Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

The state of the economy at the street level

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moXJO said:
You have to wonder if housing build numbers have dropped off a cliff?
Government wanted to build 200k or something unachievable. Trades seem to quiet for that target to be met.
Maybe investment has run scared.
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If its anything like when I was working, not a lot of smaller companies like taking on Govt work, the Govt is quick to give the work out but extremely slow tp pay their accounts.
 
moXJO said:
If this continues the country is in strife over the next decade.
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well job stability is going the way of the dinosaur , housing affordability even with 30 year mortgages is beyond the reach of many young families .. if your parents ( or uncles/aunts ) live close to your job why not

the nation has been heading this way for decades ( but the press just keeps on selling dreams and nightmares )
 
sptrawler said:
If its anything like when I was working, not a lot of smaller companies like taking on Govt work, the Govt is quick to give the work out but extremely slow tp pay their accounts.
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@sptrawler Some years ago I use to do contract fencing for Main Rods WA and some other bits and pieces for the water Corp.
Their idea of fair payment was back then 90 days for payment.
When I suggested they pay me now and I would start the work in 90 days time, for them, the penny finally dropped, as I then had dropped them off my work schedule.
There is no way I would even contemplate doing any Government contract work these days.
 
I'm looking out of my office window and across the road. A large block of town houses is being constructed, double story, one car park and no front of back yard. This is what our kids and grandkids are being forced to buy, in a country the size of Europe. So sad.

And the amount of tax, levies and fees on a block in SA is ridiculous. But is nothing compared to the other states.

Check this out, for a 120 sq m block in an old industrial area being reclaimed 40 minutes from the city. Imagine what the future Australia is going to look like in 10 or 20 years if we continue forcing new home buyers into boxes with little to no yards :-(

Property.png
 
sptrawler said:
If its anything like when I was working, not a lot of smaller companies like taking on Govt work, the Govt is quick to give the work out but extremely slow tp pay their accounts.
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I had that trouble when I had a large crew. Normally it's best to get in early. Then leave midway through the scheme before the public service mess it up. Government work can be gold the first few months and then a nightmare when it goes off the rails.
 
moXJO said:
Yeah workcover are out there slapping fines like crazy, bloody grubs. I know they are making it ridiculous for sole traders as well. I actually know a few guys that were that furious with them they quit the industry. Experienced guys as well.
Labor every time.
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Like any government regulatory body they are very corrupt and only go after the easy pickings (the small operators) while only giving a slap on the wrist to large corporations.
 
JohnDe said:
I'm looking out of my office window and across the road. A large block of town houses is being constructed, double story, one car park and no front of back yard. This is what our kids and grandkids are being forced to buy, in a country the size of Europe. So sad.

And the amount of tax, levies and fees on a block in SA is ridiculous. But is nothing compared to the other states.

Check this out, for a 120 sq m block in an old industrial area being reclaimed 40 minutes from the city. Imagine what the future Australia is going to look like in 10 or 20 years if we continue forcing new home buyers into boxes with little to no yards :-(

View attachment 177502
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A house for under $300,000 in a capital city. That is pretty cheap.
 
JohnDe said:
That price is only for the 120 sq m block of land, the build is another $570,000+
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On a road trip north now, spent last night in a cabin on a caravan park
And I was thinking looking at it I could probably nail building that cabin in 2 or 3 weeks, on my own..let's say 2 months start to finish if I have to drive a trailer around to get the building material/fixture.cost would be minimal 40/50k max
That type of cabin would comfortably suit a couple, do a second one if you have kids...
Yet we ask people to work a decade to buy their first house.
Our society is screwed by the regulations, laws and compliances: half the people are paid to do BS jobs ensuring the other half is not productive.
The USSR self collapsed that way, and the only way we aka the west are not collapsed yet is debt, fake virtual money borrowed from other fake virtual institutions .
And yes, the extent this mess has reached is new..I would say it kind of was sustainable till the 70s/80s but then..
Economically philosophical today..
 
Value Hunter said:
Like any government regulatory body they are very corrupt and only go after the easy pickings (the small operators) while only giving a slap on the wrist to large corporations.
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This is more about government regulations and industrial relations; an old mate, Tony, that I haven't seen for several years called me this morning to say hello. He owned 2 large independent grocery stores, they were very successful, and I first met him when my kids got involved in club sports, Tony was one of the top sponsors to the club. Sponsored both the junior and senior side of the club, donated food for the canteen and events, sponsored players, and got on the committee and organised things. As our kids grew up and went to Uni we pulled back and saw less of each other.

