The system gives the thumbs up to such activity, but we must alert you to the latest 'capital gains' success story trumpeted in today's Business Age (check p10*). Solomon Lew bought 151- 165 Franklin St (CBD) in 1982 for $810,000. He sold it recently for $30m. That's...
BLOG: Commentary
Housing Media Wars
photo credit: chrisjohnbeckett With the housing bubble accelerating each day, sometimes you wonder if it is ever going to pop. Tim Colebatch has written a number of key articles of recent, including this one on negative gearing pointing out that investors now account...
Kansas City sees the light!
photo credit: CoolValley A major tax battle is underway in Kansas City, Missouri. A petition to eliminate the city’s earnings tax worth $200 million a year has opened minds to the introduction of Land Tax. Read The Kansas City Star’s excellent analysis
Land Bankers Clean Up On Misinformation
Huge land bank puts squeeze on buyers 'We release land in a staged manner to meet demand because it would not benefit anybody to flood the market" said Stockland's General Manager Andrew Whitson. Wouldn't benefit anybody Andrew? Well perhaps it should be re-written as...
Triple the Supply Side Squeeze
Consider these three points: Property developers have openly stated they are reducing the supply of property to the market in order to massage land banking profits: While some already owe more than their home is worth, the result of prices initially boosted by first...
Vote now for a fairer tax system!
The Rudd Government has reviewed the tax system. The Henry Review came out strongly in favour of capturing economic rents for the common good. Read our analysis of the report here and here. The Rudd Government has written off any serious reforms to issues relevant to...
Hudson: Wall St Moves in for the Kill
photo credit: elodole MICHAEL HUDSON Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson wrote an op-ed in The New York Times yesterday, February 16 outlining how to put the U.S. economy on rations. Not in those words, of course. Just the opposite: If the government hadn’t bailed...
GAIC fails to sprawl
The Brumby government's ill-fated Growth Areas Infrastructure Tax was defeated in the Victorian Senate last evening. This spells the danger of poor land policy. Why did they attempt to charge $95,000 per hectare as a flat fee? Why wasn't this infrastructure cost...
Investors understand economics re Resource Rents
Surprise! A new Age survey found that investors were concerned about the Henry Review's proposed Resource Rent Tax: ... a staggering 92 per cent believed that the higher taxes would hurt the share prices of resource stocks. Long-term effects were also considered, with...
Mental Health and Property Bubbles
photo credit: xeeliz Our colleague Gavin Putland is quoted in this article by Leon Gettler: Predicting when the property bubble will pop is bad for your mental health PROPERTY bubbles suspend laws of supply and demand. In markets for widgets, demand goes down when the...