News

Canberra's infrastructure pipeline isn't built around one headline mega-project. It's smaller in scale but tightly connected, and that's exactly what makes it worth tracking. Over the next few years, three projects are landing within a few kilometres of each other: a light rail extension, a new university campus, and a replacement aquatic centre. None of them is transformative on its own. Track them together, though, and a clear pattern emerges in where the ACT's growth is heading.

One of the most significant trends emerging across Commonwealth and State Governments is a renewed focus on identifying, repurposing and activating surplus or underutilised government land to help address Australia's growing housing shortage.

A life interest, or life tenancy, gives a person the right to occupy a residential property for the remainder of their life, even where that property is sold or transferred to beneficiaries. This arrangement most commonly arises when an elderly parent or relative retains the right to live in a property until their death, while ownership passes to the next generation.

While residential reforms and negative gearing dominate headlines, commercial property has quietly gained ground. Facing modest residential yields and shifting tax settings, more investors are turning to commercial real estate for stronger cash flow and income-generating potential, typically with a positive or neutral cash flow position from the outset.

On 4 August 2026, Treasury released the draft legislative instrument setting out the "apportioning method" the formula-based alternative to a market valuation flagged under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026.

The 1 July 2027 CGT reform is law. The valuation it depends on isn't fully specified yet. The Australian Taxation Office has confirmed two methods will be available to set your asset's value at the changeover date: a formal valuation, or a fallback formula based on your holding period. What we don't have yet is the formula itself, or any published guidance on what valuation evidence the ATO will accept. That detail is still to come.

A fully leased building can still be worth less than it was a year ago. That is the reality of the current market, and it explains why stable rents are not always translating into stable values.

Acumentis, Australia's only ASX-listed independent property valuation and advisory services firm, has been appointed an approved panel provider for Property Valuation Services on the Housing Australia Panel. The appointment strengthens our existing partnership with Australian Community Housing (ACH), the national peak body for not-for-profit community housing providers.