House prices to keep rising for years

[stocksontheblock]

And that is without considering any capital gains, which are tax free!

For now!

 

[Beej]

If one of the property experts could help me out.

When buying a place off the plan in VIC is the stamp duty payable after the contract is signed (Sep 2009) or after settlement date (Expected Sep 2010). Also I know the developer and not me works out the stamp duty amount but does anyone know how it is calculated?

Any help would be appreciated

In NSW stamp duty is payable AT settlement (not before, not after). It should be the same in VIC? It's calculated based on the government published rate - a quick google search should lead you to a VIC stamp duty calculator

Cheers,

Beej

 

[Taltan]

Thanks Beej

Regarding the calculation I know what the stamp duty rates for a normal house in VIC is.
http://www.sro.vic.gov.au/sro/SROna...575D20020D1C6E11F281E47194875CA2575D10080ECCE

With off the plan you don't pay duty on the contract price but somehow on the value at contract date (e.g. before the building is completed). I wanted to know how the developer or SRO calculate this

 

[gooner]

In NSW stamp duty is payable AT settlement (not before, not after). It should be the same in VIC? It's calculated based on the government published rate - a quick google search should lead you to a VIC stamp duty calculator

Cheers,

Beej

I had to pay before settlement (I'm in NSW) or perhaps my conveyancer was just being lazy.........

I just know stamp duty is too much. Have been doing numbers on moving vs renovating. By the time, I pay stamp duty, real estates, legals, removalist, new utilitiies etc, I'd be looking at $100k. That's about one third of a decent renovation.

 

[Beej]

I had to pay before settlement (I'm in NSW) or perhaps my conveyancer was just being lazy.........

I just know stamp duty is too much. Have been doing numbers on moving vs renovating. By the time, I pay stamp duty, real estates, legals, removalist, new utilitiies etc, I'd be looking at $100k. That's about one third of a decent renovation.

Some solicitors insist on having the cheque for stamp duty before settlement so they know they have it. I have always arranged for it to be paid at settlement.

Re cost of moving - yes, it can cost that much, and if you have the location/land you want already, renovating can be a better value option! Stamp duty sucks big-time when trading up, and when you add all the other costs as well selling/buying can be an expensive exercise....... but, at the moment at least, it's there and unavoidable On the bright side if your house goes up in value by 5% (like they have on average this year) there's your stamp duty covered already right there.

PS: To Taltan, sorry, I don't know how the developer calculates the stamp duty in VIC in your example?

Cheers,

Beej

 

[kincella]

House hunters' bargain hot spot expandsCHRIS ZAPPONE
September 16, 2009 - 1:26PM
Eleven-and-a-half kilometres from the CBD is proving to be the right distance for value seeking home buyers, according to a report that lists the 24 most attractive suburbs in Australia for investment opportunities.

The Melbourne suburbs of Chadstone, Brunswick and Flemington made the list, compiled by St George Bank, because they offered the best mix of location, amenities and demographic mix for investors.

The definitive list of bargain-hunters' hotspots


In Sydney, Rockdale, Riverwood and Lidcombe were seen offering the best value. Of the ten suburbs from Melbourne and Sydney, the average distance from the cities respective CBDs was 11.5 kilometres.

"Savvy home buyers and investors should look outside the square and consider the areas which have not attracted the same level of attention as traditional blue-ribbon locations," said St.George Bank's chief economist Besa Deda said in a statement.

"For example, some of the suburbs identified in the National Hotspot research include light industrial areas which are expected to eventually transform into residential areas with amenities," she said.

The chronic shortage of available homes, tipped to be 56,600 homes in 2009, as well as Australia's resilient economy have helped push Australian home prices up after having lost only 4 per cent during in the course of 2008, while the financial crisis unfolded worldwide. The economy expanded by 0.6 per cent in the second quarter, defying the global recession.

"Since December 2008, Australian median dwelling values have rebounded and, as at the end of June, they sit at their highest ever level of $471,818," said Ms Deda.

"The Australian property market is certainly not homogeneous and across capital cities individual performances have shown significant variations," she said.

"In each city there are areas that have been overlooked by property buyers, despite positive factors that actually make these locations attractive spots for home owner-occupiers or investors."


http://www.theage.com.au/business/house-hunters-bargain-hot-spot-expands-20090916-fqvl.html

 

[MrBurns]

Search houses in Tasmania, it's a dream come true , see how far your money goes there.

