Watch this masterful animation to an excellent speech by social theorist David Harvey: Continue on by reading two pieces in the world leading Financial Times newspaper. One by Michael Hudson on Latvia's Third Option: As Europe’s banking crisis deepens, Greece’s and...
BLOG: housing affordability
Housing shortages? Really?
photo credit: looseends Saturday mornings at the Richmond market. I hear a fruit stall worker calling his wares: “Last of the carrots! A dollar a bunch! AND THERE’S NO MORE!” Of course, he has carrots by the boxful under the table, but his solemn warning means he...
When You’ve Paid Your Rent, You’ve Paid Your Way
photo credit: karola riegler photography Thursday June 24th 7pm, 1/27 Hardware Lane Dr Gavin Putland The powerpoint and audio have been uploaded here Australia's residential land prices, commonly but incorrectly conflated with "house" prices, started falling in 2008....
Housing Data Beckons Fall
photo credit: funadium Yesterday's ABS release of a 14.8% fall in seasonally adjusted building approvals shows that property insiders understand that a crash is coming. If not them, then the banks curtailing credit for housing is another signal that housing is...
Like Gold in a Coal Mine
photo credit: 10b travelling Clear-eyed media commentary in the national interest is rare and sweet. Alan Mitchell's analysis of the Henry Tax Review in the Australian Financial Review - A tax on all your economic rents - is such a creature. He opens with a...
Henry Review: what about the land tax recommendations 51 to 54?
photo credit: Troy McClure SF Gavin R. Putland Published in today's Crikey In contrast to the Henry report's advice that payroll tax be eventually abolished (recommendations 55 and 57), the Rudd government has decided to increase its own payroll tax. No, really....
Henry Review puts Land Tax on the Agenda
photo credit: anarchosyn The Henry Tax Review’s highlighting of Land Tax as a policy direction is a welcome and encouraging development, says Prosper Australia. “This is THE tool to liberate the people of Australia from their current financial difficulties,” Prosper...
Dear Australia, the world is watching, waiting for our bubble to burst
photo credit: robertivanc The great property speculation game is over in America and Europe. The music has stopped. Forty years of steadily increasing pressure has been released. Houses are worth a fraction of what people paid in better times, while the giant...
Expensive land is changing the shape of Australia.
photo credit: Zach K The Melbourne versus Sydney rivalry has been reignited - Melbourne’s population is growing faster and is projected to overtake Sydney by 2037, a new report predicts. Going Nowhere, a report by BIS Shrapnel for a property developer lobby group,...
Make up your mind
I had a letter published in The Sunday Age on the 25th of May. Real estate agents and their constant spruiking of the “boom” had finally gotten up my nose. They go around crowing about the rising prices while ordinary Australians get priced out of the market. When you...