The future of Australian property is being written in data and SQL right now.
Tobias Johnstone, REA Group’s General Manager of Content and Growth, took the AREC stage with a bold claim: he could predict exactly what Australia’s property market would look like by 2035.
It might seem foolhardy, but the REA researcher has identified six data-driven trends reshaping Australia’s housing landscape; trends that spell both opportunity and upheaval for agents navigating an increasingly complex market.
The most striking revelation centres on migration patterns.
India has emerged as Australia’s dominant source of new residents, fundamentally altering the demographic makeup of property buyers.
“All roads leading to India,” Tobias said, describing how geopolitical shifts—including America’s tariff uncertainties and declining fertility rates across Asia—are redirecting migration flows toward Australia.
The numbers paint a stark picture of transformation.
Australia will add 893 people every day for the next decade, pushing the population to 31 million by 2035.
Two-thirds of this growth stems from international migration, making Australia one of the fastest-growing developed nations on the planet.
“Australia will be more diverse than ever before, will be older than ever before, and, of course, will be bigger than ever before,” Tobias said.
“And that last point is important because where are we going to put these people?”
The answer lies in a fundamental shift from suburban sprawl to urban densification.
Sydney’s development patterns since the 2000 Olympics reveal this transition, with density radiating outward from the centre as the city accommodates growing populations within existing boundaries.
This densification creates more dynamic, liveable cities—but only if urban planning keeps pace with demand.
Yet alongside demographic pressures, a more immediate crisis looms: climate risk and insurance.
The Los Angeles wildfires served as a sobering reminder that one in ten properties was completely uninsured—not just due to rising costs, but because insurers had already deemed many properties too risky to cover.
“We need to level up as an industry on this because consumers are increasingly going to be asking about risk, and they’re going to be asking about insurance,” Tobias warned.
For agents, this convergence of forces demands strategic repositioning.
Traditional banks aren’t just competing with each other anymore—they’re losing ground to “boomer parents who struck gold when they bought an ugly, ground brick, freestanding home in Sydney’s turmoil that’s now somehow working with vineyard.”
The children of these accidental property millionaires represent a new class of buyers with inherited wealth reshaping market dynamics.
As government rezoning initiatives target areas near transport hubs, agents must consider their geographic spread carefully.
The future belongs to those positioned to capitalise on high-volume apartment developments—if Australia gets urban planning right.
Tobias’s data-driven prophecy offers both warning and opportunity.
While global uncertainty makes predictions perilous, demographic trends and climate realities are already reshaping how Australians live, work, and invest in property.
For agents fielding daily questions about home values and market timing, understanding these macro forces isn’t just useful—it’s essential for survival in a profession where yesterday’s certainties no longer apply.
The story of 2035 is indeed being written now, in migration statistics and climate models, in urban planning decisions and insurance policies.
Those who read the data correctly will thrive; those who ignore it risk obsolescence in an industry where change has become the only constant.
