Investors were incredibly active in 2025. Across the country, more new home loans are going to investors than in recent years, and investors are making up a near-record share in South Australia and the Northern Territory.
This strong activity has been driven by tight rental market conditions and rapid rent increases in recent years. Homes are leasing quickly, and rent prices are lifting across much of the country. However, rent growth has slowed down since the rapid pace recorded in 2022 and 2023.
At the same time, strong growth in homes prices over recent years has meant that more than 93% of recent investor sales have made a profit, the highest level in at least a decade. In Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, where prices have more than doubled in the past six years, almost every sale by an investor resulted in a profit.
Low rental vacancy rates, tight rental market conditions and solid growth in rents are likely to continue, which may support strong investor activity in 2026.
Read the full report here: PropTrack-Westpac Investor Report 2026
Australian investors have been a key part of housing market activity for the past couple of years.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows the number of new investor loans has risen by roughly two-thirds from its early 2023 low-point, indicating far more investors are buying today than a few years ago.
While activity from non-investors also picked up as rates stabilised in 2024 and then began falling in 2025, the increase has not been nearly as sharp. As a result, investors are making up a large share of new lending across the country.
In Queensland, the share is at its highest level since 2004, in WA it is close to its highest level since 2010, in NSW it is at its highest since 2017, and in SA and the NT it is just off its highest-ever level (the record being the prior quarter).
In Victoria, investor activity picked up in the second half of 2025 following a few years of softer activity. But unlike other states, the investor share of new lending in Victoria is still below average for the state.
Rental market conditions have been extremely tight in recent years. As a result, rents have surged, growing at double digit rates in many parts of the country in 2022 and 2023.
Although rent growth remains solid, it has begun to slow down. Across nearly all capital cities, the pace of rent price growth over 2025 was slower than the average pace over the past five years. However, it does remain faster than inflation in many cities and faster than the typical pace recorded in the 2010s.
While rent growth may be slowing, it is still competitive for tenants trying to find a rental. The typical time between a home being advertised for rent on realestate.com.au and being leased is 20 days nationally. In Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, it is as low as 18 days. This time frame is far shorter than what was typical in the softer rental market of the late 2010s and reflects high demand and low availability of rentals.
That said, conditions have eased a little from where they were in 2022 and 2023 as availability has improved. As a result, leasing times have lengthened – particularly in Melbourne.
For more information, including analysis of how home prices and gross rental yields have evolved, see: PropTrack-Westpac Investor Report 2026
More-affordable parts of the capital cities are popular with investors enquiring on realestate.com.au.
In Sydney, the St Marys region is popular with investors, with the share of enquiries coming from investors (compared to other buyers) twice as high as the city-wide average. Other popular areas for investors include Fairfield, Mount Druitt and Blacktown.
In Melbourne, Tullamarine – Broadmeadows, Brimbank, and Wyndham are popular with investors.
Across Perth, investors are overrepresented in Kwinana, Mandurah, and Rockingham, and in Adelaide, many investors look to Playford, Salisbury, and Holdfast Bay.
Large inner-city rental markets are also popular with investors. The inner-city region in Brisbane has the highest share of enquiries coming from investors in the city. In both Adelaide and in Melbourne, the inner city is the second-highest. These are large rental markets with the highest concentration of renters in the country, so it is not surprising they are popular with investors.
For more detail on areas with strong investor activity, as well as top-performing investor areas across key metrics, see: PropTrack-Westpac Investor Report 2026
In 2025, investors were enquiring about homes in Melbourne more than they did in 2024. Melbourne regions made up the majority of the top 20 areas across the capital cities with the biggest increase in the share of enquiries on realestate.com.au from investors.
The increase in demand was partly because Melbourne was less popular with investors in 2024. Areas like Cardinia, Whittlesea and Hobsons Bay have seen a big increase in investor interest, but the investor share of enquiries in these areas is still only around, or just above, the national average. In 2024, these areas recorded much lower demand from investors.
The vast majority of investors who sold a property in 2025 made a profit. In the last few months of 2025, 93% of investor resales sold for more than the original purchase price.
This high share of profitable sales hasn’t always been the case. In 2019, when home prices were falling, around one-fifth of investor sales were at a loss. Similarly, in 2022 and 2023, when home prices were falling as the RBA raised interest rates, there was a small increase in the share of investors selling for a loss, though this was short lived.
Strong home price growth across most of the country over the past six years has driven an increase in profitable investor sales. This is particularly true in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, where home prices have seen exceptional growth. Since 2020, home prices in these cities have more than doubled, resulting in almost all investor sales recording a profit in 2025
Melbourne stands out as the exception. In the past six years, home prices in Melbourne are up just over 20%. This slower growth has resulted in fewer profitable sales in 2025 compared to other capitals.
For more, see: PropTrack-Westpac Investor Report 2026
Inflation came in higher than expected, and higher than the RBA was forecasting, in the latter part of 2025. That has pushed the RBA into hiking rates twice in early 2026, with at least two more hikes expected by the end of the year.
Even so, home prices are likely to continue to grow across 2026. However, with rates already higher than at the end of 2025, and expected to increase further, growth probably won’t be as strong as in 2025. Home price growth slowed in the back half of spring and into December 2025, with prices declining modestly in December in Sydney and Melbourne before both cities return to growth in February.
While higher rates may slow investor activity, the fact that rental market conditions remain so tight mean we’re likely to continue to see strong interest and activity from investors in 2026.
