Buying property in 2026, with the cash rate at 4.35% and everyone’s group chat full of doom? Hear me out. This post first ran in 2022 and the reasons have been stress-tested by four years of rate moves since. Some got stronger. Here are the 5 that stand up today — and one honest caveat at the end.

Thinking about buying this year? Email startnow@sorenfinancial.com and we will tell you what you can actually do, not what the headlines say.

1. The housing shortage is doing the heavy lifting

Australia is not building enough homes, construction costs have outrun inflation, and housing costs are rising at 6.5% a year against a 4% CPI. Scarcity is the most boring and most reliable force in property — and it is firmly on the side of people who own rather than rent. The full picture is in our property market update.

2. Rent is a rate you cannot fix

Your mortgage rate can be fixed, split or refinanced. Your rent can only be renewed, and rents are one of the biggest drivers inside that 6.5% housing inflation number. Buying property swaps an open-ended rising cost for one you can manage with structure — offsets, extra repayments, the works.

3. First home buyers have never had this much help

Since October 2025 the First Home Guarantee has no income caps and no cap on places: 5% deposit, no LMI. Stack a state stamp duty exemption on top (up to $800k in NSW) and the entry costs that used to take years to save have collapsed. We keep the current state-by-state numbers in our grants and stamp duty guide. The flipside: all that help adds demand at entry price points, which is reason 5 in disguise.

4. Waiting is not free anymore

Every 0.25% hike trims roughly 2% off your borrowing capacity, and there have been three this year. The buyer who waits for prices to fall is betting they fall faster than the bank shrinks their loan — a bet that rarely pays. If a cut ever comes, it restores capacity for every buyer at once, which is not the discount people imagine.

5. You can buy certainty now, not just property

The 2026 toolkit means you do not have to eat rate anxiety raw: split loans, 2-year fixed rates that some lenders price below variable, offsets from day one. Check where the market thinks rates go next on the OurTop10 Rate Prediction Index, then structure so that either outcome is fine — our fix-or-not framework shows how.

The honest caveat

Buying property is right when the repayments fit at stress-tested rates, you can hold for 7-10 years, and you have a buffer for the boring disasters (hot water systems, vacancies, job changes). If that is not you yet, the best move in 2026 is building the deposit and the file so you can strike when it is. Start with our calculators.

Moral of the story: buying property in 2026 rewards the prepared, not the brave. Get in touch at startnow@sorenfinancial.com and we will get you prepared. Client reviews on OurTop10.