Welcome to 2026. Even in the first weeks of the year, some clear signals are emerging across property, buying and borrowing. Here’s what’s catching my eye right now.

• Rental pressure reshapes buy vs rent choices

• Lower-priced homes face fiercer competition

• Planning smarter from buyer search trends

• Car upgrades that affect your borrowing

More buyers are clustering at the lower end of the market – and the data shows it’s no coincidence.

After the federal government expanded the 5% Deposit Scheme in October 2025, Cotality analysis shows homes priced under the scheme’s caps have generally outperformed higher-priced stock. In the December quarter, median prices rose 3.6% below the cap compared with 2.4% above it.

What Australians search for when house-hunting often says more than price charts alone.

Search data from realestate.com.au (see below) reveals how buyer priorities have evolved, highlighting features people are actively filtering for as affordability shapes what’s realistic. These trends offer useful signals for anyone planning a purchase in 2026.

The takeaway isn’t that buyers want more – it’s that they’re choosing more carefully. As budgets tighten, shoppers are weighing lifestyle features against location, size and long-term running costs.

This matters because every feature choice has a borrowing impact. Compromises around layout, location or inclusions often determine whether a purchase stays comfortable once repayments begin.

Australians are still buying new cars at high levels – but what they’re buying is changing.

New car sales in 2025 were just 0.9% lower than the year before, yet the mix shifted sharply. Plug-in hybrid sales surged 130.9%, hybrid sales rose 15.3% and battery electric vehicles accounted for 8.3% of all sales.

These shifts matter because different vehicles often come with different price points, running costs and finance structures. Longer loan terms, balloon payments and incentives can all change the real cost over time.