What is happening to property markets around the world in 2026?
Sydney, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, London, Auckland, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. Nine markets, one message: buyers have not disappeared — they have become selective.
By Alan Weiss · Weiss Real Estate
Property markets around the world are sending an important message in 2026.
After years of rapidly rising prices, cheap money and intense competition, buyers are becoming far more selective.
That does not mean every market is falling. Quite the opposite. Some cities are still producing strong sales, while others are experiencing substantial price corrections. What has changed is that buyers are increasingly questioning value.
At Weiss Real Estate, I believe this international picture is particularly relevant to Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. What is occurring overseas provides some valuable clues about where our own market may be heading.
Annual change in residential values or asking prices, latest available reading per market, 2026. Measures differ by city — see sources. Singapore shown as quarterly change (URA flash estimate).
The correction is now clearly visible
Sydney is no longer simply experiencing a quiet market. Prices have been declining.
The PropTrack Home Price Index for September 2026, published by realestate.com.au, shows Sydney home prices fell another 0.3% during September and are now approximately 5.5% below their November 2025 peak. Sydney values are about 5% lower than a year ago.
The correction in houses is greater. Sydney house prices are approximately 6.5% lower year-on-year and almost 7% below their peak.
The cause is no mystery. The RBA cash rate now sits at 4.60% after four increases this year, and the average new owner-occupier variable home loan is around 6.5% p.a. Every rise strips borrowing capacity directly out of the buyer pool.
And the weakness is particularly relevant to us.
During September alone, the Eastern Suburbs recorded a decline of around 1.4%, one of the largest monthly declines among Australian regions.
Yet this does not mean good Eastern Suburbs property suddenly has no buyers. Recent prestige transactions demonstrate that buyers will still pay substantial prices for outstanding property.
The difference is that buyers are becoming far more discriminating between an exceptional property and an ordinary one. That distinction is becoming increasingly important.
Strong demand, but buyers know their numbers
New York provides an interesting contrast.
The median asking price across New York City was approximately US$980,000 in August, down around 2% from a year earlier. Manhattan’s median asking price was approximately US$1.33 million, down 4.9% year-on-year, while Brooklyn’s median asking price was around US$999,000.
And buyers are doing this with expensive money. The US 30-year fixed mortgage averaged about 6.7% in August — roughly double the rates of 2021.
Yet the market is hardly dead.
About 21.8% of New York homes sold above their latest asking price in August, the highest proportion in around four years. Brooklyn was even stronger, with almost 32% of properties selling above asking price.
There is a lesson here.
Buyers have not disappeared. They simply do not want to overpay for average stock.
Two property markets within one city
Miami is particularly interesting because the apartment and house markets are behaving differently.
The median advertised price was approximately US$495,000 in July, about 2.9% below the previous year.
But Miami-Dade inventory tells the more important story. Single-family houses had approximately 4.8 months’ supply in July — typically considered a seller’s market. Condominiums had approximately 12 months’ supply — firmly favouring buyers.
Miami buyers face the same American mortgage money as New York — around 6.5% for a 30-year fixed loan in July. Tellingly, about 35% of all Miami-Dade purchases were cash, which is how a market keeps moving when finance is expensive.
That distinction should sound familiar to Sydney. You cannot simply say the market is strong, or the market is weak.
The real question is: which property, which suburb, which price bracket — and how much competing stock is available?
Expensive markets are feeling affordability pressure
Los Angeles has similarities to Sydney.
The median price for an existing house across the Los Angeles metropolitan area was approximately US$850,000 in August, about 1.2% higher than a year earlier. However, sales were 3.8% lower year-on-year.
Other measures show greater price weakness. Realtor.com reported a median Los Angeles listing price of approximately US$1.1 million in June, down around 7% from the previous year, while properties were taking longer to sell.
At a median near US$1 million, a 30-year mortgage at around 6.65% prices many Los Angeles households out entirely. That is the whole story in one number.
Again, the lesson is not that Los Angeles is collapsing. It is that highly priced markets become extremely sensitive when finance becomes expensive.
Sydney is experiencing the same phenomenon.
Sellers are competing for fewer buyers
London may contain one of the most useful lessons for Sydney vendors.
The average London asking price was approximately £657,775 in September, down 2.6% from a year earlier. Properties were taking around 78 days to find a buyer.
Across Britain, the number of properties available for sale has reached a multi-year seasonal high — in London, the most homes on the market since 2010 — while overall buyer demand remains about 9% below last year’s level.
British borrowing costs explain the caution. The average two-year fixed mortgage has climbed to nearly 6% — its highest in almost three years — even with the Bank of England base rate held at 3.75%.
Rightmove’s message to sellers is very similar to what I am seeing locally:
When buyers have ten properties to choose from instead of three, they become very unforgiving of an unrealistic asking price.
A warning about excess stock
New Zealand continues to demonstrate what happens when supply increases faster than buyers are willing to absorb it.
And the pressure is building again. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has begun lifting its cash rate, now 2.75% and expected to keep rising, with one-year fixed home loan rates back in the low-to-mid 5% range.
New Zealand is not experiencing the same conditions everywhere. South Island markets have generally performed better, while many North Island areas have been weaker.
But the broad lesson remains simple: more listings plus fewer transactions gives buyers negotiating power.
Has one of the world’s hottest markets reached its peak?
