Lots of house flipping had been going on the last couple of years, very high housing real estate turnover. What I noticed was a dispropriate number of ugly houses bring sold, previous owners were grabbing the opportunity to offload crappy houses to greedy buyers who were in a hurry to buy with no questions asked, obviously it suited RE agencies to panic the buyers and encourage up the prices. My opinion, rental housing is a lousy investment unless you are a high income earner wherby you can write off much of your high tax bracket, obviously subsidized by every other tax payer. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. When rich people retire, they then sell their houses and place large amounts of money into Superannuation where they gain more tax perks. The government don't mind these rorts, it seems to buy them votes, it does sweet fanny fuck all for the larger economy, just enters more wage slaves into slavery.
Housing crisis in hubs like Broome stifling dream of developing north, experts say ABC Kimberley By Jessica Hayes Posted 2 hours ago https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04...fled-by-housing-crisis-experts-say-/100983022 Developing northern Australia has been a focus of successive governments, but experts say the housing crisis is stunting growth.(ABC Kimberley: Andrew Seabourne) Developing the north has long been a goal of successive federal governments, but experts say the regional rental crisis is constraining growth. Key points: Experts say successfully developing northern Australia will require housing reform Long-term residents are facing the prospect of leaving Broome because they can't find anywhere to live A real estate agent says the "diabolical" rental squeeze is likely to get worse before it improves. Long-term residents of the Kimberley, in Western Australia's far north, are leaving due to sky-high rents and limited housing stock, while businesses are struggling to attract and house incoming seasonal workers ahead of the busy dry season. University of WA social sciences head Amanda Davies said unless something changed, it would be difficult for northern centres such as Broome to capitalise on development opportunities. "If we're looking at seriously developing northern Australia, it's important that infrastructure is available to give businesses confidence to expand … affordable housing is one of those," she said. "We're looking to the northern part of Australia to grow through hubs like Broome, and it's very important that there is capacity to attract and retain populations. "Without that capacity built into those communities to actually absorb further residential growth, we won't be seeing the northern part of Australia growing." Amanda Davies says meaningful housing strategies are needed to facilitate sustainable growth in northern Australia.(ABC Kimberley: Erin Parke) Dr Davies said Broome was in a difficult position where it could not grow because of the housing shortage. "[The housing crisis] looks like it will probably intensify and get worse," she said. "We do have more people looking for lifestyle opportunities and to move into northern areas. "It's more probable that the situation will worsen until there is significant strategic investment in lower to medium housing options in the area." Maggie Yu and her partner Allen fear they'll have to leave Broome.(ABC Kimberley: Jessica Hayes) Tough choices Rising property values and low rental vacancy rates have left some locals facing tough choices, including childcare worker Maggie Yu. She has lived in Broome for almost a decade, but may soon be forced to leave the town and community she loves because she cannot find anywhere to live. The lease on her property ends next month and she is scrambling to secure another property to live in with her partner. "I'm so stressed and couldn't sleep for a few days," she said. "I've been living in Broome for over eight years — [securing housing] has not been a problem before, but from 2020 it's been a really stressful problem." Broome's median house price has jumped almost 30 per cent in the last 12 months, while rental vacancy rates remain stubbornly low.(ABC Kimberley: Jessica Hayes) Ms Yu has lodged several unsuccessful applications for private rental properties via real estate agents and has trawled community groups on social media for a spare room. She has so far come up empty handed and fears that as more people arriving in town ahead of the busy dry season in search of work, the competition for accommodation will only increase. "If nothing comes up we'll probably have to leave Broome and relocate to find another place to call home," she said. "It's really sad to leave this place, because we've been here for such a long period of time and we love the people here and the strong community relationships. "If we move again everything has to start again from zero, so I do hope that we can stay and don't have to leave." In the meantime, Ms Yu and her partner have been offered a place in a friend's caravan until she can find a more permanent solution or has to leave. "It's not what we're usually looking for, because we lived in a house for the past eight years, so that will be a pretty new experience for us," she said. "At least we have a room to stay in and we're really glad we have friends that can help us out, because I will take anything I can." Tony Hutchinson says Broome's rental woes are likely to get worse before they get better.