trying to sell a property where we don't have as much demand from some of these younger owner occupiers that might have historically been the ones buying investment properties because of the sheer price point to get into the markets.
investors are unable to sell their investment properties maybe for the price point they're looking for and having to hold the properties a little bit longer, which is providing some cash flow constraints. It's probably worth just touching on a couple of other interesting trends with investors aside from affordability.
We're actually seeing intergenerational wealth transfer happening earlier to grandchildren and to children where we're often seeing grandparents buy investment properties, or we're often seeing houses converted into homes for intergenerational families because of affordability to try and shore up financial security before an estate gets passed through the traditional state planning way.
So we're actually seeing intergenerational wealth transfer come into play into the property market now, which is a new trend.
Yes, intergenerational growth. We're going to see a lot of that this year. Worth highlighting too, the existing investors are becoming more defensive and strategic. You know, some are consolidating portfolios, others are selling underperforming assets, and many are focused on improving their yields through renovations or rent optimisation.
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