 

[gfresh]

BUT, if they own these properties through their SMSFs, then there will be no leverage (you are not allowed to borrow money to buy property through the super fund), so therefore the lower tax rate becomes an advantage, not a problem. A nice steady and growing yield of 5%+ from an IP or 2 is a nice thing to have in your SMSF when you retire - you use the income to live, the income goes up over time (without further capital investment), and the asset appreciates over time as well.

I am pretty sure you can now borrow for property through a SMSF? I guess if you have a good cash base, you can go in closely to positive cash flow from day dot, as opposed to younger buyers. Still would think if you were getting older, the ongoing costs for maintenance of a property could be disadvantageous.

Like Taltan said, the tax advantages are poor without the income to offset. If we had positive cash flow properties freely available, they indeed could be a decent cash flow for invesment, but as it stands, the system is all geared towards capital gain (at the expensive of positive rental income). To realise your gain/cash to live off you have to sell, although reverse mortgages could be another angle I didn't really think of.

It seems that logically we should be building far more, but somehow the crap state government policies (which push up base costs for developers) + the perceived risk (ie not enough upside reward/profit potential currently in the eyes of many developers, plus difficulty securing funding etc), seems to be keeping activity subdued. I tend agree with many here that the FHB grant boost should have been for new houses/flats only - perhaps something like that is on the horizon when the boost ends?

Agree there! I don't really know what the government is doing with the FHOG for existing properties. It served it's purpose I guess to stave off a crash, but 2010+ will need some serious policies to address construction. Maybe then we'll have a construction boom so mentioned. We almost need one!

 

[wayneL]

Last word on this specific topic from me; it's not about the exact physical distances, it's about how the people that reside/work/rent/buy property perceive the market. NYC is extremely high density - Manhattan burrough itself has a population of 1.6M-1.7M people living in ~60 square kms. If you look at the whole actual "island" (which includes The Bronx) the population is over 3M in 170 square kms (wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan). Manhattan is actually the most densely populated area of the US, but also one of the wealthiest (if not the wealthiest). A further 4.5M+ people live in the other official NYC Burroughs (Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens). In this sort of environment, living in the suburbs of New Jersey for a New Yorker IS like living in Wollongong is to a Sydney-sider. That's how they - the people that actually buy/sell this property rather than just talk about it - perceive things.

That's the market. When looking at property prices anywhere you need to at least have a cursory understanding of factors that drive that local market.

Cheers,

Beej

Beej,

Bullsh!t

We were speaking about affordable housing in metro areas and suddenly you're talking snob value FFS. If you were a young couple with jobs in Manhattan, you're saying they will snub the Jersey side because it not NY?

Utter utter nonsense. its a 10 -30 minute commute FFS. It affordable and many many do it. Yet you'll happily advise people in Oz to buy some dump in the boonies because it'a affordable... puleeeeeze.

Sorry, you're talking rubbish as some sort of bizarre justification for Oz prices.

BTW, you cannot use exchange rates to compare directly. You have to use local earnings.

Just for fun, here's one in Brooklyn:

 

[nunthewiser]

Search houses in Tasmania, it's a dream come true , see how far your money goes there.

owns property in tasmania as stated in amongst these threads ......

tasmania been very kind to me


lol i own half a river (yes thats right NO riverfront reserve and own to the midway point) gotta love it

even got trout , native hens ( evil things ) and a cupla platypus not to mention my very own 5ft high waterfall

nirvana some say

p.s i currently have a priick of a tenant also and about to undergo some painful manouvering because of said tenant .... not all sunshine and lollipops but at least i can shoot ppl for fishing in my side of the river

 

[MrBurns]

owns property in tasmania as stated in amongst these threads ......
tasmania been very kind to me
lol i own half a river (yes thats right NO riverfront reserve and own to the midway point) gotta love it
even got trout , native hens ( evil things ) and a cupla platypus nit to mention my very own 5ft high waterfall
nirvana some say

Not a lot of capital gain from what I can gather but the prices and the standard of living over there seems to be faultless, no water restrictions, Hobart has 250k people. you can park anywhere in the city.
There must be drawback but I cant think what.

Look at this in Sandy Bay - unbelievable -

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...r=&cc=&c=11400062&s=tas&snf=rbs&tm=1253100008

 

[nunthewiser]

Not a lot of capital gain from what I can gather but the prices and the standard of living over there seems to be faultless, no water restrictions, Hobart has 250k people. you can park anywhere in the city.
There must be drawback but I cant think what.

