Investors are a large, and important, part of Australia’s property market. About one in seven Australians own a rental property.
Investor activity has been strong in the past year, with investors making up around their highest share of new lending since 2017. This high level of activity is likely driven by falling mortgage rates and tight rental market conditions.
Underscoring how tight rental market conditions are, rental vacancy rates are very low by historical standards. There is strong competition for rentals, rapid growth in rents and increased gross rental yields.
At the same time, rapid home price growth, particularly in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, means the vast majority of investor sales have been profitable.
Nationally, the share of sales that are profitable is at its highest level in at least a decade. Even in Sydney and Melbourne, where price growth has been slower, nine-in-10 and four-in-five investor sales, respectively, have been profitable.
With inflation now back under control within the RBA’s target band, markets are expecting at least one further interest rate cut this year or early next year. In an environment of continuing tight rental market conditions, that is likely to continue to support strong investor activity.
Read the full report: PropTrack-Terri Scheer Investor Report 2025
Investing in housing has become more common over the past four decades. In the 1978/79 financial year, one in 25 tax filers (4.1%) reported rental income on their tax return. By 2022/23, the most recent year this data is available, this share was three-and-a-half times larger at 14.1%.
This share has been largely stable since the turn of the 2010s, though it has declined from the peak seen in the 2013/14 financial year.
This is high by global standards. In other countries, corporate and government ownership of housing is more common.
Among households that do invest in property, it's most common to have one or two properties. About two-thirds of investors own a single investment property, with a further one-fifth owning two. Large investment property portfolios exist but are not common. Just 4% of investors own more than four properties, and around 1% own more than six.
Read the full report: PropTrack-Terri Scheer Investor Report 2025
Owners of investment properties have gotten older over the past two decades. Australian Taxation Office data shows that the share of property investors that are aged over 60 has risen dramatically – from 14% in the early 2000s to 27% in the most recent data.
This has been coupled with a decline in younger investor households. The share of investors that are aged under 40 has been consistently trending down over the past two decades, taking this age group from the largest age group among investors in 1999/2000, to the smallest group today.
As these older households retire, they may look to sell their rental properties (consistent with the lower likelihood of owning investment properties post retirement and reduced benefits from negative gearing). However, increased labour force participation and later retirement by older workers may slow this trend - today 16% of those aged 65 and over are still working – triple what was the case in the 1990s.
Unsurprisingly, inner city Sydney and Melbourne, and their surrounding areas, are popular areas with investors. As a result, investors make up a high share of buyers in inner city areas, particularly in Melbourne. These are large rental markets with a significant number of prospective tenants and, in recent years, very strong demand.
Affordable areas are also seeing a high volume of investor purchases. Areas like Wyndham, Tullamarine and Melton in Melbourne’s west, Blacktown and St Mary’s in Sydney’s west, Ipswich in Brisbane’s west, Kwinana in Perth’s southwest and Armadale in its southeast, are all seeing a high degree of new investor purchases. Many of these are areas where new housing development is concentrated.
More than 90% of investment properties sold in the past year sold for more than they were bought for – around the highest share on record. That reflects the fact that most sales happening today will have benefited from the rapid home price increases during the pandemic, as well as the years following in the smaller capitals.
Investors selling in the smaller capitals – Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth – have nearly all seen profits on their sale. This reflects the extremely strong pace of growth in these cities across the pandemic and in recent years. Since March 2020, prices in these three cities are up more than 90%.
Melbourne, by contrast, has not seen as strong price growth over recent years. And while prices have been growing in 2025, that follows a softer period since the RBA started raising rates. As a result, fewer investor sales have been profit-making in Melbourne. Even so, the share remains high, with more than four in every five sales made at a profit.
Read the full report: PropTrack-Terri Scheer Investor Report 2025
Following the RBA’s rate cuts in February, May, and most recently in August, conditions are likely to remain favourable for investors.
Although rent growth has been more modest compared to the peak periods in 2022 and 2023, rents are still growing solidly.
Growth in rents will be driven by the fact that rental markets are likely to remain tight, and competition among tenants elevated. Rental availability remains low by historical standards, despite a modest rise in rental listings in the past year or so.
With at least one further rate cut expected and tight rental market conditions, investor interest and engagement in the market is likely to remain high. Investors are likely to maintain a significant share of market activity, as they have been throughout the past year.
Read the full report: PropTrack-Terri Scheer Investor Report 2025
