Have they ever consider instead of selling, rent it out and then rent a place closer to town? Would they lose their pension if they do that? Homeowners here have a different but similar problem: They have a golden handcuff, a 2.5-3.5% 30 yr mortgage on their house. Some actually rent their house out and rent one in the location they want to move to, like playing musical chair.
If they rent their property, they make income which affects their gov pension... It's a ridiculous system. In the US, social security is based on years worked, contributions made to the system. Everyone who contributes gets it, rich or poor.
Insanity..... Young couple buy unliveable Bondi semi for $2.4m, beating eight others By Carmen Forward February 5, 2024 https://www.smh.com.au/property/new...-4m-beating-eight-others-20240202-p5f232.html An uninhabitable, semi-detached Bondi house sold for $2,415,000 on Saturday, after a hard-fought auction where nine bidders took part. (You get half, just the rhs, of what you see here in this pic, for $2.4mill.) The two-bedroom house at 10 Stephen Street was guided at $1.8 million and had 23 parties register to bid, though most kept their hands in their pockets. Many of the nine active bidders were either young families or builders. Bidding opened at the guide of $1.8 million and rose in $50,000, $25,000, $20,000 and $10,000 increments. A young couple who already lived in the area and were eager to renovate sealed the deal with a $5000 bid. The pair of brothers who sold the semi were emotional, given the home had been in their family for 60 years, but were ecstatic with the price. It sold $315,000 more than the $2,100,000 reserve. McGrath Double Bay selling agent James Ledgerwood said it was an opportunity for buyers to create their own dream home, given it was close to a blank canvas. The home had been in one family for six decades, which made the sale bittersweet for the owners. Credit: McGrath Ledgerwood said the location was attractive for young families, thanks to the northern aspect in the backyard, its proximity to a playground and the leafy cul-de-sac address. He said there was an air of positivity amongst buyers, which could be because buyers were anticipating interest rates would go down. The same anticipation was prompting sellers to list.
Government Stamp duty is five times more expensive than a generation ago Sydney and Melbourne’s stamp duty costs for a median-price home equate to about six months of income, forcing home buyers to delay major life decisions. Campbell Kwan Commercial property reporter Feb 12, 2024 https://www.afr.com/property/reside...pensive-than-a-generation-ago-20240209-p5f3nk The stamp duty burden has risen fivefold in just one generation, becoming an impost that holds back people from moving, changing jobs and even having children, new research by e61 Institute and PropTrack shows. Even after adjusting for inflation, the hefty increase in the property transfer duty levied by state and territory governments now equated to five months of income for an average full-time worker, said e61 research manager Nick Garvin. “Housing costs comprise more than just stamp duty, but five months of take-home income is a sizeable cost,” Mr Garvin said. “Particularly so for owner occupiers that move, who can pay for the new home by selling the old one, but incur stamp duty on top.” The findings are the latest piece of evidence against the tax that economists and property experts say holds back the economy, but upon which state governments rely heavily as a source of revenue, especially in times of booming housing markets. In Melbourne, where stamp duty costs have grown the most, buyers needed the equivalent of six months of average full-time post-tax income, or $42,500, to cover stamp duty on a median-priced home. That equates to a six-fold increase from the mid-1980s. This was followed by Sydney, where stamp duty for a median-price home recorded a five-fold increase, up by $44,500 or half a year’s income. According to an e61 survey of 3000 Australians, higher stamp duty has forced one-quarter of Australians under 40 to delay changing jobs, one in five 30 to 40-year-olds to delay having children, and people of all ages to reconsider moving homes. The delaying of these major life decisions due to stamp duty was concerning for the Australian economy, as it had slowed productivity, Mr Garvin said. “It seems reasonable to conclude that higher stamp duty costs has at least contributed to Australia’s productivity slowdown,” he said. “By overhauling the current stamp duty system, some of these pressures on individuals and the economy more broadly could be eased.” PropTrack senior economist Angus Moore said the growing affordability problems had arisen from two sources; house-price growth outpacing income growth and stamp duty bracket creep. House values in capital cities have risen by over 450 per cent over the past 30 years while unit values have increased over 300 per cent during that period, according to CoreLogic data. As a result, most home buyers have been pushed into higher stamp duty brackets, driving up its share of a home purchase cost taken up by the impost. Since the early 1990s, the proportion of home buyers nationally paying a stamp duty cost equivalent to 3 per cent or more of a home’s purchase price had risen from about 12 per cent to 95 per cent, Mr Moore said. “While conversations about stage three tax cuts have been about bracket creep in the context of income tax, we see bracket creep even more acutely with stamp duty because property prices have grown quicker than incomes over the past few decades,” Mr Moore said. Despite the latest research indicating that “stamp duty is bracket creep on steroids”, reforms were unlikely to come due to the tough politics behind it, said consultancy Corrina’s Saul Eslake, a former ANZ Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch chief economist. “Removing stamp duty sadly has the political reputation of ‘taxing the family home’ which in some circles is akin to slaughtering sacred cows,” Mr Eslake said. While it was unlikely that stamp duty reforms would be made, he said the next few years were arguably the best time given every federal and state jurisdiction except for Tasmania is governed by Labor, he said. “You’ve got seven out of the eight governments from the same political persuasion. So there probably isn’t a better time to get the federal and state governments to co-operate on something than now,” Mr Eslake said.