(ABC Kimberley: Ben Collins) 'Going to get worse' Broome-based real estate agent Tony Hutchinson said the Kimberley rental market was in a "diabolical situation" that did not look likely to ease any time soon. "I think it's going to get worse," he said. "If some of the big projects kick in around Broome, new mines etc, then it's really going to get nasty." Mr Hutchinson said building delays and worker shortages meant there would be significant delays in the delivery of new houses. "The supply of new accommodation is going to have a big delay — it's going to be at least two or three years," he said. Michael Fotheringham says Australia is at a critical point.(ABC News: Daniel Fermer) Michael Fotheringham, the managing director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, said Australia was at a critical point in tackling unaffordable housing and a lack of stock across the nation. With the federal election set for May 21, he said a national response was urgently needed and political parties must to set out policies that would address housing stock issues. "It's not something we can continue to ignore and think that the market will solve itself," he said. "We actually need national level intervention to improve the functioning of our housing markets. "We're increasingly seeing people needing to do things like sleep in their cars to maintain a job because there isn't housing near where they're employed. "That's not a future of Australia that any of us hope for." Dr Davies said housing should be viewed by the major parties as a key ingredient for realising northern development goals in the upcoming election. "I would be looking for some really meaningful strategies for supporting employment growth, for sustainable housing in the north, to really start to ensure populations that are already there can grow and grow in a sustainable manner."
Isn't there a lot of space to build in western Australia? I always thought that was largely open spaces.
There is but it doesnt always suit the town councils to spread out, it adds to infrastructure costs, roads, lighting, sewers, so they attempt to squash as much as possible before expanding out. Lack of land is not so much a problem as councils gets rates return on developed land, the problem seems to be spiraling costs for builders, materials, stamp duty, land costs etc. Everyone trying to screw as much profit as possible from mug home owner. I'm seeing that new land developers are supplying new land blocks smaller and smaller. That will be the next crisis, slum type dwellings, small cramped house and land packages, increased divorces and social tensions, kids going delinquint due to issues at home and school, lack of backyards to kick a football....etc. This whole housing in Australia is poorly thought out, greed is creating a clusterfuck. Politicians decided to turn housing into a business by offering tax incentives to landlords, what a fiasco of a result! They could build a zillion more houses and a zillion investors will fight over each other and step in and outbid the genuine home buyer, just continue to push up prices. If they built a zillion houses and prices began to drop, easy solution, bring in more skilled migrants to fill the slots, no lack of migrants wishing to come here, nor is there a lack of work opportunities.
Warning as thousands could be impacted by construction company collapses A building insider has revealed the shocking state of the industry with half of construction companies in trouble and a “terrible” impact in store for customers....... https://www.news.com.au/finance/bus...s/news-story/548089eb06066385e762bd1ef7c7b54e
Construction Phil Bartsch Tue 12 Apr 22 https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/wa-builders-collapse-but-whole-lot-worse-to-come WA Builders Collapse But ‘Whole Lot Worse to Come’ At least half Australia’s building companies are trading insolvent, teetering on the brink of collapse and the construction industry’s troubles are “about to get a whole lot worse”. So says Association of Professional Builders co-founder Russ Stephens as the casualties in the country’s pressure-cooker construction sector keep piling up. “Our estimate is around 50 per cent of building companies are trading insolvent at the moment and can’t pay their bills … but I’ve heard other people in the industry say it’s 66 per cent, but they won’t go on record. “No one really wants to talk about this stuff to be honest. They’d rather it