September 2025: the final pre-Budget acquisition window
Q3 2025 closed with the strongest combined-capitals quarterly print in two years. The market entered Q4 with renewed momentum — and seven months until the 2026 Budget would change the rules entirely.
The closing window
Through September the federal tax-reform conversation moved from think-tanks to mainstream media. Whether negative gearing would survive in its current form became an open political question. Investors with active mandates moved decisively into new-build acquisition while pre-Budget rules still applied.
What was coming
The 12 May 2026 Federal Budget would, eight months later, restrict negative gearing and CGT optionality to new-build assets only — grandfathering everything settled before 1 July 2027. September 2025 was, in retrospect, the second-to-last clean acquisition window before the rules changed forever.
Dax Stanley
Founder & Principal Strategist, Hera Property. #1 international bestselling author of Real Estate Investing Using ChatGPT.