The banks’ rivers of gold are facing another blow

May 18, 2026 — 6:00am

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The 30-year boom in Australian house prices has created plenty of corporate winners, but few companies have benefited quite as handsomely as the big banks.

Housing loans have powered these financial giants for years, and armies of small shareholders – not to mention superannuation giants – have come along for the ride.

The year 2026, however, has not been one for bank shareholders to cheer. Not only have bank shares underperformed, they’re now also contending with a slowdown in their most important type of lending: mortgages.

Within hours of Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ reining in of negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions last week, analysts were asking if we’d reached the end of the multi-decade housing boom.

If that’s true, what would it mean for the four giants of Australia’s financial system, which count home loans as their biggest assets?

And given the major banks play such a central role in our economy, should any of this be a wider concern, as opposed to just one for share investors?

Markets appeared to deliver a brutal verdict last week, sending CBA shares on their way to the worst day on record after the budget – a 10.4 per cent drop. While CBA shares recovered a bit later in the week, it’s been a fall from grace for the bank’s market value, which last year reached an eye-popping $300 billion,........

© Brisbane Times