was swept under the carpet. "This industry is spiraling downwards and it's going to get a whole lot worse. “But our philosophy is the more we can raise awareness of this there’s still time to help some of these building companies trade out of it.” With two construction firms in Western Australia calling in the liquidators in recent days, the perfect storm hitting the industry is clearly gaining rather than losing momentum. Perth-based New Sensation Homes and Home Innovation Builders have joined a growing list of big and small builders to go under—including Probuild, Condev, Privium, Hotondo and Pindan. ▲ A property by Home Innovation Builders, one of two WA builders to collapse this week. Building companies across the country have struggled to keep pace with a massive stimulus-led spike in housing demand while being hit by huge material and labour cost hikes and shortages, as well as delays due to Covid lockdowns, absenteeism and severe weather events. “It’s the big ones that generally go first … but the bigger danger is the smaller guys who just see cash in the bank and continue trading,” Stephens said. “Those guys will fall over in much greater numbers towards the end of the year. That's what we’re bracing ourselves for now. “We won’t have seen anything like what is going to hit the industry. “And it’s all compounding as well because, as we’ve seen in Queensland this week, there’s a couple of large subcontractors that have also just gone under as a direct result of the collapse of companies like Probuild. “What happens is all the other builders that have outstanding orders with them have to place their orders with other subcontractors and that’s more money off their bottom line, which is nonexistent anyway now.” Gold Coast-based subcontractors T.A.T Floor and Wall Tiling Qld, and Q Build Formwork have been put in the hands of liquidators owing creditors $1.4 million and about $1 million, respectively. They follow the demise of Hitec Glazing—one of the first subcontractor casualties from the Probuild collapse—which was revealed by The Urban Developer last month. It went into liquidation owing $3.25 million and leaving 130 people without jobs. ▲ The collapse of Probuild has caused a massive flow-on effect. Urban Development Institute of Australia WA chief executive Tanya Steinbeck said the collapse of New Sensation Homes and Home Innovation Builders was “not surprising given the amount that builders have had to deal with”. “And we anticipate there will be more of them hitting the wall, which is not good for anyone,” she said. Steinbeck said the state’s builders had been impacted by a combination of factors, including government stimulus that was in hindsight “too much, too quickly”. The WA government announced its $20,000 Building Bonus grants within days of the federal government’s $25,000 HomeBuilder program in June 2020. “The scale of the stimulus was unprecedented … as a result, the demand just blew the doors off,” Steinbeck said. “The problem was that when that happened, we were coming off five years of completely flat market conditions and the industry just could not turn the tap on that quickly. “And what we’re seeing now is the fallout of that combined with closed borders that WA experienced for longer than any other state … and the issues around labour and materials shortages and cost increases that have pushed up the price of constructing a home by as much as $40,000. ▲ The construction industry is facing its greatest challenge in decades as supply and labour issues continue to grow. “But in a broader national context, we are seeing an uplift in investor activity, particularly from investors in the eastern states … and they’re less worried about timeframes and more interested in yields and returns which look good by comparison to other states. “So, I guess we’re optimistic but we do need to closely manage the constraints around materials supply and skills. “We’ve only really just opened our borders and started allowing skilled workers into the state so we'll have to wait and see what happens with our interstate migration numbers. “There’s a lot of different factors all coming into play at the moment so it’s going to be a really interesting next six to 12 months." Worsening skill shortages will be “the challenge of the decade” for Australia’s construction industry, global consultancy Arcadis has warned in its latest construction costs index report. Construction job vacancies have increased by a massive 80 per cent since late 2019. “It’s fair to say that the Australian industry has been in a bubble for the past two years and insulated from global shocks, but that landscape has changed—we are now much more exposed,” Arcadis’ executive director of cost and commercial management Matthew Mackey said. AUTHOR Phil Bartsch The Urban Developer - Writer
Something this government is very good at. They would rather smokescreen the issues, like make a big deal out of transgender people in sport.
