You can’t time the market. You can control almost everything else.

The market has shifted, and suddenly everyone has an opinion on whether now is the time to buy. I want to give you the honest version, which is harder to sell and far more useful to own.

Nobody can predict the property market. Not me, and not the person telling you to act before the window closes. Anyone who speaks about the future with certainty is either guessing or selling, and often the urgency itself is the product. When someone is paid on the transaction, “you need to move now” is rarely neutral advice.

Manufactured urgency, confident predictions and headline return figures all work on the same lever: they get you to act quickly and think later. For a considered, six- and seven-figure decision, that is backwards.

The right question was never “is now the time?” It’s “if I buy, have I bought the right asset, at the right price, structured to withstand whatever comes next?”

That reframe matters, because it moves the decision away from the market, which you can’t control, and onto the things you can. In an uncertain market, the things you can control matter even more.

What you can control

What you pay relative to value. Most of what I assess is ruled out long before a client ever sees it. The discipline of saying no to the many is what protects the price paid on the few. You avoid overpaying for the privilege of buying in a hot moment or a cold one.

Income resilience. A dual-occupancy build produces two separate tenancies from one purchase, so a vacancy in one dwelling doesn’t empty the whole thing. That’s a structural fact about the asset rather than a forecast about the market.

The position you buy into. New builds that meet the test carry a specific tax treatment that is now legislated. The test itself is still being finalised, so what it means for a given build is your accountant's call. A dual occupancy also puts proportionally more of the build into the fast-depreciating category, because there are two kitchens, two hot water systems and two sets of floor coverings. These are real advantages your accountant can confirm, independent of what prices do next.

Risk you remove. Buying only on land with an accepted or code-assessable pathway and a clean approval record takes an entire category of expensive downside off the table by choice. So does catching the wind-rating, soil, metering and contract detail before it becomes a five-figure surprise. The cheapest lot to buy is rarely the cheapest to hold, and avoided loss is a return that no one puts on a billboard.

Whose interests are in the room. When the only person you’re paying is paid by you, the recommendation is made on the merits. No seller relationship is shaping what you’re shown.

So what about the “buyer’s market”?

It’s true that a softer market can mean less competition and more negotiating room. Leverage is only an advantage, though, if your due diligence is good enough to use it well. Without it, a discount is just a cheaper way to buy the wrong thing. The opportunity in a quieter market is the space to be thorough.

So I won’t tell you to buy now. If it’s the right asset, at the right price, on rigorous due diligence, I’ll help you buy it well. If it isn’t, I’ll tell you that just as plainly, and we’ll keep looking. Whatever the market does next, that is what protects you.

General information only (current at August 2026), and not financial, investment, taxation or legal advice. It doesn’t take into account your personal circumstances, and no market, growth, yield or return outcome is implied or guaranteed. Confirm your own position with a qualified accountant or adviser before making any decision. Information on this page is current as at September 2026. Planning schemes, tax law and cost figures change; where a figure matters to a decision, I re-check it against the source at the time rather than relying on what is written here.