Every Australian property scored for negative gearing
Microburbs has modelled negative-gearing exposure for 8.94 million dwellings. The score now appears in your suburb reports, property reports, and Suburb Finder. If you are buying in a suburb where a large share of properties are owned by negatively-geared private landlords, you are competing against tax-subsidised buyers. Now you can see exactly which suburbs that is, and which it is not.
Luke Metcalfe · Microburbs Research · 6 June 2026Why this matters when you are buying
From 1 July 2027 the federal government stops new investors writing off rental losses against their salary income on established homes. Anyone who already had a contract before 12 May 2026 keeps the tax break for the life of that property. New builds keep it too.
For buyers and homeowners that means one thing: in suburbs where lots of properties are already owned by negatively-geared landlords, you are competing against buyers whose tax bill makes losing money on cashflow easier to absorb. That tax shield is preserved for them. It is just not available to you.
So the practical question is, how much of your shortlist suburb is propped up by negative gearing today? Microburbs has now scored every property in the country for that.
How the score works
The score comes from a model. The maths is involved, but the inputs are simple to describe:
How much of the local stock is privately rented (the homes negative gearing can actually apply to), how often those landlords run a rental loss (from official tax statistics, and most common where thin yields mean rent cannot cover a geared loan), and whether the rentals are private or public housing (public housing has no negatively-geared owner).
The model weighs those inputs into one directional score, suburb by suburb, microburb by microburb, and property by property. Across more than 3,700 suburbs with a real private rental market, the typical figure is about 8%. The range runs from under 3% in settled owner-occupier suburbs up to roughly 40% in the most investor-dense apartment districts. Read it as a band, from very low to very high, rather than a number to the decimal.
Where you will see it
Suburb reports
The negative-gearing score appears in the investor-exposure section of every Australian suburb report.
Property reports
Each property report shows its own probability of being owned by a negatively-geared landlord, plus the suburb context.
Suburb Finder
Filter and rank Australian suburbs by negative-gearing exposure when you are shortlisting.
Interactive microburb view
See the score by microburb inside each suburb report, drilling down to street-block resolution.
Three suburbs that show the range
Sydney Olympic Park, NSW
Around four in ten properties here are owned by negatively-geared private landlords, the highest of any suburb in the country. It was master-planned for renters after the 2000 Olympics, so most stock is privately rented and most of those landlords report a rental loss. A buyer faces tax-subsidised competition on a large share of the listings.
Tarneit, VIC
More than one in five Tarneit properties is owned by a negatively-geared private landlord. House-and-land stock from the 2018 to 2022 buyer wave dominates here. The private-rental base is moderate, but the share of those landlords running a tax loss is very high, which lifts the figure well above the national typical of about 8%.
Castlecrag, NSW
About one in twenty Castlecrag properties is owned by a negatively-geared private landlord. The suburb is overwhelmingly owner-occupied. Buyers here are competing against other home-owners, not against tax-shielded investors. The budget change has little direct effect on the local stock.
What this changes for buyers
Suburb-by-suburb the share varies by an order of magnitude. Two suburbs in the same city, the same price band, can have wildly different exposure to the negative-gearing dynamic. In a high-exposure suburb you have been outbid by buyers with a tax shield. In a low-exposure suburb you have not. Knowing which is which is the difference between bidding strategy and self-flagellation.
From 1 July 2027 new investors lose the salary-offset tax shield on established property. New investor demand should thin out in high-exposure suburbs first. Existing owners are grandfathered, so they do not have to sell. The headline market effect is on the demand side, not the supply side.
About the data
The score is built for every microburb in the country, from our own calibrated estimate of how much local stock is privately rented, official 2022-23 postcode tax statistics on how often landlords run a rental loss, and the split between private and public housing. It is a directional estimate, not a guarantee, and is best read as a band from very low to very high. The loss-making statistic is measured at the postcode of the landlord's tax residence, which lines up closely with the property in most metro suburbs but can diverge for holiday-let areas. Analysis as at June 2026.
Coming to the API. Coming really soon. Contact us for the launch date. The address- and suburb-level negative gearing data is being added to the Microburbs API. It is not in the public API yet. Request API access → to register your interest for early access.
Look up your suburb
See the negative-gearing score for any Australian suburb or property — alongside investor concentration, yield, mortgage stress, and the rest of the Microburbs signal set.
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