Housing

Each night in Australia 105,000 people are homeless, including 7,500 families. Each June leading Australian CEOs and business leaders sleep rough for one night in support of the Vinnies CEO Sleepout.

Contrary to common perceptions about homelessness, 44 per cent of homeless people are women, many of these accompanied by children. It is a shocking fact that more than 12,000 Australian children under the age of 12 are experiencing some form of homelessness. A further 22,000 young people aged 12 to 18 are homeless, most of them estranged from their families. That’s more than 34,000 kids without a place they can call home.

Speaking at the recent launch of the Vinnies CEO Sleepout 2012, Dr John Falzon, St Vincent de Paul Society CEO, National Council said: “Children who are homeless are more likely to become homeless later in life and raise families who, in turn, also become homeless. You can guess why we haven’t solved the problem.”

Continue reading "I once was lost but now I’m found, thanks to Vinnies" »

What most Australians want out of a house: a big backyard, enough bedrooms for everyone, not too far from work. If you’re a miner though, you want your house to be as close to a hole in the ground as possible.

Our sister-site news.com.au reported late last week that renting a shack in a mining town costs just as much as renting a mansion in Vaucluse, near Sydney Harbour.

Here’s a Monday question for you: do you rent or buy? How are you dealing with the housing market at the moment? Are you stressed or cruising along?

And hey, what’s on your mind today?

Yesterday’s 0.25 per cent cut in interest rates has been framed in today’s press as great news for people with existing mortgages and those seeking to enter the property market.

Fair enough. On the face of it, it is good news. Repayments on the average 25 year home $300,000 loan will be $50 less this month, thanks to the jolly fellows in red and white fleecy suits at the RBA. But it’s even better news for wealthy property owners and real estate agents, who are both set to reap the rewards of an impending buying frenzy.

No issue in Australian life is framed in a more upside-down, nonsensical way than the issue of property prices. The more the market heats up, the more we sing and dance and rejoice. That, despite “housing affordability” continuing to be the greatest misnomer in Australian life since the show Australia’s Got Talent.

Continue reading "Why the rate cut will just create a deeper rut" »

Lies, damn lies and statistics. Without denigrating the excellent, proactive work by the Herald Sun in commissioning NATSEM research showing Australian households are $23 better off per day than five years ago, this figure is a load of horse manure.

Every Australian knows it, not least Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, whose only common ground is the belief that Australians are doing it tougher than ever. Which we mostly are.

There is of course a legitimate line that many Australians delight in casting themselves as perennial battlers, even as they purchase ever bigger, flatter TVs and ever larger homes. Rampant consumerism can never be discounted in any measure of our material wellbeing. But as NATSEM’s figures show, it’s the essentials that are rising in cost, not the expendibles.

Continue reading "Tell us we’re better off when houses are affordable" »

Returning home for summer is a continuing novelty for me. This may be explained in part by the fact the Melburnian summer exists only in myth, much like the unicorn or Dennis Lillee.

Compared to the glorious and endless parade of 35-degree days in Perth, the southern capital is a pale and moody slouch.  Yes, it may be the cultural, sporting, and nightlife epicentre of the nation, but not even Events Victoria could poach a decent summer.

Rain outside of winter does not make for happy tidings. As Thom Yorke croaked: “everything in its right place”. And that means, Melbourne, keep the damp in July and open up the summer goody bag sometime around December.

Continue reading "The real city rivalry: Melbourne v Perth" »

When it comes to waste and mismanagement, Julia Gillard’s Building the Education Revolution debacle is recognised as the gold standard, but it has a new challenger in the form of the Labor government’s Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program (SIHIP).

However, federal Labor – like its state Labor counterparts who gave themselves glowing reports for their management of the BER – has insulted our intelligence by their boasts in early January that it has exceeded its 2010 targets for building houses in remote Indigenous communities.

The reality is the government has blown the same amount of taxpayers’ money on administration costs and inflated salaries for consultants under SIHIP as the disastrous schools halls project, in relative terms.

Continue reading "The next BER debacle: indigenous housing" »

Home ownership is central to the great Australian dream. A home is not only a means of shelter, but the crucible from which personal development, family relations and community bonds spring forth. For many Australians, it is a tangible way in which they can share in the wealth of the nation.

A decade ago, social researcher, Jeanne Strachan, reflected on an emerging concern about housing: “Young couples today are the first generation since the war to face the reality that they often can’t obtain, even with two full-time workers in the house, what their own parents saw as a fair and reasonable reward for their hard work.”

Strachan observed a growing sense of pessimism about home ownership: “Many young couples have an ingrained belief that it is not ‘right’ to raise children in a rented home. They make a very strong emotional link between the goals of parenthood and home ownership. They recognise that before the birth of their first child they will bath have to work to fulfil their home ownership dream.”

Continue reading "How Labor has made housing more expensive" »

As you get older and more cynical it gets harder for governments’ mendacity to surprise you.  But yesterday the Rudd regime announced a plan so creepy and ill-thought out that it made me want to vomit.

Responding to concerns over skyrocketing house prices which are - in my opinion - primarily a result of its own immigration policy and its refusal to do anything about the rort that is negative gearing, the government annouced it was reversing its 2008 decision to liberalise the rules for foreigners who want to buy property in Australia.

Those rules had been relaxed during the GFC panic and had - allegedy - led to an influx of foreign buyers to Australia, driving up house prices and forcing decent Australians to sleep eight a room in conditions not seen since the dark days of the 1930s. Or something.

Continue reading "Introducing the White Australia Real Estate Policy" »

If you attend an auction in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, the chances are that the winning bidder will be a foreign buyer. In recent months, Australians have become increasingly frustrated that they are being outbid for residential properties.

Young people wanting to establish a home have found that the expected prices are being pushed higher and higher.

This is having a flow-on effect through the property market as potential buyers shift their attention to other suburbs. The consequence is a further escalation in prices. Most young buyers are being pushed further and further towards the outskirts of the metropolitan area.

Continue reading "Foreign investment is overheating our property market" »

To own your own home is the dream of many.  I never noticed it as much until I arrived to Australia almost 7 years ago.

People younger than myself had already purchased their first homes; some even had additional investment properties. I was shocked; I couldn’t understand how they managed to achieve it.

In Ireland then, no one I knew in my age bracket owned their own home, instead we all rented and spent most of our disposable income on entertaining and holidays in Europe.

Continue reading "The Australian dream is fine for those who can afford it" »

There were lots of memorable lines in Tony Abbott’s first press conference as Liberal leader yesterday but there was one you can expect to hear repeatedly ahead of the next election, whenever that might be.

``Each and every interest rate rise over the next 12 months is due to the irresponsible spending spree of the Rudd government,’’ he said.

There you have it. Kevin Rudd is going to be made to own each and every 25 basis point rise in interest rates between now and the next election - including the latest one yesterday.

Continue reading "Here comes Tony" »