Ends up that he sold both his stores because his health was deteriorating from the stress of a very competitive market, both in the food and employment sector, regulations that keep changing, industrial relations that favour the employee, ever increasing wages.

He's too young to retire, and now works using the knowledge he has acquired and earns $150,000 per year plus a car and expenses.

Why have a small business when you can work 9to 5 for that sort of money.

Everyone should be getting that, isn't that what the unions and government is working towards?
 
qldfrog said:
On a road trip north now, spent last night in a cabin on a caravan park
And I was thinking looking at it I could probably nail building that cabin in 2 or 3 weeks, on my own..let's say 2 months start to finish if I have to drive a trailer around to get the building material/fixture.cost would be minimal 40/50k max
That type of cabin would comfortably suit a couple, do a second one if you have kids...
Yet we ask people to work a decade to buy their first house.
Our society is screwed by the regulations, laws and compliances: half the people are paid to do BS jobs ensuring the other half is not productive.
The USSR self collapsed that way, and the only way we aka the west are not collapsed yet is debt, fake virtual money borrowed from other fake virtual institutions .
And yes, the extent this mess has reached is new..I would say it kind of was sustainable till the 70s/80s but then..
Economically philosophical today..
Click to expand...

Business owner Kyra Mayfield, 32, has put the call-out on social media for a bold pitch – asking if any generous landowners would be prepared to subdivide.​
​
With the rent for her Goodwood hair tattoo studio Hype SMP costing $600 per week, Ms Mayfield said it was simply not doable to balance the costs of a home with her work.​


Single mum Kyra Mayfield’s bold pitch to buy a home amid housing crisis​

Single mum Kyra has saved $80k but still can’t afford a roof over her children’s heads – so, she’s made a bold pitch in the hopes of a lifeline.

A desperate single mother has taken to social media in an ambitious bid to put a roof over her children’s heads, saying it was now “nearly impossible” to buy a home on one income.
Business owner Kyra Mayfield, 32, has put the call-out on social media for a bold pitch – asking if any generous landowners would be prepared to subdivide.

With the rent for her Goodwood hair tattoo studio Hype SMP costing $600 per week, Ms Mayfield said it was simply not doable to balance the costs of a home with her work.

Ms Mayfield and her two children, Amani, 11, and Jye, 9, have been living with her mother since she separated from her partner three years ago.

“Rental costs had just soared and we just couldn’t make it work off a single income,” she said.

“I would have had to give up on the business to rent a house.”

ff3e6582bdd393246cbf28ec2b3dfbaf.jpg
Single mum Kyra Mayfield with her children Amani and Jye. She is hoping a good Samaritan will help her achieve her dream of building a home in the housing crisis. Picture: Supplied

While juggling children and her own business, Ms Mayfield had managed to save $80,000 to put toward a place of her own, but said she was turned away by most mortgage brokers.

With the stress of housing insecurity taking its toll on her family, she decided to attempt an unconventional path to home ownership.

“If someone has a large amount of land and wants to subdivide me a little teeny section of it, please chuck me a message,” she wrote.

Her post quickly picked up hundreds of comments, with many sending messages of support.

Ms Mayfield said she recognised the chances of finding land for $80,000 was “absolutely wild”, but hoped her “crazy shot” would pay off for her children.

“In today’s time, trying to afford the lifestyle you wish to have for your children as a single mum is nearly impossible,” she said.

“If I had the opportunity to get some land and build in my own time it could change our lives … I understand $80k for land in today’s world is far fetched but you never know until you put yourself out there.”
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*** “I would have had to give up on the business to rent a house.” ***

.. or find a house you can run the business from , it is not as though she is specializing in heart transplants

sure the tax is more tricky , but so it seems is renting a house and a business premises , and maybe one of the children can learn a skill watching mum at work ( it seems we are still dreadfully short of hairdressers )
 
When news came out that prime Minister Albanese is selling one of his investment properties, I said to my wife "what does he know that we don't?"

It's not as if he needs the money, his wage and Super are very good. Maybe he wants to upgrade the family home for himself and his partner, but if that's the case why doesn't he sell his residential home which is currently empty.

There are other scenarios. Price drop as owners struggle to pay bills. Housing glut as all the new rushed projects go online. Or is it in preparation for a media blitz on the unfairness of property investors? Or maybe new property taxes and regulations after the election?

I think that the Prime Minister has a moral obligation to tell the people why he is selling while he is in office representing the peple.

Anthony Albanese is quitting an investment property as investors bail out of the market

Anthony Albanese is not the only rental property owner in Australia throwing in the towel and selling up.

More investors are quitting the property market as the combination of higher borrowing rates and new state-based taxes combine to make owning a rental property more trouble than it’s worth.

