Prosper Australia

photo credit: Don Solo Gavin Putland Check Dr Putland’s latest piece on interstate issues with CIV Question: Who will be the big winners if CIV rating is introduced in the City of Monash? Answer: Owners of vacant lots and derelict buildings. The site value (SV) is the value of the land alone. The capital-improved value [...]

photo credit: Latente 囧 Le Sbarbine nel Governo From the Subprime to the Terrigenous: Recession begins at Home Gavin Putland’s excellent new report, being picked up by all sorts of websites and e-news services Background The American word “subprime” refers to the credit-worthiness of borrowers. But that wasn’t supposed to matter, because if the borrowers [...]

photo credit: Xava du [photographer padawan] Letters to the Editor THE AGE April 29, 2009 Dr Gavin Putland The supply of land is fixed; they’re not making any more of it. Therefore the owners of land automatically constitute a cartel, even if they don’t bother organising themselves. And because access to land is essential, the [...]

Thurs Nov 6th, 6.45 pm featuring Dr Gavin Putland Download flyer Which politician will use the ‘recession we could have avoided’ line? Rest assured Paul Keating will be invited. Dr Putland will discuss why asset price bubbles always end in tears. What trends have made such busts more prominent? What can be done to avoid [...]

photo credit: Svadilfari by Gavin R. Putland (Address to the Melbourne Unitarian Peace Memorial Church, August 17, 2008.) Thank you, Peter. And thanks to all of you for welcoming this former Trinitarian Methodist, and current Trinitarian Orthodox Christian. I’m here as Research Officer for Prosper Australia, which is Australia’s leading Georgist organization. A “Georgist” is [...]

Gavin Putland The ACT’s Land Rent Act, with promised savings of 79% compared to the standard mortgage-based system of home ownership, took effect on July 1. This is an innovative housing affordability policy. Here’s what I wrote about it a week before it became law. I make the following assumptions (which do not seem to [...]

Wednesday’s release of the much anticipated Eddington report has seen many questions asked on the viability of the road tunnel. Analysis of the cost-benefits report show that whilst the rail tunnel will return 1.20 for every dollar spent, the road tunnel will barely come out ahead. $18 billion is required to cover the Eddington plan. [...]

By Dr. Gavin R. Putland (revised June 12, 2003) In response to A Vision of Sustainable Transport in Queensland (Queensland Greens, February 2003) Summary Any new public transport service increases property values (or, more precisely, land values) along the route. The total increase in land values is consistently much larger than the fixed cost of [...]

Since the Howard government gained control of the Senate, we have been hearing numerous proposals for reducing the top marginal rate of income tax. The excuse is that high marginal rates reduce the incentive for wealth creation and encourage tax minimization. Let’s put this excuse to the test. A holding tax is a tax of [...]

SPIN: The Family Home is exempt from land tax. (And all the people shall say: Amen.) FACT: If home buyers don’t have to pay land tax, they can afford higher mortgage repayments, hence higher prices. While the price of a house is limited by the cost of construction and by competition among builders, a home [...]