Western Australia building industry: Grim warning as more building firms collapse Alex DruceNCA NewsWire April 12, 2022 https://www.perthnow.com.au/business/grim-warning-as-more-aussie-building-firms-collapse-c-6424228 More and more Aussie building firms are buckling under material and labour costs, but the industry has been vulnerable for decades, one expert says, and swaying on a rickety foundation of vested interests. Perth-based companies Home Innovation Builders and New Sensation Homes on Friday joined a growing list of builders to go bust in 2022 as a perfect storm of inflationary pressures, surging costs and fixed-price contracts eats away at profits. The company collapses – along with giants such as Condev, Probuild and Privium – has left a crowd of subcontractors, tradies and homebuyers facing the prospect of their own financial devastation and deciding whether to forge ahead with projects or cut their losses and walk away. Perth-based companies Home Innovation Builders and New Sensation Homes have gone bust. Credit: istock Australian Apartment Advocacy head Samantha Reece said the nexus of inflationary pressures may be unprecedented, but blaming the situation solely on a supply chain crunch was also misguided. Reece said the industry has long worked on razor-thin profit margins, making it vulnerable to financial shocks such as sudden hikes in energy, material and labour costs amid Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. The supply chain crunch has also crimped a construction pipeline that has been humming thanks to ultra-low borrowing costs and government grants designed to stimulate activity, with the delays particularly disastrous for builders who have signed fixed-rate contracts with clients. Throw in 20 years of questionable planning and regulatory settings and Reece said the result is a property industry primed to operate as a “runaway train”. “Primarily the building sector has always worked in a very small margin, one per cent to two per cent profit, maximum five per cent,” Reece said. “So, consequently it is unsustainable. And then we’ve got an escalation in petrol prices. We’ve got war in Ukraine. The domino-like tumble of construction companies is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, according to the Association of Professional Builders co-founder. Photo: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty Credit: News Corp Australia “I’ve got a number of developers I’m aware of who are going back out to buyers, saying the price now is 35 per cent higher to build it. “(They are saying) ‘Are you prepared to be part of the build as we move forward, or do you want to drop out?’ “So this is unprecedented times really, in terms of what we’re witnessing and what we actually need to do is actually calm the market down substantially.” Reece says as far as apartments are concerned, the true cost of stalled and crumbling projects is the loss of confidence in the property market itself. She said moves 20 years ago to allow construction industry self-certification were the “first nail in the coffin”, while poor planning decisions – including approving construction in areas now vulnerable to floods – are another blemish on an industry hungry for money. “Industry is looking after themselves, but the ones left in the middle and hung out to dry are the buyers. A supply chain crunch has crimped a construction pipeline that has been humming thanks to ultra-low borrowing costs and government grants aimed at stimulating activity. Credit: News Corp Australia “There’s 2.5 million apartment livers and owners in Australia. That’s 10 per cent of the voting public. “I’m wondering when the government’s going to wake up and realise this 10 per cent is no longer prepared to accept shoddy behaviour from builders and developers.” Meanwhile, the domino-like tumble of construction companies – which also includes the Hobart branch of Hotondo Homes – is merely the “tip of the iceberg”, according to Association of Professional Builders co-founder Russ Stephens, who last week estimated about 50 per cent of Australian building companies were currently trading insolvent. He said so many building companies were in trouble because they had collected advance payments to complete houses – meaning they were showing a healthy bank balance – but had not factored in bills. He suggested cost escalation clauses needed to be used more commonly in building contracts, although he acknowledged that would mean extra pressure on consumers as they would be slugged with the rising prices. With reporting by Sarah Sharples
Boxed in: Sydneysiders hit with fastest-growing house rents in 13 years By Kate Burke and Melissa Heagney April 14, 2022 https://www.smh.com.au/property/new...