House prices

Insight on SBS last night detailed the rapid increase of homeless women in their 50s, 60s and 70s in Australia right now. Living in cars. One women can't wait until she can get her super in 2 years time so that she can buy a van so she can finally get a good nights sleep.

How did it come to this for a wealthy country like Australia?

I wonder how much the changing of the family unit has changed things?

I mean going back to 50, 60, 70 s it was more common for families to have one breadwinner, but now unless you have very good job, you really need two family members to be working to be able to afford to pay off a mortgage.

I think there is so man different factors that have all pushed up house prices to unaffordable levels.

@indo-dreaming, agreed, when I was a kid only dad worked. Same for pretty much everyone I knew.

Nowadays we've both got to work, as do most of the people we know. And we rent, just thinking about buying, even if we could find the deposit (which is a moving set of goalposts), gives me a headache.

As for why house prices are rising ... can't find the emoji for grinding teeth. Again just thinking about negative gearing, capital gains, foreign investment and just plain greed gives my headache a headache.

Ahh, bugger ... I'm off for a Bex and a good lie down.

Mate, I'd be off tomorrow if I could. BUT, the better half's job means that's unfortunately not an option, and she earns a lot more than me.

Besides, I've seen the size of some of those lawns up your way.

Wish we had TV presenters like this in OZ....

both barrels for NZ govt failure sounds like Syd and Mel.

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/shame-on-those-that-let-h...

'Wish we had TV presenters like this in OZ....'

Yeh, see!!! Fucking Gaul!!! Knew it!!! And I spose you'll get the fuck'n job!!! Again!!!

Glorious Strong Leader™ has got a prior engagement.

It's time to get stinky, ya'll.

Seems well priced and close to a variety of options
https://www.domain.com.au/53-the-jack-smiths-lake-nsw-2428-2013909407?to...

After mining the biggest lobby groups are those for property.

Australia the country where everything is for sale ... minerals, water, environment and property.

Same as it ever was since 1788.

You forgot to include politicians and the media in the for sale section.

I was talking to my old man about the foreign ownership thing, something he sees as pure folly. He worked in the Lands Titles Office for years, then in various overseas projects for years afterwards. To a tee his hosts couldn't grasp why Australia sells its land off to another country, and not just private real estate but commercial interests too: farmlands, infrastructure. Madness.

Two points he made. One, the Japanese once bought huge swathes of urban land on the SE seaboard - anyone recall the proposed Multifunction Polis? - only to sell it all when the Japanese economy burst in the early 90s. Happened that they bought all the land at the top of the cycle and sold it at the bottom and Australians did fairly well out of it.

Second point is that unlike natural resources, our land isn't going anywhere. Not sure how it could be wrested back without incident, but the possibility exists that point one could lead to point two - a collapse of China's economy means the real estate falls back into Oz hands.

Or falls into other overseas investors hands who see a good bargain.

That link of Blowin's is pretty crazy 87% of foreign buyers from China

And Indonesia the third biggest buyers at 1.5% and the funny thing about that is, i bet somewhere between 60%-90% of those Indonesians would be Indonesian Chinese as although they make up about 2-3% of Indonesias population it's estimated by some they control up to 60-70% of Indonesias wealth.

Yep and one area countries like Indonesia have got things correct.

Land/housing should only be able to be purchased by Australian citizens at best only strata type tittle should be able to be bought by non citizens.

Or land be available as long term lease with a maximum land size of say 1,000 m2

agree blowin, but not just foreigners....baby boomer investment buy-up has been huge too. in reality bigger than overseas buyers. i love my olds, but they are as much a part of the problem as anyone. sad really....owning a home was once the australian dream. and now home ownership has less to do with 'a home' and way more to do with wealth creation to the point where the property market is now too big to fail, it cant fail, the govt wont let it.

theres plenty of opportunities indo, like you suggest. the govt increased taxes on foreign buyers but it really hasn't had a much impact and as blowin's article points out as has previous articles from more than a year ago; the worlds big banks think australia's property market is a pretty 'solid bet'. if we've tipped the scales too hard in one direction its really really difficult to correct. the effects on young people mortgaged to the hilt and at risk of default if markets change could be with us for decades now even if real govt changes are made today.

Blowin & Stu's dad good comments. Look at 1971, Aus and Canada highest standard of living in world, were sovereign, had resources, agriculture, and value adding. Product of the (economic and actual) nationalist Curtin thru Menzies governments. Big nation building, think the Snowy or the Telecom copper infrastructure or the opening of farms from KI to northern WA wheat belt. Housing cheap, land not strangled by regulation in its takeup. All of the actual physical requirements for this lifestyle still exist, perhaps except within the 2 big cities now.

The leaders of that war and post war era were the young adults who saw what happened to Jack Lang when he refused the London banks calling in their loans in 1932. They were economic nationalists.

