Property

Late last Friday, on the eve of the ANZAC Day weekend, the Melbourne Storm scandal raged in the Australian media. It was then that the Rudd Government chose to announce in a statement that it was reversing its policy of allowing non-residents into the Australian housing market in unprecedented numbers.

It was the third policy backflip in as many days, all under the cover of the media storm about the Melbourne Rugby League club. First, the government pulled the plug on its home insulation scheme, citing the billion dollars required to clean-up its previous mess.

Then it surreptitiously announced that the promised 230 child care centres would not be built, also by media release.

Continue reading "Forget the farm, Rudd has sold the house off overseas" »

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" »

Is it only in obnoxious cities like Sydney where people bang on about interest rates and property prices?

And is it just people I’ve met or is it all of you? Don’t lie – I watch a lot of TV and judging by the nightly news and those current affairs programmes on commercial stations, everyone is obsessed with this stuff.

There are endless stories on the big banks ripping us off with higher rates, tips on how to invest in property, what the next hot areas to buy into will be etc etc.

Continue reading "Home ownership is a trick being played on you" »

Congratulations hoons: you are officially the most annoying people in Australia, by a statistical mile. Almost half - yes, half - of all Australians believe dangerous or noisy driving is a problem in their neighbourhood, according to data published today.

At first it might seem staggering that 45.3 per cent of Australians say hooning is a problem in their neighbourhood but when you think about it, how surprising is it really? How often are phone conversations or the break-up line in Sex and The City drowned out by some tool gunning his Subaru down the street? And for every single person in the street who has settled in for the evening, the experience is exactly the same.

(While we’re at it can I add to that the guys noodling about on their Harleys, not just the bikies who have an excuse but the middle managers from accounting firms who take out the Chopper after a stressful day of Excel.)

Continue reading "Great country, shame about the hoons" »

The NSW State Government has built a house.

It’s got three bedrooms, rooftop solar panels, state-of-the-art lighting, water-saving appliances, a fuel cell that converts gas to electricity, a worm farm and an electric car. Located in a nice suburb it’s around 30 minutes from Sydney CBD and comes with a 12 month lease. It’s also 100 per cent rent free.

As any member of the begrudging, under-slept and over-caffeinated Sydney rental set will tell you, there’s few opportunities like it. In fact you’d have to see it to believe it. And you wouldn’t be the only one.

Continue reading "A free house for the most undeserving" »

It’s time for a hard conversation about money. Some Australians, it seems, have literally bet their houses on interest rates staying at the current record lows.

There’s a stock-standard way of reporting the outcome of a Reserve Bank meeting in which the board decides to leave the target cash rate unchanged. You’ll have heard it on radio: “Homeowners can breathe a sigh of relief after the RBA left interest rates on hold”.

But with interest rates as low as they are, any homeowner who is really holding their breath waiting for the RBA decision these days is, quite simply, living beyond their means.

Continue reading "If rate rises are hurting now, you need a smaller house" »

IT seems incredible but barely two years into the greatest depression/recession/downturn/hiccup (take your pick) the world has suffered since the 1930s, we’re already talking about bubbles again.

Experts fear the 30 per cent surge in the local stock market since March – mirroring a similar spike on Wall Street – is building into a premature and unsustainable bubble crying out to be pricked.

Reserve Bank boss Glenn Stevens reckons the housing market, fuelled by record low interest rates and the government’s first-home owners giveaway, is looking dangerously like a bubble that could need a dose of higher interest rates to deflate.

Continue reading "Human nature is to be forever blowing bubbles" »

If you’re searching for your first home you’d better find one this week, and you’d better have a healthy deposit, and you’d better hope your job’s secure, and you’d better pick the right suburb and don’t think about relying on the economic downturn to help you out.

No pressure but the Commonwealth Bank and BIS Shrapnel have in the past couple of days butted into the dreams of thousands of Australians and promptly turned them into a nightmare.

Contrary to all dining table predictions BIS Shrapnel today said house prices will go up 20 per cent over the next three years. This as CBA raised its fixed rate, after last week being the first to break ranks and lift its variable rate. Expect the rest of the banks to follow at a respectable distance, as soon as Wayne Swan stops holding press conferences to talk about team work and heavy lifting.

So prices are going up, rates are going up – and you can’t even get the friendly guy from the bank to take your call. And guess what, it’s your fault.

Continue reading "First home dream turns into a nightmare" »