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Group Managing Director Dan White and Chief Economist Nerida Conisbee walked members through the changes in real time, fielding questions from agents, property managers and principals grappling with what to tell their clients today.
“Our role as communicators, competitor creators and asset managers became more important overnight. We want to be first to understand the issues and to support our customers to make the best decisions,” Mr White said.
“People are already asking: “What’s going to happen to the market? Will the family home be more valuable given its tax-exempt status just became more special? Will more first-home buyers step up to replace investors in the established market? Will renters be able to afford the higher rents that new builds demand? Will existing investors hang on to their properties longer because of grandfathering?”
“These are the big questions that we will be answering in the weeks and months ahead.
"The industry has been surprised by these changes, and our clients deserve straight answers. The majority of property investors we work with own one or two properties. These are not wealthy speculators, they are everyday Australians who have made long-term financial decisions based on a tax framework that has now fundamentally shifted," Mr White said.
The scale of what is at stake for renters is significant. There are 2.9 million renting households in Australia, some 31 per cent of all households. And 45 per cent of all landlords are negatively geared, according to ATO data.
"When you understand those numbers, you understand the stakes," said Dan White.
"This is not a niche tax change affecting a small group of investors. It reaches directly into the housing security of nearly a third of Australian households. Any policy that reduces the attractiveness of providing rental housing must be honest about that consequence."
The grandfathering of existing investments, properties purchased before 7:30pm on 12 May 2026, was welcomed by the group as a necessary safeguard. Without it, the consequences could have been severe.
"In 1985, the Hawke government scrapped negative gearing with no grandfathering. Rents in Sydney rose 50 to 60 per cent almost overnight. They had to reverse the decision within two years," Mr White said. "The government has learned that lesson. But the question now is what happens next and we are not confident the rental market is protected."
Ray White Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee highlighted the downstream consequences for renters, particularly given recent evidence from Victoria, where increased property holding costs contributed to a loss of more than 20,000 rental bonds in a single year, followed by rent increases of approximately 35 per cent over five years.
"Affordability pressure does not disappear when you reduce investor incentives; it shifts onto tenants. We have seen this play out before, and we would be deeply concerned to see that pattern repeated at a national scale,” Ms Conisbee said
The network also flagged the geographic unevenness of restricting negative gearing to new builds only.
"In many regional markets, there is no active development pipeline. In those communities, a reduction in investor participation in established property means fewer rentals, full stop. That is a real consequence for real people,” Ms Conisbee said.
Ray White Group also flagged the impact on rentvesting, a pathway used by many younger Australians to enter the market by purchasing an investment property in an affordable area while renting where they want to live. Under the new rules, that strategy effectively disappears for established properties.
"This doesn't just affect investors. It affects labour mobility, it affects how young Australians build wealth, and it affects the 31 per cent of households who rent and have no say in any of this," Mr White said.
One of the most common questions from Ray White agents was on a deceptively simple issue: what actually qualifies as a "new build" under the proposed changes? A significant number of questions focused on how the new policies will incentivise development, subdivision, and potentially drive up land costs.
Generally, a new build is a residential property that has been newly constructed and not previously sold as a residential premises, including off-the-plan apartments and homes built on previously vacant land. But the detail matters. A duplex built on a site that previously held one house will typically qualify, because it creates a net increase in housing stock. A knock-down rebuild of a single house, or the addition of a granny flat to an existing rental, may not, if it fails to meet the government's criteria for new supply.
And the implications for commercial property investors was a hot topic. While the negative gearing restrictions specifically target residential property, commercial property (offices, shops, warehouses) are currently not subject to the same "new build" restriction. Mr White said investors want to do the right thing and we want to help them make informed decisions. “We are calling on the government to provide clear, practical guidance as a matter of urgency as the market cannot afford ambiguity.."
"Our job is to know the facts, communicate them clearly, and help our clients get the best possible outcome, whatever the policy environment. The agents in our network will be the first to respond, and Australians can count on them for guidance through this change."
Ray White Group is committed to ensuring its agents are equipped to support clients through the transition with accurate, timely information.
Ray White Group will continue to advocate strongly for policy settings that support housing supply, rental availability, and the ability of all Australians, investors, renters, and first home buyers alike, to participate in the property market.