Mid 70's Lima agreement to ship manufacturing offshore was part of a parcel of agreements and policy changes; that has almost come to completion, Holden set to shut in 3 days. So many gone before it. No value-adding means a higher trade deficit as you import what you used to make here. Also means less real productive jobs, incomes and career paths for the young. Trade deficits funded by selling bits of the nation off, like farms so there goes the agricultural richness. Living standard decreases.

This real productivity has been replaced by FIRE.

This will need to be addressed, but perhaps it will take a large conflict to see political change. If you look at Trump/Bannon's intentions, from the 1990s interviews onward or Farage and Brexit, it's economic nationalism - putting their country first. It gets painted in so many other ways, but it's economic nationalism. And it's exactly what the mercantilist trading nations to our north have practised since the 1960s or so, and one reason why they are winning.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/holden-assembly-workers-despair-as-last-a...

happening in real time. Ironically, captcha asked for 'cars'

Shows the banks real position, interesting times ahead.
https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-the-spooky-mortgage-risk-signs-o...

Breathtakingly cavalier attitude by Westpac and ANZ, and I guess all of them really, issuing 40% of their loans as interest only.

Doomsaying get a bad rap but it's hard to avoid the inference that this is the architecture of a fall.

In hindsight, the danger of US sub prime lending was glaringly obvious. Can say the same about this.

Yeah, that is staggering more so given recent statistics showing (was it) 1/3 of all borrowers lied about their financial position when taking out the loan so they could borrow more.

The other issue at play here is the stagnation of wages and the increasing casualisation of employment (without penalty rates). How will people ever be able to repay these amounts?

...... I would love to know the amount of funds invested in housing from SMSFs**, if it all goes pear shaped the effects will be felt for decades as the upper and middle classes find themselves having to live on welfare.

** it was Howard that allowed SMSFs to borrow money for investment purposes. It is interesting too see Australia's historical housing price graph while noting the date prices started rapidly increasing and how that date co-incided with Howard's changes.

that's all true blowin but my point was about Howard's decisions / policies that have caused an exponential explosion in house prices / speculation. firm believer in sheeting home responsibility to where it belongs

john howard on chinese investment....

https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/news/dont-use-rising-property-pr...

yet he fails to mention that budding retirees are/were one of the biggest drivers of house prices. something he has very clearly contributed to.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2013/sep/30/housing-bub...

"...60+ year olds doubled their number of property investments in the 10 years from 2004 to 2014"........well that a pretty good effort.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/loan-clampdown-helped-cool-ho...

i very nearly gave up after 7 catpchas.

All governments are to blame Liberal and Labor wasn't it Labor that brought in negative gearing?

Not that I'm complaining i feel so lucky to have house worth double my mortgage.

Negative gearing is only part of the story.

Allowing 1/2 CGT on investment gains (Howard) "on top" of any negative gearing benefit "on-top" of allowing SMSFs to borrow money (Howard) turbo-charged the housing speculation frenzy.

Allowing losses on investments to be off-set against income from other sources or financial years (negative gearing) is a long established taxation principle here in AU and overseas that well and truely predates the Hawke/Keating years. The Hawke government did allow negative gearing on housing (against Keating's advice) against wage income whereas prior to this decision property losses could be offset against future property income or profit (i.e. quarantined to property).

Its my guess that if negative gearing were to remain but 1/2 CGT and allowing SMSF to borrow funds in property were to be abolished property prices would more than likely collapse.

Early news that Jacinda Ardern has banned foreign home buyers in New Zealand. Watch this space...

Wow. If true, mana to her & Winston Peters. Bring this to Oz!

Yip it's happening
Restrictions so residents only can buy
All the doomsayers are saying our economy is going to plummet
www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/jacinda-ardern-capitalism-has-failed...

As much as I detest that ginger headed wack-job if she or any other of the raving lunatics in the Senate took this to the next election I would probably vote for it such is the strength of my feeling on this issue.

Haha, well, gov sold the Port of Darwin to the Chinese, that's going to be a pisser when we have US Marines deploying through there or the F22s or whatever they station there and the owners are on the other side...
Vic Lib Gov sold off part of Mornington National Park a week before being voted out (we will remember - forever...)
There was that eastlink thing where one gov agreed to it, next said no, 10Bn bill within the contract for canceling??? Correct me if wrong on any of this...
Vic Lab just sold off Melbourne Port to a consortium including both the future fund and the Chinese, got 9.? Billion, will spend on... roadworks... ...roadworks... you couldn't make this stuff up Blowin, where is any vision or strategic direction whatsoever? Why sell the nation off at once when you get to cry into your beer repeatedly via this process?