-house-rents-in-13-years-20220412-p5ad16.html Talking points Median house rents in Sydney are up $50 year-on-year, while unit rents climbed $30. House rents in the eastern suburbs, northern beaches and north Sydney and Hornsby regions, were up at least $100 per week year-on-year. Renters facing strong competition for homes, and higher prices, as rental vacancies plummet. Sydneysiders are paying $50 more a week to rent a house, with the median rental asking price rising at the fastest annual rate in 13 years. Despite holding steady at a record median $600 for the March quarter, Domain’s latest Rent Report showed house rents in Greater Sydney were up 9.1 per cent for the year. Unit rents climbed $30 over the year, or 6.4 per cent, to a median of $500 – the sharpest annual increase in eight years. Rents lifted 2 per cent in the past three months alone, doubling the previous quarterly growth and outpacing houses for the first time since the pandemic began. Sydney’s rental market is now the third most expensive for houses, after Canberra and Darwin, with respective medians of $700 and $610. Domain’s chief of research and economics, Dr Nicola Powell, said Sydney’s rental market had seen a swift recovery after demand dropped off earlier in the pandemic, particularly in the inner-city. Renter demand had spiked as domestic and international borders reopened, while high purchasing prices left more aspiring homeowners renting for longer. Sydney house rents are at record high, and unit rents are climbing at a faster rate.Crediteter Rae “We may also be seeing the homecoming of city escapees from lifestyle and coastal locations, further driving demand,” Powell said. Increased competition for rentals, and lower supply, saw the city’s rental vacancy rate drop to 1.4 per cent in March, the lowest point since Domain vacancy records began in 2017 and down from a peak of 3.8 per cent in April 2020. “Vacancy rates are dropping like a stone in both Sydney and Melbourne and that’s driving rental growth,” ANZ senior economist Felicity Emmett said. Sydney’s previously elevated vacancy rate had quickly turned around as borders reopened, boosting demand – particularly in inner-city areas popular with international students – which had driven stronger rent hikes for the apartment market. Meanwhile, rental stock had reduced, with some landlords opting to sell investment properties earlier in the pandemic. Properties were also being returned to the short-term holiday market now that tourism had resumed. Rental supply issues largely seen for houses in outer areas in recent years, as tenants flocked to bigger homes and outer suburbs amid lockdowns and remote working, were now shifting to inner areas, putting upward pressure on rents. The city and inner south recorded some of the sharpest rent hikes over the quarter, with house and unit rents both jumping more than 5 per cent. House rents held at record highs on the northern beaches, the outer west, the Blue Mountains, Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury regions. The northern beaches was the only area to record a decline in apartment rents over the quarter, falling from a record high of $650 to $630. “We talk about that ceiling price in the sales market … and I think a similar thing may be happening in the rental market,” Powell said. “Budgets can only stretch so far, people will compromise on property type and then compromise on location. Other areas are offering much better bang for buck for tenants.” Northern beaches local Heidi Malligan said it was “near impossible” to secure a rental, with tenants facing strong competition and high prices, with the median asking rent for houses up 9.5 per cent over the year to $1150 a week. Malligan’s family moved into a four-bedroom house in Frenchs Forest this week, paying $20 above the advertised rate of $1700 to secure the keys. Heidi Malligan, with children Sasha and Brock, was surprised by the competition and prices for rentals on the northern beaches. Crediteter Rae “We had to adjust our expectations and be willing to offer more to secure a place,” Malligan said, adding she offered up to $80 above the advertised rate and to pay rent up to 12 months in advance, on other properties she missed out on. Renting short-term, between selling and buying a home, she said she felt for long-term tenants and noted an undersupply of affordable housing meant poor quality properties were commanding high prices. “[I’ve] been at properties that were just absolutely abhorrent, there was one so full of mould and leaks, that the agents were apologising, they didn’t want to show it … and that was asking top dollar,” she said. In the eastern suburbs, which recorded the strongest annual growth for houses (14.3 per cent) and units (11.9 per cent), more tenants were offering to pay rent in advance, and to pay above the asking price, said property manager Shona Armstrong-Smith, director of Century 21 Armstrong-Smith. Demand was back to pre-pandemic levels, and now even stronger for some properties, with homes typically seeing five applications after a single viewing. “Even smalls studios that weren’t all that popular [last year] because people wanted to have more space ... are now finding tenants relatively quickly,” she said. Those hoping the cooling conditions seen in the sales market would flow through to the rental market may be left disappointed, with independent economist Saul Eslake saying while prices were predicted to soften this year, as interest rates rise, it would not affect rising rents. “There is not much connection in my view between property prices and rents,” Eslake said. “If you look back at late 2017 to mid-2019, prices went down in Sydney and Melbourne but that had no impact because there were no falls in rents during that period.” Rents would rise when demand was high and supply low, he said.
Yup, exactly, no ceilings on landlords screwing vulnerable people as hard as they can possibly go, and then some, driving people homeless. Open slather, no government controls in place, just see how much we can plunder.