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Should I wait for rates to drop or the market to dip before I buy?

Bayley Clarke · Mortgage broker on the road · Last checked 3 September 2026 · 3 min read

The one minute version. The rest of this page is the detail underneath it.

Everyone is waiting for the same thing

The biggest thing I hear from people is, I'll just wait for rates to drop. Everyone is thinking that. So ask the next question: what do you think is going to happen to property if interest rates start to come down again? Every man and their dog is suddenly going to want to buy property, and prices are going to start to reflect that in the form of increased prices.

So the rate you were waiting for arrives, and the property you were waiting to buy costs more. The saving on the repayment gets eaten by the bigger loan. That's the trade people don't run when they decide to wait.

The dip is only obvious in hindsight

It's only obvious in hindsight when the property market has dipped. It's a very interesting time to be buying property. However, it's only going to be obvious in hindsight if this was the dip to buy. Nobody rings a bell at the bottom, and the people online telling you they can see it coming have the same crystal ball as you.

So really, you shouldn't be trying to time the market with property. It's a long term game. Over a ten year hold, the month you bought matters far less than the fact that you bought and held. It's time in the market, not timing the market.

What you can actually control

It's all about getting your numbers and knowing whether or not it's affordable for you, and whether it's something you want to continue down the path of, owning or growing a property portfolio. That's the only question that has a real answer today.

The biggest thing is just getting your ducks in a row to make sure it's affordable. Know your borrowing range, know the repayment per month and per week, and know it works even if rates don't fall. If it does, that's the position to buy from, whatever the market does next. If it doesn't, waiting for rates won't fix it, and the work is on the deposit or the debts instead.