If land prices are to be stabilised, wages and inflation need to rise.
BLOG: boom-bust
Boom-bust and the Australian banks
Australia experienced an increasingly gigantic bubble in land prices during the 1880s and the beginning of the 1890s, and the city of Melbourne became bubble-central. Michael Cannon provides an excellent account of the period in The Land Boomers. Henry George's...
The bank cartel has a new enemy
The federal Treasurer Scott Morrison used parliament yesterday to fire an extraordinary broadside at Australia’s banking cartel. Conservative governments rarely indulge in the public thrashing of such major supporters of the status quo. Morrison and the Turnbull...
Victoria gets annual land valuations
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 today...
But… But Rents only go up! Don’t they?
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 tenants...
Horror 1400 per cent land tax hike shock
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 the AFR, the Cohens...
Housing affordability and the changing debt burden of a typical mortgage
by Philip Soos reposted from The Guardian Australia’s historically high and rising housing prices are widely debated and have prompted a number of government inquiries into housing affordability. The question stands open: is housing affordable in Australia?...
Retiring to live on the fat of the land may not be possible – rents are falling
CoreLogic’s Quarterly Review of the residential property market released yesterday brings sobering news for land holders – particularly Australia’s 1.2 million strong Negatively Geared investor class. Rents are falling. Source: CoreLogic CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless...
Exposed: Scomo’s ‘fix’ on housing costs a sop to Libs’ Big Developer donors
by Warwick Smith Warwick Smith smells a rat in Scomo's sudden solution to housing affordability – planning reform – coming just ten days after developers' call for same. SCOTT MORRISON has suddenly announced that he cares about housing affordability. This is...
Wolves at the door – not trying to push it down, yet
Back in May, US blogger Wolf Richer held forth on Wolf Street that hedge funds were betting record amounts on the imminent meltdown of Australian banks and our housing bubble by shorting shares. His arguments had me nodding my bearish head in agreement, yet the facts...