Dubai deserves close attention. After several extraordinary years, signs of cooling are appearing.
One mix-adjusted Dubai residential property index calculated from Dubai Land Department transactions showed prices approximately 4% lower year-on-year in September 2026. Apartments were down approximately 4.5%, while villas were down around 1.2%.
However, Dubai remains a massive transaction market. Christie’s International Real Estate reported approximately AED 33.6 billion of residential sales during September, with overall property transaction value rising from August. And off-the-plan sales continue to make up a very large proportion of activity.
Financing there remains comparatively cheap. Because the dirham is pegged to the US dollar, UAE home loans track American rates at a discount: fixed mortgage rates start from around 3.8–4% for one-to-three-year terms.
The important issue for Dubai is therefore likely to be future supply. When large numbers of new apartments are continuously delivered into a market, eventually investors must ask whether rental and resale demand can absorb them.
Sydney apartment owners should understand exactly the same principle.
Prices still rising, but government is increasing supply
Singapore remains considerably more controlled.
Private residential prices increased approximately 1.4% during the September quarter, according to the government’s preliminary estimate. But transaction volumes dropped by around 30% compared with the previous quarter.
At the same time, Singapore is deliberately increasing housing supply. Approximately 60,600 private residential and executive condominium properties are expected to be completed over the coming years.
Part of the answer is the cost of money. Singapore has the cheapest home loans of any market in this comparison: fixed packages are priced around 1.4–1.8% p.a., with the SORA benchmark near 1.2%.
That makes Singapore particularly interesting. Prices are still rising — supported by remarkably cheap finance — but authorities appear determined to prevent another uncontrolled property surge.
Recovering after a major correction
Hong Kong presents another fascinating case.
Hong Kong property prices previously fell almost 30% from their 2021 peak. But the market has subsequently recovered.
Private residential prices were essentially unchanged during August, rising only 0.06% during the month, but remained around 11% above the previous year. Prices had risen approximately 7% during the first eight months of 2026.
Cheaper money has helped the recovery. New Hong Kong mortgages, almost all HIBOR-linked, have been costing roughly 2.7–3.3% — about half what a Sydney borrower pays — although the dominant lender has just moved to lift its cap towards 4.1%.
Hong Kong therefore illustrates another important property principle:
What does all this mean for Sydney?
When you look across these international markets, several patterns become obvious. Start with the cost of money.
Indicative rate on a typical new owner-occupier home loan, mid–late 2026. Loan structures differ by country (variable, short fixed terms, 30-year fixed, benchmark-linked), so rates are a guide, not a like-for-like comparison. Sources below.
Notice the pattern. The markets paying 6–7% for money — Sydney, New York, Los Angeles, London — are the ones where prices are soft and buyers are selective. The markets paying 1–4% — Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai — are the ones still rising or transacting heavily. Property prices follow the cost of finance. They always have.
Expensive markets are vulnerable to borrowing costs
Sydney, London, Los Angeles and New York all demonstrate, to varying degrees, how sensitive highly priced markets become when finance is expensive.
Competing stock matters enormously
Miami’s houses and apartments are experiencing completely different conditions because their respective supply levels are different.
Buyers have not disappeared
They have become selective. New York still sees one in five homes sell above asking — when the price is right.
The asking price is not the market price
A property is worth what today’s informed buyer is prepared to pay — not what the owner hopes, what another property achieved two years ago, or what an agent promised at a listing presentation.
The Eastern Suburbs market
This is particularly relevant across areas such as:
There are still buyers. There is still significant wealth. And exceptional properties will continue to achieve exceptional prices.
But ordinary properties now compete against considerably more information. Today’s buyer can instantly compare recent sales, current listings, days on market, price reductions, alternative suburbs and competing developments.
That changes the balance of power.
For vendors, the strategy therefore becomes increasingly important. An ambitious price may initially sound attractive, but if the property sits on the market while buyers purchase competing properties, the eventual result can be worse.
Property markets are local, but understanding what is occurring internationally can provide an important perspective on what may happen next.
At Weiss Real Estate, we monitor property markets and recent sales every day to help property owners understand what their property may realistically achieve in the current market — rather than relying on yesterday’s prices.
Sources: PropTrack Home Price Index, September 2026 (realestate.com.au); StreetEasy Data Dashboard & market reports, August 2026; MIAMI REALTORS, July 2026 statistics; California Association of Realtors & Realtor.com, mid-2026; Rightmove House Price Index, September 2026; REINZ Monthly Property Report, August 2026; Dubai Land Department transaction data and industry indices (ValuStrat, Cavendish Maxwell), August–September 2026; Christie’s International Real Estate; Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore, Q3 2026 flash estimate; Hong Kong Rating and Valuation Department, August 2026. Home loan rates: RBA & Canstar (Australia); Freddie Mac (US); Moneyfacts & Bank of England (UK); RBNZ and major-bank carded rates (NZ); Central Bank of the UAE / EIBOR and published bank rate cards (Dubai); MAS / SORA and bank packages (Singapore); Hong Kong Monetary Authority and lender announcements (Hong Kong), mid–late 2026. Figures are approximate, drawn from the most recent published data at the time of writing, and measures differ between markets (sale prices, asking prices and indices are not directly comparable).
This article is general market commentary, not financial advice. Forward-looking observations reflect Alan Weiss’s professional assessment of current conditions.
