BLOG: housing affordability

The mystery of unearned income

As published today on Truthout The wealth gap is dividing society at an astonishing rate as the lessons from the Great Recession are helicoptered away. QE3 has worked for Wall St but little else. Over 30 nations are facing the shock and awe of property bubbles as the...

Companies spy a way to exploit tenants

By Philip Soos and Paul Egan Reposted from Business Spectator Suspend disbelief for a moment and imagine you are a residential landlord with a property for rent, seeking prospective tenants through a property manager. After advertising, it later comes to your...

Stamp Duty stifles labor mobility

The Productivity Commission is out with a major study that recommends ending Stamp Duty on conveyances in favor of a land value tax to avoid trapping people in their homes when better jobs beckon elsewhere. The Geographic Labor Mobility report examines the match...

LVT must replace NG, Stamp Duty

By Catherine Cashmore Follow Catherine on Twitter Cross-posted from Macrobusiness There’s been a lot of debate around property taxation in Australia; significantly negative gearing, which allows an investor to use the short fall between interest repayments and other...

The Housing Bubble and Lazy Land Use

As published in today's Online Opinion The beauty of the disinformation is staggering. As house prices accelerate 7.6% nationally, poor housing supply continues to be blamed for the housing crisis. Meanwhile, the sixth Speculative Vacancies report found over 64,000...

On the edge of realty (sic)

AHURI published Friday an important new research paper ‘The edges of home ownership’ about churn in the property market that deserves our close scrutiny and debate. Wood, Ong et al compare the UK and Australian experience of those leaving and reentering home ownership...

ABC on Speculative Vacancies

Journalist Michael Janda conducted this interview with Philip Soos yesterday. The audio can be heard here. ELEANOR HALL: A report by property think tank Prosper Australia has found that tens of thousands of homes in Melbourne appear to be unoccupied. The group says...