Property is still the play. But the rules just changed.

If you grew up in Griffith, there is a good chance property investment was not something you had to be convinced of. It was just what you did. Your parents did it. Your grandparents did it. Someone in the family had a rental or two, and that was just understood as the sensible way to build something over time.

I respect that instinct deeply. And I want to be clear from the start: this is not a blog post telling you that property is a bad idea. It is not. Griffith has delivered around 9.5% average annual capital growth over the past five years with rental yields sitting above 4%. That is not a market you walk away from lightly.

But the 2026 Federal Budget changed some of the conditions that made a particular strategy work, and if you are in your 20s right now and thinking about your next move, I think you deserve a straight conversation about what has actually shifted and what that means for you specifically.

How Griffith invests, and why it is different

Most of the national conversation about rentvesting, which is the strategy of renting where you want to live while buying an investment property somewhere more affordable, does not really apply here the same way.

In Sydney or Melbourne, rentvesting is a financial workaround. You cannot afford to buy in the suburb you want to live in, so you rent there and buy somewhere cheaper to get a foot in the market.

Griffith does not work like that.

Here, young people invest locally because they know and trust this town. They can drive past the property. They understand the streets, the schools, the demand. Kids often live at home longer, which makes saving easier. Parents and grandparents guide them in because property is tangible, visible and generational. And Griffith people do not tend to trade. They accumulate and hold, which over time has served them well.

That culture is not wrong. In fact, for a long time it has been exactly right.

What the Budget actually changed

From the 2026 Federal Budget, negative gearing on established residential properties is no longer available for new purchases. If you buy an investment property today, you cannot offset those rental losses against your wages at tax time the way investors have for decades.

This matters for two reasons:

- First, the direct tax benefit is gone for new purchases. The loss on your investment property no longer reduces your income tax bill each year.

- Second, and this one catches people off guard, your borrowing capacity has also dropped. Banks factor negative gearing benefits into their serviceability calculations. No negative gearing means the numbers the bank runs look different, and in most cases, you can borrow less than you could have a year ago.

Add to that the fact that interest rates are still elevated, and if you are paying rent yourself rather than living at home, that ongoing cost also reduces what the bank will lend you.

If you are living at home with parents and have no rent to pay, the strategy can still work depending on your numbers. But if you are renting and trying to buy an investment property at the same time, the maths has become genuinely harder.

The conversation your parents did not have to have

Here is something I think about a lot.

When your parents and grandparents were building their portfolios, property prices were a fraction of what they are now. They could buy, hold, and let time do the work without ever needing to leverage forward. The gap between wages and property prices was manageable. Accumulating and sitting still made sense.

That gap no longer exists in the same way.

Griffith median house prices sit around $595,000 now, with some of the more desirable pockets well above that. Wages have not kept pace with that kind of growth. Which means the old strategy of buying your first IP young, holding onto it forever and slowly adding more, can actually work against you if it stops you from ever getting into your own home.

I see this more than people might expect. Someone holds their first investment property with enormous sentimental attachment because it was their first big financial decision. They will not sell, even though the sale proceeds could unlock a much bigger opportunity and get them into their desired home sooner. The equity is there but they cannot access it in a way that actually moves them forward. And so the home they really want stays out of reach, not because it is impossible, but because letting go of the first IP feels too hard.

Your first IP was meant to be a launchpad. Not a ceiling.

Why your home should come first right now

Under the current rules, your owner-occupied home is the single most tax-advantaged asset you can hold in Australia.

It grows completely tax-free. There is no capital gains tax when you sell. It is not included in pension means testing. And none of the 2026 budget changes touched it.

The 5% deposit scheme is still available and likely to expand, which means eligible first home buyers can get into the market with a significantly smaller deposit and without paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance. In Griffith, the property price cap sits at $800,000 for both the First Home Guarantee and stamp duty concessions. That is a price point that can genuinely future-proof you and your family for the next five to ten years. That is a real opportunity that exists right now.

Getting into your own home in Griffith, in a good location, at the earliest opportunity you can afford, means every dollar of that growth belongs entirely to you. With prices growing the way they have been here, the cost of waiting is real.

What being smart looks like right now

This is not about abandoning the investment mindset your family instilled in you. That mindset is genuinely valuable and I would not ask you to let it go.

It is about sequencing it better given where things actually stand today.

Buy your home first. Use the 5% deposit scheme if you are eligible. Get into a good location in the best pocket you can access. Pay it down, build equity, and let that asset grow tax-free.

If you already hold an investment property, ask yourself honestly whether it is working hard enough for you. Not emotionally. Financially. Is it getting you closer to your next goal or is it sitting there out of habit while your forever home feels out of reach?

Sometimes the smarter move is to sell the IP and use those proceeds as a deposit toward the home you actually want to be in for the next decade. That is strategy. Maintaining the lowest amount of owner-occupied debt possible should always be your biggest goal on the road to financial freedom. The IP was always meant to get you there. Let it.

And investing again later, when your home is in place, your debt is structured correctly and the budget landscape has settled, is a completely reasonable plan. Property is still the play in Griffith. The sequencing just needs to reflect the world as it is now, not how it was when your grandparents bought their first rental.

Ready to work out what the right sequence looks like for you?

Alcove Regional offers city-level mortgage strategy from someone who lives and works in regional Australia. Whether you are thinking about your first home, your first investment property, or how to leverage what you already have, the conversation is worth having.

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Katrina Childs is a CPA-qualified mortgage strategist and Founder of Alcove Regional, a dedicated regional broking service within the award-winning Alcove brokerage, based in Griffith, NSW. She is President of Griffith Women in Business and has 15+ years of experience across accounting, non-conforming lending and mortgage broking.

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