improvement price is less than land cost happens all the time in court auctions. the reason is the borrower defaults for whatever reason.
Tie me Kangaroo Down Sport...Cracker!! I'm about to give someone a booting... Stand back...I swear I'll do it!!
View of Geraldton, Western Australia from the Wishing Well Lookout. Credit: Jessica Moroney/Geraldton Guardi/RegionalHUB CoreLogic report ranks Geraldton in top three nationally of five-year price growth since start of pandemic Kate Campbell & Kim MacdonaldGeraldton Guardian March 18, 2025 https://www.perthnow.com.au/busines...ice-growth-since-start-of-pandemic-c-18071175 Geraldton homeowners are more than $250,000 richer compared to the start of the pandemic with new research showing local properties have surged an incredible 94.4 per cent in value. The CoreLogic report has ranked Geraldton third on a national top 30 list of areas with the biggest price growth since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Back then, Geraldton’s median house price was about $255,000, now it has almost doubled, climbing to $494,131 Geraldton was only beaten for its five-year price spike by Murray Bridge in South Australia (101 per cent increase) and Kingaroy in Queensland (95.6 per cent). The other WA spots in the top 30 list are Busselton (up 93.4 per cent), Bunbury (up 81 per cent), Perth (up 75.9 per cent), Albany (up 72.7 per cent) and Port Hedland (up 70.7 per cent). According to the report, the biggest overall gains since March 2020 were often in markets coming from a low-price base, with five of the top 10 still recording a median value below $500,000. Combined, regional Australia prices have soared by 53.6 per cent in five years, compared to 33.6 per cent across the capital cities. Markets in “lifestyle” regions led the capital gains surge early, but more recently it has included rural Queensland markets and WA coastal locations including Geraldton, Bunbury and Busselton. While property owners would be rejoicing at their five-year rise, it’s a different story for those not on the property ladder. “While such a substantial rise in housing values has probably been welcomed by homeowners, the downside has been felt in a worsening of affordability metrics,” the report stated. “Australian wages have risen by less than half the increase of housing since the onset of COVID, leading to widespread affordability challenges in most areas.” Perth topped the CoreLogic list of price rises across capital cities since March 2020, adding $348,519 to the median value of all dwellings — house and units — which is currently $807,715. More specifically, the report said Perth houses had jumped $367,000 in the past five years, while units climbed by $225,000. Adelaide (up 73.1 per cent) and Brisbane (up 68.7 per cent) were next in line, followed by Hobart (up 27.7 per cent) Sydney (up 27.6 per cent) and Darwin (up 25.5 per cent) Melbourne is the nation’s property lagger, with a price hike of 8.8 per cent since the start of the pandemic.
Misleading media reporting as usual. No one is richer other than gummint collecting taxes/rates. Stating the obvious, when your house price goes up, so does everything else. Try and buy a house at the old price. House prices rise, rents rise, wages have to rise, customers pay more. Dumb sheeple mugsy is not richer. Little asshole johnny howard the prick will sell you a dream.
One man blamed for Australia’s biggest crisis Horror predictions show Australia’s biggest problem is set to explode in 2025. One high profile Aussie has found himself being blamed for it all and he has hit back. Ben Graham @bengrahamjourno February 15, 2025 https://www.news.com.au/finance/wor...s/news-story/a4e4339dc3ff4c68cf4ee5d03d69a258 Of all the problems facing Australia today, there’s one crisis that stands out as the most pressing — particularly if you’re at the younger end of the age spectrum. Housing affordability has been a problem for decades now and, despite house prices slightly dropping over the past year in major cities and multiple governments trying to take action, there appears to be no relief in sight. Houses prices have increased at roughly double the rate of wage growth for 25 years — meaning they have become out of reach for all but the well-off. All the predictions suggest we will see the cash rate slashed on Tuesday, but interest rates are still high and the cost of living crisis and high rents are a massive hurdle for first time buyers to overcome. There are also concerns that if rates drop, house prices will begin to surge by more than 5 per cent his year alone in many cities. Any way you look at it, it’s a dismal outlook for those trying to grab a slice of the great Australian dream — and the blame for the crisis was laid largely at the feet of one man this week. The ABC’s financial expert Alan Kohler took a deep dive into the crisis and, in his opinion, former Prime Minister John Howard is the main culprit. The ABC’s financial expert Alan Kohler blamed John Howard for the housing crisis. “It’s my view John Howard did more than anyone to make housing unaffordable,” he said. In 1999, Mr Howard cut Capital Gains Tax (CGT) by 50 per cent for individuals, after Labor had introduced the tax in 1985. House prices surged and four years later, he was challenged in a radio interview about the property market overheating. His answer was telling. “Anybody who owns a house is very happy that the value of that house has gone up, let’s be quite straight about that,” he said at the time. “I haven’t found anybody in seven and a half years shake their fist at me and say Howard I’m angry with you for letting the value of my house increase.
