BLOG: housing affordability

A toxic mess: vested interests and the real estate industry

Young academic Philip Soos is an outspoken critic of those who seek to 'game' Australia's land market. This scathing indictment from The Conversation today. Conflicts of interest undermine the quality of advice and policy. It is critical to the functioning of markets...

Housing bubble trouble: separating facts from fiction

Reprinted from academic e-zine The Conversation In a previous article, I analysed four of the common arguments used by those who deny there is a bubble in Australia’s residential property market. The bubble deniers have employed other explanations for the largest...

Not So Fast!

ABS Inflation data out today shows a big fat zero: we have nil inflation, at least for this quarter. The consequences for interest rates are profound. Mortgage rates may seem reasonable at 6 to 7 per cent.  In practice they are agony. A real interest rate of 6 per...

A New Year’s Resolution – Don’t Buy Now!

The Australian property market ended 2011 on the ground in a foetal position after a serious assault by Harsh Reality. Symptoms include: • A year’s supply of unsold houses on the market • Low and falling building applications • Low and falling finance approvals •...

Melbourne property ‘Stale Stock’ huge

16 December 2011 MELBOURNE:- The number of properties offered for sale and unsold in Melbourne continues to grow. In the last 30 days ‘Stale Stock’ has risen 4.2 % to 94,467, after 6.2% growth last month. This follows a 20.4 per cent rise in September and an 18 per...

Change or suffer

Australian land prices are falling. They will continue to fall until their fundamental economic link to incomes and rents are fully restored. Many with large mortgages will be crushed by these towering liabilities when their equity is erased. This claim is bitterly...