RBA rate hike, DIY tiny homes & Defence sites up for grabs

5 February 2026

This week's distressed listings

• 54 Fursden Road, Carina, QLD
• 5/42 Avoca Street, Randwick, NSW
• 45/3 Fetherstone st, Bankstown, NSW
• 19 Monaco Place, Quakers Hill, NSW
• 14 Roscoe Street, Bondi Beach, NSW
• 14 Roscoe Street, Bondi Beach, NSW
• 32 Holmwood Avenue, Strathfield South, NSW
• 5 Burns Street, Petersham, NSW
• 63 Croydon Road, Croydon, NSW
• 1A Athol Street, South Coogee, NSW
• 12 Roach Street, Arncliffe, NSW

Expected impact of RBA rate hike

The RBA has lifted the cash rate from 3.6% to 3.85% after inflation picked up in the second half of 2025. Annual inflation now sits at 3.8% to December, remaining above the RBA’s 2–3% target range.

For households, the impact is immediate. With the average new mortgage close to $700,000, the increase is expected to add around $110 a month to repayments. The higher rate will also reduce borrowing power, with a median-income household losing about $18,000 from its maximum mortgage limit.

As borrowing capacity tightens, buyers are likely to be pushed further down the price ladder, intensifying competition at the lower end of the market. This segment has already seen strong demand and price growth following the expansion of the federal government’s Home Guarantee Scheme, increasing the risk of continued upward pressure on prices.

Bunnings now sells flat-pack "tiny homes"

As Australia's housing crisis worsens, the nation's largest hardware retailer has entered the flat-pack kit home market, selling backyard studios and tiny homes they claim can be DIY assembled in as little as two days. For anyone who's ever spent a Saturday afternoon trying to assemble an IKEA Billy bookshelf, you'll appreciate the ambition of that timeline.

The prefabricated units start from $13,898 for a fully insulated outdoor office to $42,900 for an ultra-modern studio pod complete with double glazing and soundproofing.

Renters forced to handover excessive personal data

New research has found Australians are being asked to hand over staggering amounts of personal information to secure a rental, including identity documents, employment history, financial documents and even lifestyle details.

In a competitive rental market, tenants have little choice but to comply, or risk being overlooked. But the problem doesn't end there. The Guardian is reporting that Australian platforms used by real estate agents to manage rental applications are leaving millions of documents containing tenants' personal information exposed online, a security failure that compounds an already exploitative system.

Samantha Floreani, a digital rights advocate and PhD candidate analysing rental tech said, “to have no real choice but to use these platforms in order to access and retain housing, then to have the information you are forced to hand over left unprotected, adds insult to injury in an already deeply dehumanising system.”

67 defence properties hit the market

The federal government has announced the most significant reform to Australia's defence landholdings in history, identifying 67 sites for sale or partial divestment after an independent audit found large portions its 3-million-hectare landholding are no longer required, with many facilities deteriorating beyond the point of economical repair.

What's being sold

Notable parcels of land to be sold include HMAS Penguin in Mosman on Sydney’s lower north shore, RAAF Williams at Melbourne’s Point Cook, and the Victoria Barracks in Sydney’s Paddington, Brisbane’s Petrie Terrace, and Melbourne’s Southbank.

Expressions of interest are now open, with the sites to be sold at market value, with careful consideration of remediation, heritage and community impacts.

Brisbane

Queensland government offers state-owned land to developers

The Queensland Government launched its Land Activation Program on Tuesday, which aims to unlock underutilised state-owned land for residential development. Notably, the program includes no affordable housing mandate for land sold under the scheme, a departure from the former Labor government's approach.

As part of the program, developers can submit unsolicited proposals for state-owned land that may be surplus to needs. The government will then investigate the site and provide advice on its suitability within 30 business days.

The first site to be released under the program is a 6.4ha site in Banyo, which can accommodate up to 400 homes. Other sites for sale can be viewed here.

Listing of the Day

Gold Coast

Beachfront Owners Face Costly Seawall Requirements

Gold Coast beachfront property owners without certified seawalls face construction costs of up to $20,000 per metre as the council pushes for 100% seawall certification by 2050. The program aims to complete all high-risk sections by 2040, protecting the coastline from cyclonic events and erosion.

Around 3.4 kilometres of private seawall remains unconstructed or uncertified across suburbs from Bilinga to Main Beach. Council has powers to force property owners to build and certify seawalls, with Transport Committee chairman Darren Taylor calling them "the primary defence against coastal erosion and storm damage."

Listing of the Day

Sydney

Forestville townhouse development

Deboke Associates have lodged plans for a 12-townhouse development in Forestville, comprising a mix of two- and three-bedroom homes. The proposal spans an amalgamated 2,709sqm site across three lots at 3 Darley Street and 721–721A Warringah Road, with an estimated construction cost of $5 million.

Listing of the Day

Melbourne

The rise of luxury living on St Kilda Road

Once Melbourne's premier office address, St Kilda Road is undergoing a dramatic transformation. The iconic boulevard has shed over 135,000 square metres of office space in a decade, with vacancy rates hitting a national high of 31.6%.

Now, luxury apartments are taking over. More than $1.5 billion in residential projects are currently under construction, driven by demand from Melbourne's affluent, ageing population and the lasting impact of work-from-home trends. The shift marks a full-circle moment for St Kilda Road, which evolved from prestigious mansions to office towers in the 1950s, and is now returning to residential glory.

Listing of the Day

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