![65 Bambra St, Croydon - for herald sun real estate](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
65 Bambra St, Croydon, was sold by its investor owner at auction yesterday to a first-home buyer couple.
A shocking investor exodus that has almost twice as many landlords selling out of Victoria as are buying in has resumed in the aftermath of the Albanese government’s May budget.
It comes as lending data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics this week revealed the number of first-home buyers taking out loans across the state is on track to surpass the numbers buying an investment in the coming months.
REA Group auction data yesterday showed 54.4 per cent of the 443 auction results collected yesterday were a sale, in a sign that a rebound in sales has continued after Melbourne last week notched its best clearance rate since March.
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But figures from the state’s biggest auction firm, Ray White, have renewed alarm bells for the state’s renters.
Ray White Victoria chief auctioneer Luke Banitsiotis said the firm’s auction data showed just 16 per cent of their buyers at auction were investors at the moment, but a whopping 30.5 per cent of their sellers were landlords offloading a property.
“It’s almost double the number selling up,” Mr Banitsiotis said.
The auctioneer said he was very surprised at the latest figures and added that until sentiment improved it was hard to see things turning around.
The data indicates a resumption of a landlord exodus that began in 2023, when REA Group data revealed 29 per cent of the sales across the state in June that year were landlords selling former investment properties across Victoria — double the about 15 per cent they accounted for in 2018.
Luke Banitsiotis Ray White Victoria chief auctioneer has been surprised by the return of a landlord exodus in the state.
Ray White data from the same year had about a third of their sales at auction being on behalf of investor vendors, while just 18 per cent of their buyers were expecting to rent the property they’d bought out.
At the time landlords cited concerns about upcoming changes to land tax that took effect on January 1, 2024, as well as rising interest rates.
The exodus continued a year later as the tax changes, and a struggling housing market compared to other states drove more sales by investors.
While late in 2025 and early this year it seemed a surge in interstate investors looking at Melbourne as a cheap alternative to other major capitals could reverse the outflow, Albanese government changes to the budget in May revoked investor’s access to negative gearing and attractive capital gains tax discounts.
ABS statistics released on Friday show while there were 9760 loans to investors across Victoria in the June quarter, 343 of them were for first-home buyers acquiring a rentvestment — a first property that they will rent out rather than move into themselves.
With 9407 loans to first-home buyers, and expectations investor numbers will drop further in the next quarter, it’s likely they will overtake them before the end of the year.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria chief executive Toby Balazs warned an imminent first-home buyer take over was a sign of falling investment, not increased success for young buyers.
REIV chief executive Toby Balazs said the stats should be a concern for tenants.
Mr Balazs added that the resumption of a landlord exodus was an extension of several years of investors selling out of the state’s property market because it was “too challenging” to grapple with tax and regulatory settings.
“What these figures would suggest is whether it’s Victorian or interstate investors, there’s now low investment activity,” he said.
“This is likely to be a combination of Victoria’s property tax settings and, now, of the back of federal changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing. So it’s concerning when we also have a supply issue with rentals.
“The government needs to provide some incentives for investors to add properties to the rental pool.”
Real Estate Buyer’s Agents Association of Australia Victorian chair Matthew Scafidi said investor activity had stopped on the night of May 12, and while earlier this year 30 per cent of his clients had been prospective landlords, he hadn’t had one since the federal budget was handed down.
REBAA Victoria representative and Abode buyer’s agent Matthew Scafidi hasn’t had a call from an investor buyer since May 12.
Mr Scafidi said a large portion of the homes he was reviewing for homebuyer clients now were also ex-rentals, which was a worrying sign for renters.
It was also hitting the wider property sector, with the buyer’s agent noted he believed job losses would soon be ramping up for firms that specialised in working with investors and investment properties.
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