Spent some time this month going back through the numbers from the whole peak-rate year. Twelve months at 4.35%, and the portfolio came through intact. Worth being honest with myself about how close that actually was on one property in particular, the one I almost sold back in February last year.
Didn't sell it. Refinanced instead, restructured the loan, gave it more breathing room. In hindsight the right call, but I remember how uncertain that decision felt at the time, with rates still climbing and no guarantee the pressure would ease.
The lesson I'm taking into this year isn't really about property at all. It's that the properties worth keeping through a hard stretch are usually the ones you have to actively decide to keep, not the ones that were never in question.