Why Australians can no longer count on property to make them rich

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For generations, Australians have shared a remarkably consistent blueprint for building wealth. Buy a home, build equity as prices rise and pay down the mortgage. Then, if you can, through more leverage or the equity built, buy another property. Repeat the process where possible.

It has been a strategy reinforced by a powerful combination of structural tailwinds including a decades-long decline in interest rates that increased borrowing capacity, strong population growth and record migration, persistent housing shortages, restrictive planning systems and tax settings that rewarded property ownership. Property has become part of Australia’s financial identity.

But every investment story eventually reaches an inflection point, and there are growing signs that Australia’s longstanding preference for residential property may be entering one.

Australian household wealth reached a record $19.2 trillion in the March quarter of 2026, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with almost $13 trillion tied up in residential property.

On the surface, those figures paint a picture of extraordinary prosperity. Australia’s residential property market is now worth three times the amount held in superannuation. While housing is an important source of wealth globally, Australia stands out for the extent to which household wealth is concentrated in residential property.

House price fall accelerates as rate rises and budget policies hit

That concentration is unusual among developed........

© The Age