The week's policy lead
The Property Council of Australia reported on 16 October that the Senate had referred proposed discretionary-trust tax changes to a committee. The Council argues the proposal could impose restructuring costs and affect family-owned and mid-tier developers across housing, commercial and industrial property. The referral is a review step, not passage of the tax changes into law. Earlier in the week, the government introduced a proposed exemption for retirement villages and residential aged-care homes in a separate negative-gearing bill, which also still needs to pass Parliament.
Listed property and market indicators
The ASX 200 A-REIT Index fell 1.73% in the week to 16 October. In Prop Weekly's 11-security close-to-close tracker, Goodman Group fell 2.84% and Storage King Group fell 2.79%, while Arena REIT rose 4.68%. These are unadjusted price returns, excluding distributions; they do not measure direct-property values. The homepage's market-cap, year-on-year, year-to-date and CAGR columns remain explicitly dated to 2 October because comparable longer-period baselines were not reverified.
The RBA cash-rate target remains 4.60% following the decision effective 30 September; minutes were released this week, but there was no new rate decision. The Australian 10-year government-bond yield closed at 5.252% on 16 October, down 0.094 percentage points from the same historical series' current 9 October reading of 5.346%. The earlier published edition recorded 5.356% for 9 October and has not been silently changed. The July Property Council national office-vacancy reading of 16.1% and Savills' August report of $13.6 billion in rolling retail investment volume remain the latest comparable source periods shown on the homepage.
Five selected completed sales
Five completed, price-disclosed Australian commercial sales reported from 10 to 16 October totalled $217.76 million in this selected sample, not in the national market. An $81 million South Brisbane office acquisition led the group, followed by the $47.75 million Epping Dream Haven industrial portfolio, $40 million Caves Beach hospitality asset, $30.01 million Felixstow office building and $19 million Redfern hotel. The selected-sample median, the third-ranked sale, is $40.00 million. The $117.7 million Epping Home & Life transaction was excluded: the 12 October roundup described an exchange of contracts, not a completed sale.
Median for Top 5 Weekly Sales
Median disclosed value among Prop Weekly's five selected completed sales for each published edition.
| Week ending | Median of selected top five |
|---|---|
| 28 Aug 2026 | $38.0m |
| 4 Sep 2026 | $8.0m |
| 11 Sep 2026 | $12.25m |
| 18 Sep 2026 | $13.0m |
| 2 Oct 2026 | $9.50m |
| 9 Oct 2026 | $11.50m |
| 16 Oct 2026 | $40.00m |
For five sales, the median is the third-ranked sale. Published editions are equally spaced; no placeholder is inserted for an unpublished week. This selected-sample series is not a national market median.
What to watch
The Senate inquiry will determine whether and how the proposed trust-tax rules are revised. A completed $81 million South Brisbane office acquisition and $47.75 million Melbourne industrial portfolio sale point to selective capital deployment, but five transactions are too small a sample to infer a national trend. Listings should be assessed using their individual verification dates and agent pages.