negative gearing<\/a>. <\/p>\nPenny didn\u2019t think that would impact the sale of her previous apartment, but within just five weeks she sold it for $140,000 less than its valuation.<\/p>\n
It was a huge blow when another unit in her building had just sold for more.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stretched massively to buy (the new home) and then you just feel sick to think that five weeks earlier, a very, very comparable property sold for a hundred grand more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The budget changes were made in favour of first home buyers, but Nine\u2019s Money Editor Effie Zahos says it\u2019s still too expensive to enter the market.<\/p>\n
\u201cA two income household earning, say, $160,000 would not be able to afford a house in Sydney, even with a 20 per cent deposit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s despite falling housing prices.<\/p>\n
CoreLogic data revealed prices were down 0.7 per cent nationally last month, with properties in Adelaide and Brisbane joining the downturn.<\/p>\n
![\"Penny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/63548c734ddcacd0a54fc86c655dcdb41e1829033a1ad690e9e7559d24c7df7a.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The budget changes were made in favour of first home buyers, but Nine\u2019s Money Editor Effie Zahos says it\u2019s still too expensive to enter the market.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n
Auction clearance rates are also down to just 46 per cent nationally, according to the latest figures from Domain.<\/p>\n
Damien Cooley is one of Australia\u2019s busiest auctioneers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the days when we had buyers down the stairs queuing out the door (of the auction room),\u201d said Cooley.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re really seeing is a retreat from investors. We\u2019re seeing buyers not necessarily have a fear of missing out any more, probably more of a fear of overpaying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zahos believes the budget has brought about uncertainty and panic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means three rate hikes, inflation pressure and affordability has not improved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Penny Vandenhurk\u2019s dream home was for sale in Sydney\u2019s inner west, she jumped at the chance to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-850218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Penny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/31e56c096273afc8fb6fe9364122e6975e4bbdc03161bc0380571fb958a5df05.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n