Housing Articles

The information that the price of new housing land in Melbourne jumped 36 per cent last year might be great news for existing house owners who can expect a further leap in value of their main asset but it is a disaster for those who are renters or seeking to purchase a home. The average Melbourne house price at the end of 2017 was $817,000 with Sydney at $1,117,000. Across Australia, house prices adjusted for general inflation increased 34 per cent over the past five years, notwithstanding a s

Tony Abbott must surely be the only possible route by which Australia can emulate the benefits that the US is now reaping from the election of President Trump. While being a more refined politician than The Donald but falling short of many of our hopes when in office, Abbott shares Trump’s goals of small government, and like him contests Political Correctness, and is pro-liberty and democracy. Abbott’s unadvertised selfless, personal charity work among Aboriginal communities marks him as uniqu

FOR the past 30 years, Australian house price increases have vastly outpaced general inflation. We are talking here of standard homes, not those in the inner suburbs, still less harbourside mansions. In the Australia of the 1980s, it took three times the median household income to buy the average house. Today it takes six times the median income (in Sydney and Melbourne respectively it’s over 12 and nine times median household incomes). The basic reason why prices have risen so strongly is becau

Nowadays there is not much dispute that regulatory constraints on supply is the main reason why Australian house prices are up in the stratosphere. Governments are incapable of unwinding decades of cumulative regulatory controls on housing which have created Hong Kong land prices in a nation with the world’s greatest supply of developable land. Since the 1980s dwelling numbers have increased 40 per cent and people 60 per cent. Prices that used to average three times household incomes are now

Global housing consultancy, Demographia, has confirmed what Australians always knew. Our house prices are extremely high and there is no relief in sight. ​ In 2016, out of 406 world cities surveyed for housing prices in relation to incomes, Australia is the leader with four cities the top 11 and 8 of the top 20 most highly priced housing markets. ​ Sydney comes second (after Hong Kong) where it takes 12.2 times the median household income to buy the median priced house. Sydney’s median priced

Unfortunately, the Prime Minister has said he hopes house prices will continue to rise gradually and is making political capital from suggestions from the Labor side that they are too high. The fact is that median house prices in Australia are, in relation to income levels, two to three times as expensive as in those jurisdictions (including most of the US, and Germany) where planning and other regulations are less stringent. This is not because of land shortages (Australia has more abundant land availability than any other nation – even Sydney hemmed in by the ocean and national parks could increase its size by 50 per cent simply within the County of Cumberland). Nor is it because building costs are high – although unionisation of apartment buildings creates excessive costs, single and double story houses are built by small businesses contracting with each in a highly competitive manner.

Text.Henry Ergas, points to adverse implications of the attack on tax deductability for housing which would both to raise tax and lower demand competition for owner buyers. Whether or not housing investors are to be hit with taxes, both the Commonwealth and the Victorian State Governments have discovered housing as a new source of taxation revenue. In both cases the new tax slug is accompanied by claims that it is in accordance with the moral high ground.

Surging prices have invited many actions. These include attempts to force developers to include low-cost housing in new projects, a solution that fails at the first jump since it means the other buyers, many of whom are battlers, get charged more and, in effect, pay the subsidies

Among the more affluent who are seeking to upgrade their housing to a preferred location, there is considerable discussion about the Chinese squeeze on purchases. This is not just something that is imagined by disgruntled under-bidders, the top end of the real estate industry has recognised the buying power of Chinese speakers, the majority of whom are probably residents and all major firms have been hiring Chinese speaking sales staff. Data is poor. The RBA estimated that in the most recent year 12 per cent of new dwelling turnover and 3 per cent of sales of existing properties was accounted for by foreign buyers. And these estimates were considered to be on the high side due to some FIRB approvals not being followed up by actual purchases.

Negative Gearing and the Capital Gains Tax Regime are not the reason for High House Prices. Out of 86 cities across the world with over a million people, house prices relative to incomes in Sydney and Melbourne were the third and sixth most expensive. That's the finding of the latest annual survey of house prices released this week by Demographia. Some jurisdictions - the south in the US and most of Canada have house prices relative to incomes that are half of Australia's. The reasons for the differing fortunes of mainly young people looking to buy their first house ..........

THE Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) has joined other voices in calling for an end to negative gearing for housing. This involves an investor who makes a loss on an asset, offsetting some of this by paying less tax and hoping to come out on top if the market revalues the asset. The investor’s success depends upon the price of houses rising. This has been the norm in Australia but in the US, following the 2007 crisis, house prices in California, Florida and elsewhere halved and remain below their previous levels

Premiers claiming credit for the release of outer-suburban land have lost the plot. Even as they boost grants to aspiring home owners, prices driven by the burden of the regulatory costs their governments impose rise even faster

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