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 for…
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…
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…
… 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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, both…
Further to my post of 21 May, I note that the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) is now making two contradictory claims on Labor’s negative-gearing policy. In mid May, the REIA launched its campaign claiming that if negative gearing for future…