VJ, I think you will find the national park is still 100% in public hands & Eastlink is built(tolled) but it was East/West link that was cancelled at a cost of $1 billion (contracts & secret side contracts scandalously signed on the eve of the election in full knowledge the opposition would not honour if they won the election - it was/is highly contentious all-round). Port of Melbourne wasn't sold it is has a long-term lease (big difference) ... agree with your sentiment thou.

If they lease an asset for the remainder of its useful life they may as well have sold it. New zealand seems to constantly be making us look like idiots by doing things that should be commonsense in oz. Ag land should never be held by foreigners. Its not like they can just release more like residential land. We only have whats there now and when its gone its gone.

i heard that all this sell-off is just a cunning process of slowly built assimilation. whereby we become more and more chinese as the decades pass and thus reducing the risk of their attack in 2079 when it all goes arse up.

yeah, im going with that.

It appears that NZ is only bringing in the rule that Australia currently has. Foreign owners can only buy new dwellings, not existing dwellings.

Doesn't sound too promising on the impact on housing prices in NZ when even a government minister states that it's effect will be marginal.

Earlier, someone asked about SMSF and its effect on residential house prices in Australia. It would have no effect pretty much on house prices. The loans you need to get a property in an SMSF (LBRA loan) have pretty high barriers (that got even harder about 5 years ago) and not too many providers even do these loans anymore with a few providers leaving the market. Add in you usually need between 30-40% of the purchase price of the property, liquidity issues that could potentially occur in the SMSF if it goes wrong (and the flow-on effects that the ATO bring down on the SMSF and it's Trustees), it's not an easy option.

I'd be suprised if 0.5% of the residential housing stock was in SMSFs.

Apologies, forgot the link re the NZ article.

https://www.domain.com.au/news/new-zealand-follows-through-with-ban-on-f...

But hey, Guy, it's Swellnet, don't let actual facts get in the way, hey.

Nice correcting of a very foolish post.

Gee stunet, "watch this space''?

I hope that impresses those at New Idea or OK Magazine where you might get a (non-paid) internship, but all that the NZ government is doing is bringing in the same property buying rules that have been in Australia for a long time.

Now that you've finished your little trip to Sydney, now thinking, "if only I could have bought-in five year ago instead of being so negative and bagging the joint..."

Before commenting on potential government policy, from either side, remember, their both (all) the same.

Who was bagging Sydney, Terrance?

You were...

https://www.swellnet.com/news/surfpolitik/2011/01/24/drive-thru-northern...

Bet you wi$hed you bought in then hey....

I'd bought in well before then mate...

Well done.

Fed raises rates
Banks' own costs just went up
pressure grows on equity, mate

I hadn,t read that original article Stunet, pretty spot evaluation though. I imagine the dynamics have changed in the last few years with the price rocket of the beach suburbs mentioned, maybe time for a re visit, a few less "angry tradesmen" and a lot more Chinese millionaires perhaps?

None argue of the day the dream ended.
Only how to stop Governments picking over the carcass.

Howard's grocery store GST economics failed to canvas the democratic building industry.
He ponders if a GST tin of beans costs 10% more then why does a house now cost 40% more.
Costello throws homebuyers $15,000 (15%) & pimps them a further $5,000 if they get it on.

Howard turns to best ever Treasurer and says..."If a coffee milk costs 10% more then why should a H'wy now cost 50% more".
Solution was to tear up time honoured 90%-10% [ H'wy 1] funding model.
States can now have 50%- 50% funding from this day on (2005) + They can build toll roads.

"Mr PM our car industry is in decline!"
'Let me guess....Cars cost 50% more'. "No! Only 30% more as the production line is delaying their demise.
Ok! Lifelines for Car Makers & Tax breaks/Cash backs for buyers.

OZ no longer builds houses/roads/bridges/cars now ice blocks are too labour intensive.
OZ is left skulking with the highest building/production taxes in the world.
Everything OZ made(OUR CULTURE)is devoured by GST.

No other modern country has penalised itself so.

With GST every termite pimple is taxed at each life-cycle change and every grain of timber eyeballed moved stored shelved dusted each a tax 100 x over.Then a world of cracks in rocks to be itemized then pulverized each particle weighed trucked shelved & stored and taxed...all producing bigger more expensive tax items that were previously taxed the day before with one less piece of string. No it's not just housing but how to save for housing.

Grandmas heart machine goes off/Flooded laundry... Johnny rattles his tin.(This guy is sick)
Rich pay 10% Chuck it DONE....Poor buy it 10% + repairs 10% now older bigger REPAIRS 10%
In short Howard's GST milking machine was too good to be true.
In the case of Housing... It keeps taking Taking TAking TAKING until you run out of money!
As a result no one gets any OZ made anything built for anyone for evermore.
Howard's GST first killed our dream then destroyed our way of life.

Pollies could always review anti Australian made tax slug.
States would need to relinquish their housing/Nation building tax take back to 2000 model.
That my friends will never happen in a million years...Dream on!