There are currently 377,300 houses for sale across Australia, according to SQM Research data released today - up 21.9 per cent on last year. Why is this significant? Well, we have some 8.9 million houses. A quick back of the envelope calculation tells me 3.79 per cent...
BLOG: boom-bust
Australia has over 125,000 excess houses
photo credit: Dean Terry5 August 2011 MELBOURNE:- “Australia’s housing undersupply myth has just been exposed. We have overbuilt more than the USA,” Prosper Australia Campaign Manager David Collyer said today. “Prosper calculates Australia now has over 125,000 excess...
This will end in tears
photo credit: tinou bao27 July 2011 The AMP/NATSEM report on housing affordability released today draws a clear picture of Australia’s house price dilemma. It fails, however, in concluding house prices will remain stable for a decade while real incomes catch up. “This...
Melbourne housing ‘Stale Stock’ explodes
26 July 2011 MELBOURNE:- “In the last three months alone, ‘Stale Stock’ in Melbourne postcodes 3000-3207 has ballooned from 19,800 to 31,600,” Prosper Australia Campaign Manager David Collyer said today. ‘Stale Stock’ is property on the market for more than sixty days...
Lessons from Manhattan
photo credit: atomicshark“The devil is in the details.” German Proverb A fascinating paper on Manhattan real estate in the 1920-39 era shows why property went down, stayed down and didn’t recover in real terms until 1960. ‘Real Estate Prices During the Roaring...
Take your positions, please
A debate is a chance to crunch opposing views. Strong ideas advance and poor ones are discarded. Good. But when participants and audience have already made up their minds, fresh argument goes nowhere. The Money Institute’s big debate in Sydney on Tuesday asked – Will...
A feast of houses – at the old price
2 June 2011 MELBOURNE:- Homes available for sale across Australia are up 68 per cent on last year while sales volumes have slipped dramatically. The real estate industry has immediately flipped its argument and is calling a ‘buyers market’. “Not so fast!” Prosper...
Can You Smell the Fear?
On Tuesday, SQM Research released their forecast for house price movements this year. Louis Christopher is as dour as a maiden aunt.
Australia’s fatal flaw: Negative Gearing
“You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.” - Warren Buffett, Chairman's letter 2001. Negatively geared property investors are exposing themselves, the banks and every Australian citizen to capital destruction, a highly infectious disease that...
Tinkering on the Edge
photo credit: flatworldsedge Economic Answers Way off the Mark by Karl Williams Another neoclassical excuse-maker has just hit the airwaves, claiming to identify the causes of the GFC and even hailing Alan Greenspan as the prophet who was ignored as the GFC loomed!...