The Andrews government has announced State Land Tax will be calculated annually rather than every two years, a painless inexpensive reform Prosper urges all states to adopt. The Valuer-General’s assessment is used to calculate council rates and land tax. Valuers…
Lindsay David and Philip Soos at LF Economics demonstrate real rents are falling across the country, except in Hobart. This is only possible with falling wages, weak demand and excess housing supply. Little landlords have no compunction about evicting bolshie…
by Dr Cameron Murray reposted from macrobusiness On Friday 28th April I am appearing and Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission’s Operation Belcarra as an expert witness on relationships between councillors and property developers, and how that leads to favouritism. A…
Investor interest-only loans are a key risk factor threatening to destabilize Australia’s mountain of private debt, according to investment firm Standard Life Investments, a keen observer of interest rates. IO loans are often associated with thin equity buffers, risky investment…
The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax has been a successful revenue-sharing device since 1987, delivering well over $33 billion to Consolidated Revenue, derived entirely from the economic rents of resource extraction with no harm to producers. It has never deterred exploration…
by Bryan Kavanagh reposted from thedepression.org.au Mason Gaffney gives amazing chapter and verse in ‘The Corruption of Economics‘ about the people who successfully sought to conflate land and capital within the study of economics, in order to circumvent Henry George‘s…
The ninth UDIA State of the Land report on residential land development shows 57,381 new house lots were produced and 53,107 sold in 2016, up 8 per cent on 2015. Meanwhile, national land prices rose 13 per cent. The stock…
In April last year, the High Court of Australia affirmed the right of a West Tasmanian council to levy rates on the seabed within its municipal boundaries. This precedent means, in a legal sense, land is land, even underwater. It…
by Dr Cameron Murray reposted from macrobusiness Prosper Australia has for years been conducting research into how many of Australia’s 9.8 million homes are left vacant. Their major finding is that of the 1.7 million homes in greater Melbourne alone,…
The Cohen family, holders of The Block Arcade in Collins Street Melbourne, must meet a massive rise in State Land Tax after the Valuer-General’s biennial land revaluation. Their 2017 tax bill is $450,000, up from $30,000 last year. According to…