Property investors are buying almost twice as many homes as first home buyers, shutting renters out of the housing market, new analysis from ACOSS has revealed.
And tax breaks are helping investors come armed with deeper pockets. The average property investor loan is around $100,000 larger than the average loan taken out by a first home buyer.
"First home buyers are lining up at auctions only to be outbid by investors with bigger loans and generous tax breaks behind them," said ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie.
"It's clear the housing market isn't working for people who just want a place to live."
The analysis shows property investor tax breaks are mostly helping high-income earners, with 59% of the benefits of negative gearing and the capital gains discount for investment property flowing to the top 10%.
At the same time, investors add very little to housing supply. Only around 1 in 8 investor loans are for building new homes. The rest are used to buy or renovate homes that already exist — pushing prices higher.
The analysis also found the small share of new homes built by investors are unaffordable for low income people when rented or sold at market rates.
"These tax breaks are not building affordable homes. They are fuelling competition over existing homes and driving prices further out of reach," Dr Goldie said.
ACOSS calls on the Federal Government to gradually halve the 50% Capital Gains Tax discount and phase out negative gearing over 5 years. It also should set national social housing targets to end housing stress and substantially boost social housing supply to meet these targets.
Read the ACOSS briefing note: Curb tax breaks. Build social homes. Fix housing affordability.
The ACOSS analysis of ABS Lending Indicators found:
In December 2025, property investors purchased 60,445 homes compared to 31,783 homes bought by first home buyers — almost double the number.
In December 2025, the average loan size for property investors was $711,142, compared to $607,545 for first home buyers — giving investors a significant financial edge at auction.
Separate ACOSS analysis found:
Government spent more on one property investor in capital gains tax discounts than they spent on two people in social housing, on average over 2020 to 2023
At market rates, median annual rent is around $15,000 higher than affordable rent, and the median price $566,000 higher than affordable purchase price, for low income households on average over 2019 to 2025