More than one in four properties purchased in NSW, Victoria and Queensland paid for in cash in 2023 By business reporter Kate Ainsworth and Mark Rigby Posted 7 hours ago https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03...urchased-with-cash-2023-nsw-vic-qld/103576718 More than $129 billion worth of property in NSW, Victoria and Queensland was purchased without a mortgage last year.( ABC News: John Gunn ) In short: Research by PEXA found 28.5 per cent of properties purchased in NSW, Queensland and Victoria last year were bought without a mortgage, often by older, retired and 'asset-rich' Australians. Tara in regional Queensland had the greatest proportion of cash buyers, while cash-only purchases topped $1.4 billion in Surfers Paradise. What's next? PEXA's chief economist Julie Toth says there is likely to be an increase in cash- buyers in the future as the population ages. More than one in four residential properties purchased in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland last year were paid for entirely with cash by older Australians, making them immune to interest rate hikes and propping up the housing market. The research by Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) found that $454.7 billion worth of residential property was purchased in the eastern states last year, with $129.6 billion paid for in cash — that is, without taking out a mortgage with a lender. It means 28.5 per cent of properties sold in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland last year were purchased without a mortgage — an increase of 1.5 per cent (or $1.9 billion) since 2022. PEXA's chief economist, Julie Toth, said the strength in cash sales explained the ongoing resilience in Australia's property market. "The relatively large share of purchases that are continuing without the mortgage pressures, and without really being all that vulnerable to interest rate rises, helps explain why that resilience was persisting," she said. "Over the three to four years that we have visibility of this data, the cash purchase group has persistently been at least 25 per cent across the three major markets. "It does seem to be a structural feature that we can expect to see continue forward." Despite the higher cost of living for households, Ms Toth said the increase in the number of cash buyers suggests there is a growing number of people who are immune to the effects of rate increases by the Reserve Bank. "This could be exacerbating the existing intergenerational wealth divide when it comes to housing affordability," she said. Julie Toth, chief economist at PEXA, believes the proportion of cash-only buyers will grow in the future.(ABC News: Darryl Torpy) The research group's report noted "the limitations of monetary policy to control inflation," referring to the Reserve Bank's series of interest rate hikes. Ms Toth noted that higher rates have likely been advantageous to cash buyers, who are typically older and retired, and benefit from higher savings rates offered by banks. "Our research found the demographic profile of cash buyers is different to mortgage buyers — cash buyers tend to be older and more likely to be retired," she said. "They tend to have lower household incomes, but they also have fewer dependents and are more likely to be 'asset-rich', with accumulated property, savings and superannuation to fund their next purchase. "If they have interest-earning savings, then they may even have benefited from rising interest rates. "The demographics also suggest that we might see an increase because the older age cohort is growing." More than one in four properties sold on mainland eastern Australia was bought without a mortgage in 2023.(ABC News: Jordan Young) Regional areas attracting cash buyers Queensland had the highest percentage of residential properties purchased in cash last year at 29.6 per cent, followed by NSW at 27.7 per cent, and Victoria at 25.2 per cent. NSW also had the highest aggregate value of cash purchases last year, with the median cash-only purchase totalling $770,000. (The median value of cash purchases in Victoria and Queensland was $604,500 and $570,000 respectively.) Ms Toth said the data from NSW confirmed that Sydney is "the most expensive property market in Australia". "Even though the proportion of cash sales are lower, the aggregate value still picks up when we're at such high property values to begin with," she said. The places with the highest proportion of cash purchases were in regional areas popular with older Australians who are likely to be retired — and in areas where property prices are more affordable. In Tara, a town around 300km west of Brisbane, 86 per cent of properties sold last year were paid for in cash, with a median cash purchase value of $82,500. (PEXA's data only includes postcodes that have shown at least 80 cash purchases in the 2023 calendar year.) Russell Island, in Queensland's Moreton Bay, had 76 per cent of properties purchased paid for in cash last year, with a median cash purchase value of $85,000. 'Diverse' properties drive city cash splash However, "urban centres" had the highest overall value of cash purchases due to their higher property prices and greater number of purchases. Surfers Paradise in the Gold Coast, saw $1.4 billion of cash purchases made in 2023, with a median cash purchase value of $800,000. The coastal hotspot is home to nearly 20,000 units, apartments and townhouses according to the Gold Coast City Council. "It should be noted that cash buyers in these metropolitan postcodes were diverse and included both owner occupiers and investors (domestic and overseas), purchasing a range of property types at different price points," PEXA's report noted. Units and apartments are popular with cash buyers who are investors, or people looking to downsize.(ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale) Similarly, Melbourne (postcode 3000) recorded over $1.3 billion of cash purchases last year, but had a lower median cash purchase value of $603,500 when compared to Surfers Paradise. Ms Toth said Victoria's performance in the cash sales market was slightly skewed by a larger share of vacant land purchases compared to other states. "That's people buying a block of land in preparation for a house and land package to be built later," she said. "In Queensland it tends to be more of the established home market. "We also know that Victoria and New South Wales are still losing population to Queensland with that retiree stream and also a mix of younger families moving north in search of cheaper properties and better lifestyle." Gold Coast City councillor Darren Taylor said the COVID pandemic had brought waves of interstate migration to the Glitter Strip and the ready availability of dwellings in Surfers made it a popular choice for out-of-town buyers. "There's also been a really big shift on the Gold Coast," he said. "Years ago, it used to be a lot of investors from down south [buying property] but we're actually seeing a lot of locals downsizing too. "They're selling their houses and actually moving into the city and into these units as well as the investors and people moving from other parts of Australia."
Is this really reality in Australia? Bizar. How much do you have to earn for that mortgage? Here in the Netherlands max loan is about 4.5x annual (combined) salary
TYPICAL commie pattern; Cambodian commies targeted-executed people with glasses. Anybody that can read is a threat to commies