With the growing pressure to find affordable accommodation and our excitement at the Canberra Land rent proposal, we thought it high time we showed you a growing trend through the northern hemisphere - Community Land Trusts by Prosper Tasmania's Leo Foley (Based on...
BLOG: housing
Unprintable Remarks On The Budget – Gavin Putland
The day after the 2008 Federal Budget, Gavin Putland (our Research Officer) sent three letters to newspapers. This one was sent to THE AGE, which exercised its editorial discretion not to publish: Cop-out On Inflation And Rents If a Budget is to be anti-inflationary,...
Melbourne Rents deliver a smile for some
Saturday's Age article on Melbourne's rental growth outstripping all other states is reflective of current government policy at all levels - local, State and Federal. When combined with record immigration levels, property flipping will continue unabated. Prosper...
Rating Federal Treasury’s Performance
By Bryan Kavanagh Treasury’s mission is “to improve the wellbeing of the Australian people by providing sound and timely advice to the Government, based on objective and thorough analysis of options, and by assisting Treasury Ministers in the administration of their...
Budget Surpluses, Sovereign Funds and the slide of the US Dollar
Yesterday's Federal budget surplus of $21.7 billion raises the spectre of a global trend tied to the principles represented on this website. Take the foreign reserves of Singapore (US$176bn), Hong Kong (US$160bn) and Russia (US$563 bn). Singapore and Hong Kong have...
Budget Smudge-It: Criticism of Swan
The Swan Federal budget was limited in its' vision, giving with one hand in the old welfare game but taking away with the other by providing further subsidy to propertied interests. Whilst it is widely reported that the wealthy were hit by means testing, fellow...
Interest Rates Shoot the Messenger
March 08 figures reveal that loans for first home owners dropped to just 16.4% of owner-occupied approvals. Yes 16.4%! The Great Australian Dream is being dominated by baby boomers and/ or speculators. Those that most need a roof over their heads are the last in the...
Canberra’s policy vision
Finally a breath of fresh air has been blown upon the housing affordability issue. The ACT government has acted upon its long history of innovative financing by proposing a system of leasing land. Income earners below $75,000 will be able to lease the land at 2% p.a...
2030, Affordability and Understanding
Today's report on the Melbourne 2030 urban growth boundary cries out for a comment from Prosper Australia members. Melbourne University academic Rob Moodie rolled out the usual suspects in recommending that dwellings per hectare improve on the urban fringe, that there...
A Place to Live, Or a Place to Invest – Karl Williams
Letter to the Age At last there is some openness from the property investor lobby! Caroline Lawrey, Housing Industry Association Victorian executive director, claimed that a property owner had the right to determine when and when it was developed (Age 16/11). With...