The Albanese case is a property investor’s nightmare, where the PM appears to have done the right thing at every stage only to find a tenant who does not wish to leave. After keeping the rent unchanged for some years, the PM has served an eviction notice on Jim Flanagan, a small-business owner.

Ironically, despite rising rental income, improved capital gains and negative gearing tax breaks, industry statistics suggest the numbers are not stacking up for the nation’s 2 million property investors.

Banks charge higher borrowing rates to investors than home buyers, while rental income will rarely come anywhere close to covering the ongoing costs on a mortgaged property. As a result, many property owners know their only chance of making money from residential rentals is capital gain on the final sale.

In some cases this capital gain may be slim. In Victoria residential prices have actually dropped this year. No surprise to find that NAB’s recent state economic overview found that property investment across Victoria fell by 5 per cent in 2023.

Luckily for Mr Albanese – who has explained his move to sell as being linked with his ‘changed personal circumstance’ – the investment property is in a district of Sydney where there have been relatively good capital gains.

The three-bedroom house in question in Dulwich Hill was reportedly bought for $1.2.m almost a decade ago, and today is worth $1.9m to $2.2m.

The general bounce in prices this year is giving investors an opportunity to quit the market while they are ahead. Nationwide residential prices have inched up 2.8 per cent year to date and are higher by 9 per cent over 12 months.

But the outstanding issue for property investors is rising taxes and regulations. A new report from the Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) released this week says tax revenue collected by the ATO from property owners – excluding capital gains tax – totalled $68bn in 2023 – up 73 per cent over the past decade.

According to Nicola McDougall, chair of PIPA, the exodus of property owners is going to worsen the existing shortage of rental supply. With vacancy rates across the markets still near a rock-bottom one per cent, Ms McDougall says: “Politicians continue to focus on penalising and demonising property investors, who provide more than 80 per cent of the homes occupied by Aussie renters.”

In Victoria, the issue is at its most acute, after the state government unleashed a string of new taxes in its 2023 state budget. Melbourne is now the weakest of the metropolitan property markets.

New South Wales has also seen a landlord exodus with a collection of suburbs facing a rush of investor sales – The SuburbTrends group has reported that landlord sales in key regions, including the northern beaches, Hills District, Blue Mountains and Sydney’s outer southwest, rose by more than 60 per cent year-on-year.

Worse still, the factors driving a landlord exodus are now being compounded by the changing outlook for rates. Property investors had been hoping for a cut in running costs if the RBA moved to drop interest rates. More recently, however, some high profile economists are taking the view that there will be no reduction in property investment lending rates this calendar year.

“Property investors should never make long term decisions based on short term factors,” Ms McDougall says.

But more investors may find investing in cash or shares less troublesome and more rewarding than an investment property.

Government-guaranteed bank term deposit rates have now returned to “normal” levels leaving investors the option of holding cash. Meanwhile, the local sharemarket looks set to return double-digit total returns this financial year.
Click to expand...
 
JohnDe said:
When news came out that prime Minister Albanese is selling one of his investment properties, I said to my wife "what does he know that we don't?"

It's not as if he needs the money, his wage and Super are very good. Maybe he wants to upgrade the family home for himself and his partner, but if that's the case why doesn't he sell his residential home which is currently empty.

There are other scenarios. Price drop as owners struggle to pay bills. Housing glut as all the new rushed projects go online. Or is it in preparation for a media blitz on the unfairness of property investors? Or maybe new property taxes and regulations after the election?

I think that the Prime Minister has a moral obligation to tell the people why he is selling while he is in office representing the peple.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Obviously knows more than the average investor in housing
 
JohnDe said:
When news came out that prime Minister Albanese is selling one of his investment properties, I said to my wife "what does he know that we don't?"

It's not as if he needs the money, his wage and Super are very good. Maybe he wants to upgrade the family home for himself and his partner, but if that's the case why doesn't he sell his residential home which is currently empty.

There are other scenarios. Price drop as owners struggle to pay bills. Housing glut as all the new rushed projects go online. Or is it in preparation for a media blitz on the unfairness of property investors? Or maybe new property taxes and regulations after the election?

I think that the Prime Minister has a moral obligation to tell the people why he is selling while he is in office representing the peple.
Click to expand...
Many new reforms are coming in favour of the tenants but great to see the w@#ker get burnt by his doing.

www.realestate.com.au

Truth behind Albo’s ‘ruthless’ eviction - realestate.com.au

Anthony Albanese’s defence of his eviction plans for his investment home tenant have centred around rental costs, but are they on the money?
www.realestate.com.au
 

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