Look at this in Sandy Bay - unbelievable -

http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bi...r=&cc=&c=11400062&s=tas&snf=rbs&tm=1253100008

Hobarts an awesome place , friendly , beutiful and got everything one needs .

depends when one bought re capital gain ... i did well hence my comment about being kind . BUT i had a subdivision potential i took advantage off

the pace is a LOT slower there . not suited for some ppl

i have intrests in the Huon valley i will return there to retire , circumstances dictate otherwisefor me to live there currently

 

[MrBurns]

Hobarts an awesome place , friendly , beutiful and got everything one needs .

depends when one bought re capital gain ... i did well hence my comment about being kind . BUT i had a subdivision potential i took advantage off

the pace is a LOT slower there . not suited for some ppl

i have intrests in the Huon valley i will return there to retire , but its too slow and circumstances dictate otherwisefor me to live there currently

I've got a mate who lives at Sandy Bay I'll go visit him one day, it's not possible for me to live there at the moment either but in the future who knows.

 

[nunthewiser]

I've got a mate who lives at Sandy Bay I'll go visit him one day, it's not possible for me to live there at the moment either but in the future who knows.

sandy bay an awesome spot to live . waLKing distance to salamanca /city centre . sandy bay a buzz with bewtiful women and good food also . what more can one want

 

[MrBurns]

sandy bay an awesome spot to live . waLKing distance to salamanca /city centre . sandy bay a buzz with bewtiful women and good food also . what more can one want

I think I'll pay a visit very soon

 

[So_Cynical]

sandy bay an awesome spot to live . waLKing distance to salamanca /city centre . sandy bay a buzz with bewtiful women and good food also . what more can one want

What more?....how about another month or 2 with average daily maximum temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius...4 lousy months per yer just don't seem enough, oh and id like just 1 month with a daily max temp above 22 degrees celsius.

http://www.tchange.com.au/climate/climate.html

 

[nunthewiser]

What more?....how about another month or 2 with average daily maximum temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius...4 lousy months per yer just don't seem enough, oh and id like just 1 month with a daily max temp above 22 degrees celsius.

http://www.tchange.com.au/climate/climate.html

um . dont live there then

simple really

 

[wayneL]

What more?....how about another month or 2 with average daily maximum temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius...4 lousy months per yer just don't seem enough, oh and id like just 1 month with a daily max temp above 22 degrees celsius.

http://www.tchange.com.au/climate/climate.html

Bonus!!

Not everyone likes the heat. Tassie sounds good to me.

 

[nunthewiser]

Bonus!!

Not everyone likes the heat. Tassie sounds good to me.

there is hot days in summer ....often over 30 ......not many , but the climate there in summer is actually very nice .......

in fact remember with a twinkle in my eye floating in a blow up dingy from judbury all the way to huonville on the mighty HUON RIVER with an esky and getting majorly sunburnt one fine summers day

i like the cold also , loved winter there .nothing like a sunny morning and frost to invigorate those lungs

tassie a most underated place

gods country

 

[kincella]

I wonder is anyone at all surprised about who ran the boarding house in Brisbane with 37 kids in a 3 bedder ???? did anyone think it would have been a greedy Aussie property investor ???? I guess its a similar situation where the Indian agents were ripping off the Indian students...with dodgy Uni certificates, and similar dodgy accommodation deals..................
no one is being racist.....or are they ??? ripping off the kids of the same nationality.........

Guy Healy and Kim Wilkinson | September 17, 2009
Article from: The Australian
A KOREAN education agent has been implicated in the running of a two-storey Brisbane suburban home that was housing up to 37 foreign students.

A raid by Brisbane City Council inspectors uncovered the operation under which a near record number of students were being used to service a $6000-a-month lease to cover the education agents' upstairs home-office.

It is believed that when council raided the quiet suburban property in leafy Sunnybank Hills, in Brisbane's south, they discovered 27 students in the remodelled building, including three Asian girls asleep in a double bed, with beds for a further 10 people.

The latest revelation of extreme overcrowding in overseas student accommodation comes in the wake of similar incidences in Sydney and Melbourne, where one house had 38 students setting a dubious national record.

Cash-strapped foreign students, studying in Australia as part of the $15 billion industry, have complained of being exploited by industry-linked operators - leading to calls for universities and colleges to massively ramp up campus accommodation.

When The Australian visited the Brisbane property yesterday, the Lebanese and Korean university student residents expressed shock the house had a notorious accommodation history.

At the time of the raid in March - revealed yesterday as part of the council's crackdown on illegal accommodation - it is believed most of the residents were students of Asian origin. All of the then residents have since moved.

Griffith University human resources masters student Adel Kassem, 25, of Lebanon, said there was
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26084753-601,00.html