'You’ll never know your grandkids’: Banking’s wicked housing problem Veteran analyst Jon Mott says property’s intergenerational affordability crisis is a result of the policy choices we’ve made over four decades. Can bankers help shift the dial? Mar 18, 2025 https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/you...king-s-wicked-housing-problem-20250318-p5lked Veteran banking analyst Jon Mott has a way of breaking down complex problems into simple ideas. At the Financial Review Banking Summit in Sydney on Tuesday, he stopped the room dead when he nailed Australia’s housing affordability challenge. The latest banking statistics suggest about 8 per cent of credit from Australian banks goes to owner-occupier households earnings less than $120,000, who account for about 60 per cent of society. Meanwhile, 9 per cent of credit goes to housing investors earning more than $500,000, who account for just 1 per cent of society. Banking analyst Jon Mott says younger people are being left behind in the housing crisis. David Rowe The outworking of that, Mott says, is that already unaffordable housing has moved even further out of the range of entire generations of younger Australians, who are likely to be locked out of the market. “If this doesn’t change and you live in Sydney, you’ll never know your grandkids,” Mott says, for the simple reason that they’ll never be able to buy in the same market. The intergenerational divides in the housing market are well known. But as Mott explains, these are the outworking of very deliberate decisions that the Australian community and the prudential regulators have taken over decades. In the 1980s, for example, two-thirds of lending in Australia went to businesses (albeit with some pretty poor commercial property lending included in that) and about one-third went to mortgages, with a small amount of some personal lending in there too. Extraordinary leveraging up But the imposition of risk weights for mortgages – designed to make the banking system safer – flipped those proportions over the following four decades, resulting in the extraordinary leveraging up of Australia’s housing market. There have been other changes that haven’t helped the affordability problem, including the surging costs of construction, which Westpac chief economist Luci Ellis pointed out is a global problem. Mott says the cost of a house and land package in Melbourne and Sydney has surged about 40 per cent in the past few years, while borrowing capacity has fallen 30 per cent. That has put this traditional housing market entry point out of reach of the median borrower. But as Mott says, think about the outcomes of these shifts. Not only is housing unaffordable to vast chunks of the community, but business lending – until a recent surge – has been increasingly crowded out by property lending. Mott says work done by the RBA has shown that a key driver of productivity is younger people starting businesses. But they face two issues: there’s less capital available for business lending because of those mortgage risk weights, and it’s difficult to get a business loan without offering a home as security. Mott’s argument is that while we’ve managed to improve the stability and safety of the banking system, we’ve made housing unaffordable, business lending tougher to get, and productivity worse. “Are we happy with the outcomes that we’ve got?” Mott asks. Clearly not. But as Mott points out, former NAB chief executive Ross McEwan used his final appearance at last year’s banking summit to argue that the pendulum of regulation has swung too far. Outgoing ANZ boss Shayne Elliott said soon after that housing had become a product for the rich. ‘The right outcome for society?’ What’s happened since then? Housing affordability and access to credit has worsened and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has announced a renewed crackdown on governance in the financial services sector. Gilbert + Tobin partner Richard Harris says that is unlikely to meet its stated aim of reducing complexity because history says this new regulation never actually achieves this. “I think we’re all pretty happy with the strength of the system,” Mott says. “But is that the right outcome for society? That’s the question you’ve got to judge.” The banks, of course, need to play within the guardrails they’ve been given. As Mott explains, the reason banks are now swinging back towards business lending is that competition has driven down returns in mortgage lending, to the point they are largely writing loans below the cost of capital, and business lending returns now look more attractive. And as Ellis says, big banks with huge short-term deposit books are not typically the best place to support speculative lending to the start-ups that could drive a new wave of productivity. Someone beyond the prudentially regulated universe may need to step up. It’s an important point, but let’s step back and consider Mott’s bigger picture. The housing crisis has not been created in a vacuum. The productivity crisis hasn’t just happened. The policy choices we’ve made – particularly to focus on the stability and safety of the banking system – have come with consequences. In the Australian way, we’re very good at diagnosing the problem, and complaining about the outcomes. But to borrow Mott’s point, what will we tell our grandkids about our responses? James Thomson is senior Chanticleer columnist based in Melbourne. He was the Companies editor and editor of BRW Magazine. Connect with James on Twitter. Email James at j.thomson@afr.com
Australia Reveals $460 Million Property Spree Tied to Fugitives Residential buildings in Sydney, Australia. Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg By Angus Whitley 11 April 2025 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ty-spree-tied-to-fugitives?srnd=homepage-asia Australia's financial crime watchdog Austrac has revealed a A$750 million property splurge linked to international fugitives, showing the attractiveness of local real estate to criminals. Australia’s financial crime watchdog has for the first time revealed a A$750 million ($460 million) property splurge linked to international fugitives, showing just how attractive local real estate has become for the criminal set. Intelligence networks detected the vast acquisition spree — carried out in just one week — last year, Brendan Thomas, the chief executive officer of Australia’s financial crimes watchdog Austrac, said. It turned out family members of the buyers were on Interpol’s priority wanted list. “Real estate is a really good way for international criminals to store big amounts of money,” Thomas said in an interview. “That’s the challenge we deal with.” A crackdown on money laundering and terrorism financing in the property sector is at the center of an enormous expansion of Thomas’s powers. After years spent finding and filling gaps in the defenses of banks and casinos, Austrac from July next year will also oversee real estate agents, lawyers and accountants in a bid to stem a wave of serious and organized crime that costs Australia as much as A$69 billion a year. An Austrac representative said the organization was unable to provide more details about the A$750 million run of property purchases, citing ongoing proceedings. Decades of real estate price rises have made Australian property an even bigger draw for organized criminal gangs, said Thomas. And there’s a cohort of real estate professionals facilitating those investments, he said. At the same time, there are solicitors and other service providers helping to create shell companies through which organized crime groups can channel funds. Sometimes the lawyers or accountants know exactly who they’re dealing with, while at others, they’re unwitting participants in a criminal enterprise, he said.