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I think the problem is we have had it good for far to long. Unless the job pays a fortune and the work is not too taxing Australians just aren't interested. Everyone is more concerned with work life balance with the emphasis on life, than building a solid future. In a lot of ways it is migrants and work visa holders that are sustaining our standard of living.
 
Actually, i think it is more millions of Chineses sweating in their factories 6 days a week more than the fruit pickers, indians with a laptop bag or baristas fresh from the plane...
But yes, you got the point.
 
And that is a good example of thread drift.

The questions are:
1. How many citizens are over invested?

2. How high will interest rates go? We seem to be tracking the US.

3. Will we escape a recession as we often do, or not?
If not and employment stays high then history shows a property crash will not occur, just a correction.

To me the balls are very much in the air.
 
McStalin has come out predicting a recession next year, FWIW

 
I think the odds are in favour, but prediction is a mug's caper.

More grist for the mill... RBNZ torpedoing their economy to control inflation, predicts recession... wayneL wonders if global factors will be more important in the inflation game?

 
The bubble can't just keep expanding, that is the flaw in a capitalist system and is the reason that it has to be pricked occasionally.
 
The bubble can't just keep expanding, that is the flaw in a capitalist system and is the reason that it has to be pricked occasionally.
Agree totally. But I do think it is better if the market does it itself, rather than with CB intervention.
 
So now we are blaming the RBA, for saying that interest rates are likely to stay low until 2024 and people rushing out and borrowing up to the hilt now find themselves under duress.
Well if the RBA had actually known that Russia was going to invade Ukraine, they may have said something else, the fact people borrowed more than they can afford will happen no matter what the interest rates go to.
If a couple of % increase, is the difference between being able to afford to keep a house or not, it sounds like the people were either speculating, have very poor risk management skills or the media are doing what they do best making a story from nothing. IMO


Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has apologised to the thousands of Australians who took out mortgages expecting interest rates to stay unchanged until 2024 amid early signs consumers may already be feeling the pain of higher mortgage repayments.
Lowe, giving evidence to a Senate estimates committee for the first time, said the RBA had failed by not making clear that its commentary about steady interest rates was heavily conditional on the state of the economy.
 
Interesting article on the unaffordable housing in Sydney, by an expert, who is from overseas.


In January, Metcalf will return to San Francisco after four years at the helm of the Committee for Sydney, an urban policy think tank. Back in California, he will be confronted by an eerily similar political environment, where housing affordability is a wicked problem and property ownership is the great social divide.
Superlative though he generally is in his appraisal of Sydney, Metcalf says that’s the one aspect of life here that came as an unpleasant surprise.
“Australia has made essentially the same mistake as the US ... it has created a system where all the current homeowners are terrified of housing becoming more affordable because that means their primary asset is not increasing in value the way they want,” he says.

“If there’s anything that most strikes at the heart of this beautiful Australian idea of the fair go, it is the rising cost of housing - and for Australia, that is a dire contradiction with its core ideals.”
California is embroiled in an ongoing tussle between so-called Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) forces opposed to higher density development, and a Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) counter-movement that is trying to rework housing laws and repair a crisis it says has been “forced” on the state by a vocal minority.
Metcalf notes the contradiction between what people say at a macro level (they want their children to be able to afford a home, they want walkable communities instead of endless sprawl) and what they say at a micro level (they don’t want tall buildings next to them).

He says the solution might be simple: stop consulting residents about what gets built near them.
“The best way to democratically determine what gets built is through electing your member of parliament,” Metcalf says. “[That] has much greater legitimacy than listening to whoever happens to show up at a community meeting.”
 
IMF sees potential for imminent ‘sizeable’ bust in Australia’s housing market

“The IMF noted that Australia’s housing and rental markets are among the most misaligned compared with similar economies...”

Other factors are at play in the Aus property market price "misalignment", pop QE (immigration), land banking, FHOG schemes, shared equity, foreign investment, short stay rentals and various local, state and federal interventions are key supports for elevated prices. Under such circumstances, predicting a bust has proven to be just wishful forecasting in the past.

When I scan the city apartment buildings near me in the Melbourne CBD at night, as many as half are dark and seemingly vacant. In my high rise, the $1.4 million apartment next door is vacant, has been for 6 months now and never listed for rent (even though the body corporate fees are $3500/quarter). Of the 377 apartments here, I would estimate at least one third appear vacant. An enormous amount of money is parked in our market by offshore entities due to favorable foreign ownership laws.
 
Well, that's an obsolete business model, if the plan is to sell into a stronger market. Only the nimble will survive.

If owned by overseas entities, its often a form of insurance, somewhere down the track it may serve a purpose (bolthole) like gold or diamonds, whilst ticking the FIRB guidelines.
 
If owned by overseas entities, its often a form of insurance, somewhere down the track it may serve a purpose (bolthole) like gold or diamonds, whilst ticking the FIB guidelines.
Many off-the-plan projects are marketed primarily to offshore investors and compliant with FIRB rules. Take the apartment tower project at the The Glen shopping complex in Glen Waverley. The sales center and materials were clearly pitched to Asian (Chinese) investors and staffed accordingly. Many other such examples of course but yes, used as a vehicle safely domicile funds even if the ultimate ROE is negative.
 
When currencies play yo-yo as they do in the last few years, you do not invest in a flat ,overseas to gain local currency profit or a pathetic 2% return for renting..you just keep it sparkling new, untenanted as you would for a lump of gold.
This is the Chinese model BTW.
Even well before covid, most brand new apartments were purchased..and locked there.
 
interesting , i thought properties per MP might have been higher ( even allowing for the independents who are mostly less affluent )
 
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