BLOG: housing affordability

A Walk in the Park

    The City of Boroondara craves more parkland. Council wants open space within 500 metres of all residents without crossing a major road. This is a worthy objective that will improve the health and wellbeing of all, and every local government should...

No more levers to pull

photo credit: Elsie esq. Australian property prices are so over-valued their return to the long term trend will make the painful bubble burst in the USA look like a child’s picnic. Government, major banks and property speculators used every tool in reach to keep alive...

Melbourne ‘Stale Stock’ getting smelly

photo credit: Ennor17 November 2011 MELBOURNE:- The number of unsold properties in Melbourne has risen another 6.2 per cent in the last month, following a 20.4 per cent rise earlier, and an 18 per cent rise the month before that. “’Stale Stock’ on the market is up a...

Developer Levies drive up land prices

10 November 2011 MELBOURNE:- The Growth Corridor Plan announced by the Baillieu Government presents Melbourne with big challenges. How to pay for the massive infrastructure needed is front and centre - and unmentioned in the Plan. “Demand for new and better transport...

“No Visible Means of Support”

photo credit: DrWurmA term employed in Vagrancy statutes to test whether an individual has any apparent ability to provide for himself or herself financially. The Law frowns upon people who make their living outside formal employment. Yet it bows deep before land and...

Property’s “Signs of Stabilising”

photo credit: lynac The bullhawks are out in force, talking up last quarter’s smaller than expected price falls. Somehow here is evidence of the end of the downturn. Risk on! Throw caution to the winds! Really? It is easy to see why the bullhawks focus on that and...

House price falls steeper that the US

18 October 2011 MELBOURNE:- “House prices are falling in Melbourne faster than US prices did when that property bubble burst,” Prosper Australia Campaign Manager David Collyer said today. “The enormous housing oversupply and sudden buyer caution have dramatically...

The warnings come thick and loud

photo credit: tm-tmOn Sunday 9 October, The Sunday Age published an article by Chris Vedelago Buyers Nibble but No Big Bite. I would link, but can’t see it in The Age online. Here are the money quotes: “But a survey conducted by The Sunday Age found that only 35 per...