Prosper Australia

As published in Online Opinion 18/04/2013 Owning a home is a fantasy without $70,000 in savings. This is simply not possible on an average wage. The debate heated up with Tom Whitty’s statement ”You have to ask, if those being duped are too naive to complain, and those profiteering are too valuable to upset, is [...]

  by Bryan Kavanagh reposted from On-line Opinion I’m constantly told Australia’s land prices are astronomically high because of our high rate of immigration and the shortage of supply of residential allotments So, it seems the price of a block of land has simply been reduced to an issue of supply and demand. However, in [...]

  A fact-free defence of urban planners in The Conversation yesterday has left me fuming about how this group is immersed in process and blind to The Game being played around them. The Game boosts land prices, creates serviced land shortages and impoverishes all who need shelter. Planners are proud to quickly turn around conforming applications.  [...]

“When you’ve paid your rent, you’ve paid your tax.”  “So what’s a Georgist?” you ask. A Georgist (or at least a “full-on” Georgist) is someone who says there should be no taxes except those on land values, payable by the owners — and is keen to explain that “land” doesn’t include buildings. (It does include [...]

  by Philip Soos Escalating housing costs have, of course, received much attention as both prices and rents increased faster than incomes and inflation over the last decade. In this vein, property research firm RP Data launched a monthly report called Buy vs. Rent, providing a comparison of housing costs across Australia’s suburbs. Recent results show that in [...]

  Linc Energy today announced a major shale oil and gas discovery around Coober Pedy in South Australia.  Unrisked prospective reserves have been separately estimated by two independent consultancies at 103 and 233 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That is an extraordinary find. The low estimate is equivalent to Kuwait’s proven reserves and the high [...]

Land in Australia should be dirt cheap. Outstanding access to land ought be a national advantage, generously conferred by a loving government upon its people.

The Victorian Government wants to, needs to, spend billions on Melbourne transport to catch up with the city’s explosive growth. As John Legge kindly points out in a must-read at The Age: “The affluent have crossed the Yarra and now colonise almost all of the zone-one public transport area, delighting in the benefits of the [...]

Independent MP Rob Oakshott stepped into the media spotlight yesterday saying both the Coalition and Labor want to raise the GST rate – after the election. Sadly, he is correct. ”It shouldn’t just be about the GST. This is about why on earth in Australia we have insurance taxes at all. Why do we still [...]

‘We help property sellers sell’ is realestate.com.au’s proud claim. It is shocking to discover how far this News Corporation subsidiary is prepared to go to fullfil this promise. An un-named writer penned a delightful upbeat article on their website based on research called the Housing Affordability Sentiment Index that realestate.com.au commissioned from mccrindle research. QUOTE [...]