September 2026 · Issue #7
Investors are selling. Here’s who’s buying
The property press has spent the last fortnight on one number: a record share of investors sold a property in the year to August. It comes from the Property Investment Professionals of Australia’s annual sentiment survey, and the framing everywhere is “investors are fleeing the tax changes.” I’d read it more carefully than that — because the same survey tells you who’s buying those homes, and that’s the more useful half of the story for anyone in the Redlands.
PIPA 2026 investor sentiment survey
| Investors who sold a property (year to Aug 2026) | 18.3% |
| Same figure a year earlier | 16.7% |
| Reporting negative cash flow on their rentals | 62.3% |
| Investor sales that went to owner-occupiers | 51.6% |
| …and to first-home buyers | 12.4% |
| Investors planning to buy again | 27.8% |
Why the numbers stopped working
Nearly two in three investors surveyed say their rental is now negative cash flow — the rent no longer covers the loan and the outgoings. That’s the honest reason people are selling. PIPA’s chair, Cate Bakos, put it plainly: investors “are not selling because they think it’s a smart time to sell… many are selling because the numbers no longer work.” After three rate rises this year, that squares with what I hear at kitchen tables around the bay.
The part I’d stress again
What the “investor exodus” coverage keeps leaving out is that the negative gearing and capital gains changes don’t start until 1 July 2027, and any property you already held at 7:30pm on 12 May 2026 is grandfathered — your negative gearing continues as it always has, for as long as you hold it. I went through the Treasury and ATO detail in the last issue. Nothing in this survey changes that. If you own a rental here and the numbers still work for you, a national sentiment survey is not a reason to sell.
Two-thirds of the homes investors sold went to people who want to live in them. That’s your buyer.
Who’s on the other side of the table
Here’s the bit that matters if you are thinking of cashing out. More than half of investor sales nationally went to owner-occupiers, and another one in eight went to first-home buyers. Those are people buying a home, not a yield — they care about the school catchment, the yard, the walk to the shops, and whether they can picture Christmas in the living room. In Thornlands, Victoria Point and Redland Bay, that buyer is very much alive. It also explains why a tidy, well-presented ex-rental sells so much better than one that’s been left as the tenants found it.
The Redlands read
If you own an investment property here
First, check whether you’re even affected. If you held it before 12 May 2026, you’re grandfathered on negative gearing and the panic largely isn’t about you.
Second, if the cash flow genuinely doesn’t work any more, sell to the buyer who’s actually out there — a family — and present the home for them. A vacant, cleaned, lightly styled ex-rental is a very different sale to a tenanted one.
Third, take your own numbers to your accountant before you decide anything. A survey of other people’s portfolios is not advice about yours.
A word on the source: PIPA is an industry body for property investment advisers, and it campaigns against the tax changes. The survey is a self-selected snapshot of investor sentiment, not official data. I’m quoting it because the “who’s buying” figures are useful, not because the exit number is a forecast. None of this is tax or financial advice.
Own a rental in the Redlands and wondering what it would fetch from an owner-occupier? I’ll give you a straight number, no pressure.
What’s mine worth?
Greg Leigh — local Redlands specialist, Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty. Published 16 September 2026.
Sources: PIPA 2026 Annual Investor Sentiment Survey, as reported by Australian Broker (11 September 2026); grandfathering and start dates verified against the Australian Taxation Office and the 2026–27 Budget tax factsheet.