13 June 2012 Victoria Planning Minister Matthew Guy has made big land price falls on Melbourne's outskirts a certainty with his extension of the metropolitan boundary by around 7000 hectares. "The gaping chasm between developer supply and buyer demand has never been...
BLOG: housing affordability
Alternative Outlook on Austerity, Sales Tax
This post was adapted from our e-news service. Sign up on the right hand side of the home page for a bi-monthly email. These certainly are exciting times to be advocating an alternative economic framework. We see thoughout the EU failing economies where tax systems...
Weak Construction gets Weaker
Dwelling construction continues to fall, according to the AIG-HIA Performance of Construction Index for May. Commercial construction and house building activity weakened to 34.7, where anything below 50.0 represents contraction. In parallel, the ABS Building Approvals...
Another loser renovation
Corrected at 1730 to adjust (upward) the renovation figure. Many thanks, Steven Shaw for pointing out my error. Toby Johnstone is out again in the SMH recording how two brothers wasted nearly two years of their lives and endless toil renovating a Cleveland Street...
Land Rent = Job Creation
A nifty clip from our South African colleagues Karen Cooper and Peter Meakin. Of note is their useful method comparing 300Rd p/m in land rent to the 60,000Rd we currently pay to banksters.
Seller Strike, Buyer Strike
The solid new trend of falling house prices is confirmed by the ABS today with real prices now in retreat for seven quarters and the downward path accelerating.
Repeal Stamp Duty!
Buying a home is a major life-event. Most people need a mortgage to bridge the gap between their savings and house prices. But the Victorian government imposes Stamp Duty at this critical point, increasing the capital needed and lengthening mortgage repayments by an average seven years. Many citizens are either excluded or deterred from home ownership by this extra cost, which traps them in the rental market. We are all diminished.
There is a better way. Remove this burden and fund the change by ending the principal residence exemption from State Land Tax an efficient and just way to fund government.
Nine Quarters of Weak Land Sales
Australia has experienced nine quarters of falling land sales volumes with the last five quarters flatlining forty per cent below long term averages. The big falls in prices we have been predicting are now a certainty.
Land price too high
From the Canberra Times 5 April 2012. Your article “Capital’s housing prices highest in the country” (April 3, p1) was missing one very important word – land. As we move toward Canberra’s centenary celebrations it is time to reflect on the great wedge that is driving...
Now Everyone Hates Stamp Duty
On Monday the Real Estate Institute of Victoria made public its submission to the Victorian Government on the framing of the state budget. They are big-hearted enough to call for an end to the First Home Bonus – a ‘gift’ to buyers that merely inflates land prices by...