Saturday mornings at the Richmond market. I hear a fruit stall worker calling his wares: “Last of the carrots! A dollar a bunch! AND THERE’S NO MORE!”
Of course, he has carrots by the boxful under the table, but his solemn warning means he sells out every day.
Shameless lying by a fruit seller is probably harmless. And his carrots are brimming with vitamins.
When real estate ‘professionals’ use these tactics to create a buying stampede, the consequences are profound.
Homebuyers commit to lifetimes of heavy debt.
They overpay for houses far from work, far from family, far from facilities.
Then every adult needs a car. For years they drive past miles of vacant land to their jobs and to visit mum. When petrol prices rise, they suffer agonies.
Their children grow up without a community and go to distant crowded schools.
The sheer stupidity of this distorted behaviour is due to the housing shortage. Because well-located homes are too expensive and unavailable.
What if there was no housing shortage? What if it was all a lie? Would we still pour our life’s earnings into unsuitable houses?
I can prove it is a lie.
The evidence is in Earthsharing Australia’s I Want To Live Here Report.
Earthsharing didn’t rely on advertised vacancy figures. They used a different measure: water consumption. An empty house uses no water.
One in fifteen Melbourne houses use less than 50 litres of water a day. They are unoccupied.
Melbourne’s Genuine Vacancy Rate currently stands at 6.86%.
These are speculative vacancies, properties held off the market to drive up prices and cream off a capital gain.
When prices turn – as they must – speculators will pour these private dwellings onto the market. The phrase AND THERE’S NO MORE will refer to the ‘greater fool’ speculators rely upon, not shelter for families.
