Now Everyone Hates Stamp Duty

On Monday the Real Estate Institute of Victoria made public its submission to the Victorian Government on the framing of the state budget. They are big-hearted enough to call for an end to the First Home Bonus – a ‘gift’ to buyers that merely inflates land prices by...

What a party; what a hangover!

The RBA said yesterday assets have fallen by $40,000 per household in the last year. No wonder everyone is now saving over ten percent of their incomes and slashing mortgage balances with grim determination. The economy, which usually steers like an oil tanker, has...

Was Lloyds Bank the ONLY silly lender in Australia?

Lloyds Bank is selling a $2.1 billion book of bad Australian commercial property loans and expects to take a fifty per cent haircut. There is more. Morgan Stanley is alleged to have bought a Lloyds’ Gold Coast loan book with a face value of $700 million for between 30...

House prices are falling – somewhere else

The politico-housing complex relies heavily on poor quality data to hide the market price of houses from innocent low-information citizens. It has this market knowledge at its fingertips – but is determined not to share it with the likes of you and me. Most of the...