Property investment is being hit with fresh policy uncertainty, with proposed tax changes raising questions around leverage, rents, and long-term returns. But the real danger isn’t the reform itself, it’s how investors react to it.
On this episode of The Smart Property Investment Show, host Phil Tarrant sits down with House Finder’s Simon Loo, who won Buyer’s Agent of the Year – Residential Investment at the inaugural Australian Buyers Agent Awards, to assess what the federal budget actually means for rents, whether the widely quoted “$2 per week” impact holds up, and whether genuine buying opportunities still exist.
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The discussion challenges the idea that policy shifts land cleanly in the real world, drawing on previous tax changes to examine how rents, prices, and investor behaviour typically respond once sentiment and incentives shift at scale.
Loo says his strategy remains unchanged: focus on capital cities, gentrifying suburbs, and population growth markets, rather than chasing short-term tax-driven narratives or regional yield traps that look attractive on paper but often fail in practice.
The episode also turns to the underbelly of the industry, including the rapid growth in buyer’s agents, inconsistent standards, and how rising noise in the market is making genuine expertise harder to distinguish from marketing.
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