Prosper Australia

    The City of Boroondara craves more parkland. Council wants open space within 500 metres of all residents without crossing a major road. This is a worthy objective that will improve the health and wellbeing of all, and every local government should embrace the idea. There are a few problems. Boroondara will have to [...]

The currently deflating land bubble will erase wealth with dazzling speed. Sadly, striking falls in land values will have a greater impact on Australian wealth than any other advanced country.

photo credit: h.koppdelaney By Philip Soos This article first appeared at www.theconversation.edu.au and is republished under Creative Commons. One aspect of housing and stock market bubbles continually repeats: the vast majority of economists either miss or deny their existence. In recent years, enormous asset bubbles have burst in many countries. The most notable have been [...]

photo credit: Soon. 17 September 2011 MELBOURNE:- Exponential growth in the number of unsold properties overhanging the Melbourne market continues, up 18 per cent in the last month alone. “In the last five months ‘Stale Stock’ in Melbourne postcodes 3000-3207 has exploded, from 19,800 to 45,499 properties. In the wider Melbourne and environs, 70,856 houses [...]

At this market climax, let me remind all of the risks of compulsive, over-optimistic ambition. In Leo Tolstoys’ tale, ‘How Much Land Does A Man Need?’ written in 1886, a wealthy peasant named Pahlom is told of the rich earth in the land of the Bashkirs beyond the Volga. They are simple folk and he [...]

photo credit: Dean Terry 5 August 2011 MELBOURNE:- “Australia’s housing undersupply myth has just been exposed. We have overbuilt more than the USA,” Prosper Australia Campaign Manager David Collyer said today. “Prosper calculates Australia now has over 125,000 excess dwellings. “Fresh analysis of ABS data by Philip Soos for Prosper Australia and comparison with peer [...]

On Tuesday, SQM Research released their forecast for house price movements this year. Louis Christopher is as dour as a maiden aunt.

photo credit: Super Doily As published in yesterday’s Online Opinion As if out of thin air, a magical 46 per cent more property was offered for sale in February than a year earlier. Like the heavens opening after a long drought, desperate first home owners must have been thanking their lucky stars. Let’s repeat that. [...]

The first home Buyers Strike announced by tax reform group Prosper Australia last week is being supported by debt-skeptic Steve Keen. “This is an excellent idea which I endorse,” Keen said on his website (1) yesterday. “It would be a foolish personal decision to take out the size of loan now required to enter the [...]

“Two secure jobs and a good deposit are no longer enough to buy a home. First home buyers must make a life-long vow of poverty as well. It is irresponsible to expect such a sacrifice,” Collyer said. “Do not underestimate their anger and frustration at being denied land ownership and its civic benefits.”