At the weekend, Simon Johanson reported the Victorian Supreme Court decision to disallow body corporate regulation of short-stay operators. There is real conflict here. Owner occupiers are incentivised to avoid maintenance costs and be cordial toward their neighbors –...
BLOG: Commentary
Stamp Duty slugs families $91 a month
The Housing Industry Association today released their estimate that conveyancing Stamp Duty costs Australian households $91 a month. “By eroding deposits and making homebuyers borrow more, stamp duty is estimated to add $91 per month to household mortgage repayments...
Addressing privilege
As a research associate of the Land Values Research Group, land values speak to me about many things. They reflect relative advantage. You know, Ricardo's Law of Rent, otherwise known as location, location, location and all that? A great part of land values are...
Dear Prime Minister, I’m an innovation worker and your ‘Plan’ will drive me away.
By Matt Ellis reposted from RationalRadical Dear Prime Minister Turnbull, I am writing to belatedly and publicly call your bluff on your so called ‘innovation agenda’, which forms a key plank of your ‘Plan’ for jobs and growth. There are all kinds of reasons to be...
The compulsory retirement of home ownership in Australia
... A Turnbull victory will entrench the bidding advantage of investors over owner-occupants, even for established homes. The age of home ownership as we know it is coming to an end. The age of investor hegemony is here. From now on, for a typical first home buyer,...
The Andrews government underground gift to wealthy landholders
Victorian taxpayers were kicked in the teeth yesterday by Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allen, who announced city landholders would not have to contribute to the $10.9 billion Metro Rail project, though they will enjoy substantial and certain land prices rises...
A world gone mad
We were all meant to be wealthy by now - new technologies having assisted the means of production and service delivery. Instead, what we've inherited is a world gone mad, and in debt. Where did all the wealth go? Look around you. Obviously, it's gone mainly to those...
Schroedinger’s negative-gearing investor
SQM Research contradicts itself on Labor's negative-gearing policy ... So we are supposed to believe that, on the one hand, investors will be so spooked by the non-transferability of negative gearing that investment in new homes will fall, in spite of the continued...
SMH gets thoroughly modern and calls for a land tax
The Sydney Morning Herald thundered about NSW government finances in a May 25 editorial: $17 b a year hole in NSW future finances. This is mostly the usual stern conservative stuff we have learned to expect from Fairfax. But it does close on an upbeat note: “The...
Brumby calls for change
Former federal and state politician John Brumby had a piece in THE AGE last Tuesday "Australia needs to start making its own luck" warning of 'dog days' and Australia heading down 'the Greek road'. Although Brumby clearly followed the neo-liberal economic textbook,...