Big Changes Are Coming

You’re our finance expert when it comes to supporting the Rochelle Adgo team and Ray White Mitchelton.  We’ve got some pretty big changes starting to happen, January-February. Take us through that and what it looks like.

Definitely Rochelle. Well, I guess just before Christmas we’ve had some major updates from the government with two major changes. One, the Help to Buy Scheme, which is a First Home Buyer incentive helping people get into the market sooner, is live from the 5th of December. Which is where the government’s going to own 30 to 40% of your property depending on if you’re buying something established or brand new.

The more major one that’s come through is APRA, as of the 1st of February 2026, is putting a blanket wide rule across the market with all lenders included, capping the debt-to-income ratio to six times your income. Obviously, that’s more going to be affecting investors leveraging that high, uh, high end of that debt-to-income ratio.

They’re borrowing their equity. And current- you know, currently at the moment it’s 8 to 9 times, and that’s now going to be capped at around about 6. And then it’s going to be seen as high risk.