Homeless in Australia.

[Viking]

Anyone watch the Sunday program about the homelessness in Aussie?

Serious shortage of houses causing this to happen. Totally predictable based on the housing figure published last year on which I commented at the time. Will get a lot worse as well. That's Labour Govt.'s for you Looking after the working class. Too much power in the unions,too much power and corruption at local Govt. level, and too many smart growth plans.
All exacerbated by increasing immigration.

We will benefit from people coming to NZ. and filling up our empty houses. This is happening now. In the last week I have been in two houses of customers who have returned from Aussie in the last few weeks. One purchased the other has rented.

Property is filling up. The local retirement villages that 3 or 4 months ago had a lot of empties are now full again with a waiting list at one.
One rental agency I deal with in Papamoa has gone from 30 empties about 3 months ago to 8 this week.
The real estate agencies are crowing about the upsurge in high value houses that have sold this last month. Numbers over the one mill and lots in the 600k+.
So all good really and by Xmas there will be a shortage of rentals in Tauranga.
Rotorua seems to be trucking along as well. Rents on the up so if you can find a good house cheap there be quick.

Happy days.

[tpr2]

My thoughts exactly Viking.
It was an interesting story I thought.

I think one of the big issues also though was the fact that even though there were 32 properties up for rent in one spot of the story, only 1 of those the family could afford.

[surfpunk]

Things must be pretty tough in Oz if they're coming to ten dollar Tauranga!

[Baron Silas Greenback]

Things must be pretty tough in Oz if they're coming to ten dollar Tauranga!

Aint that the truth!

I have been looking to buy a little rental in Tga recently as I have some surplus wedge..... jeez nothing even comes remotely close to stacking up financially. Is there a worse city in NZ for property investing than Tga? (I am talking rentals not capital gains or development).

I might look at Hamiltron instead.

[Baywatcher]

Things must be pretty tough in Oz if they're coming to ten dollar Tauranga!

Come on move the the times its now $12.50 Tauranga

[Davo36]

Well with one of the families they profiled, neither parent was working. So that was the main problem there.

And the other family looked really dodgy. The guy had the back part of his head shaved, earrings etc. Just looked like trouble to me, I wouldn't have them as tenants.

Australia are growing their population at a very rapid pace. I think they are doing this a) for the money and b) they're worried about the 250 million people in Indonesia suddenly deciding they want to take over Aussie one day.

But it's causing them heaps of problems with basic services like water, housing etc.

But it's money money money for those at the top.

David

[Perry]

Things must be pretty tough in Oz if they're coming to ten dollar Tauranga!

Come on move with the times its now $12.50 Tauranga

Jolly good for a Capital Gains Tax, right?

[Mark_B]

they're worried about the 250 million people in Indonesia suddenly deciding they want to take over Aussie one day.

I can't see Uncle Sam standing by and letting 23% of the world's uranium supply fall into Indonesian hands.

[Viking]

Housing disaster looms if rates rise
Article from: The Australian

THE Reserve Bank of Australia made headlines a few days ago by saying that it was wary of a blow-out in housing prices. It is, of course, laying the ground for a rise in interest rates. It really amazes me that after seven years of stagnation in Australian housing prices, one or two quarters of very modest price rises are enough to make the RBA cry "bubble".

Of course nothing could be further from the truth. I can tell you from our own sales, that from the minute the RBA started talking about raising rates, buyers got nervous.

Coupled with the tapering off of the additional first-home buyers grant, even the more bullish foreign purchasers have become very wary about investing in Australian property.

Ask yourself, who will buy property when rates are rising and all the messages from the RBA suggest they will continue to rise?

It is important to note that the little bit of building activity that is taking place at the moment is on land that has been held for a long time and with old approvals.

As this development passes through the pipeline, it will not be replaced. There are no new sites being purchased because residential developers and builders (those that still exist) cannot get finance even at present rates.

And there are no new approvals being granted, because applications have dwindled and consents are like hen's teeth. All of this will just put more and more pressure on supply.

The RBA may achieve its desire and stop property prices from rising, but I can tell you for certain that rents will go through the roof. This has been our experience of the past seven years.
I do not understand why the Australian public is so accepting of the supposedly infallible decisions of the RBA. We already have the highest interest rates in the developed world.

No other country is even considering raising their rates (which are much lower than ours). Should the rates be raised from 3 per cent to 5 per cent, as suggested, this will result in borrowers' mortgage payments being 40 per cent higher than what they are paying today, and for no additional benefit.

It is time the Australian people ask the RBA and our political leaders why they have to pay so much more than borrowers in other countries. Why do Australians have, even now, the highest rates of interest in the developed world? Why are we going to raise interest rates before everyone else?

My fear is that should the RBA raise rates, as production of new dwellings drops and rents rise, more and more people will leave Sydney, and eventually even Australia.

It is crazy that there are a million of us living overseas. If housing is not produced, and supply is stifled so that it becomes unaffordable to rent or buy, then Australians will have no choice but to look to greener pastures.

We are ultimately a small economy and the only way Australians have managed to build wealth for successive generations has been through their investments in property.

Australians have always made money on their properties, and if we want to fight inflation then that is still the best way for them to prosper.

Compare our wealth with that of other nations (and I don't mean Europe or America alone) 20 years ago, 10 years ago, and now, and we are definitely not getting far by controlling everything with interest rates.

We tried to steer people into shares and what happened we all know.

The sharemarket can only be part of people's investments, but never all, as we tried to achieve. Holding shares is a nervous game, and had it not been compulsory to invest 9 per cent of the nation's wages through superannuation, the sharemarket would be very sad indeed.

And now, having killed the Australian home owner and investor, the RBA wants to make sure it keeps as far away as possible from the bodies.

The bank says any housing shortage will be the fault of councils that have not zoned or approved enough land for development. But that is not our experience. The councils are at last seeing the light and are starting to approve more of our old sites.

But it will take many many years for councils to change their philosophy and to make up for the housing shortfall. And what it takes councils years to achieve, the RBA can crush in an instant with a flick of the interest rates switch.

The worst thing is that all of the good work of the government stimulus will be undone overnight.

Rates must not be raised now if we want to keep unemployment down and our economy strong.

Harry Triguboff is chairman and managing director of Meriton Apartments.

[Perry]

Sounds almost like NZ under
the socialists, doesn't it?