A respected US researcher believes baby boomers retreating from their large homes could lead to a glut of unsellable homes. Could this happen in Australia?
They’re calling it the great “senior sell off” and it’s scaring suburban America. Still recovering from the housing market crisis of 2007-09, America’s latest concern is a looming glut of unsellable suburban…
A quarter of retirees are using their superannuation lump sum to pay off debt: is this poor planning or the result of tax incentives?
Will extra debt neutralise increases in the superannuation contribution rate? Studies of retirees’ financial positions show that many people accumulate debt faster than they add to their super.
Once they…
Australia’s housing and rental affordability crisis is often cited as a justification for negative gearing.
AAP
Few Australian housing policies are more contentious than negative gearing.
Despite the publicity it has received and its popularity with government and property investors, little analysis of negative…
Damned lies and statistics: the figures indicate a significant deficit of dwellings in Australia. But is the methodology sound?
Capt' Gorgeous
One of the more interesting outcomes the 2011 Census produced was the figures concerning the housing market. The reason for this interest is how the results contrasted with the idea that Australia currently…
It’s a nice place for a house, but where will you put the strawberry farm?
Chip_2904/Flickr
The Victorian Planning Minister, Matthew Guy, recently announced an urban expansion for Melbourne: 5,958 hectares of new suburbs and transport corridors. But he didn’t mention the implicit costs of changing…
Many apartment dwellers would like to know how to make their home more sustainable. But where to start?
Chris Kreussling
By Rebecca Leshinsky, Swinburne University of Technology and Judy Rex, Swinburne University of Technology
Apartment owners beware – your asset could be under threat!
If we don’t improve the sustainability of our city apartment blocks their value will fall.
Australian cities are increasingly embracing apartment…
Downton Abbey is a period indulgence for some, but at its heart it is a story of property law.
AAP/Seven Network
Dim the lights, don the snuggie and pass the chocolate; Downton Abbey is back.
Amid all the mooning over Matthew and Mary, viewers may not have noticed that Downton Abbey is actually about property law…
Apartment living has increased slightly in the past 20 years, but we’re not letting go of our houses just yet.
Alan Levine
AUSTRALIA BY NUMBERS: The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the first batch of its census data. We’ve asked some of the country’s top demographers and statisticians to crunch the numbers on…
Turn off that light! Poor people are more likely to behave sustainably, whatever they believe.
Justin Scott Campbell
Public housing tenants struggling with their bills will well understand NSW Community Services Minister Goward’s concern over the rising costs of nails and pots of paint. According to the minister, the…
Talk of a Chinese property bubble has been greatly exaggerated.
Spiffy0777
Five years on, the US economy remains sluggish after the bursting of a house price bubble. More recently, the focus has been on China, the world’s second largest economy, and whether it too might be overwhelmed…
Does the building industry have the enough capacity to increase the housing supply?
AAP
We often hear that Australia is facing a housing shortage that is driving up property prices, but what is the best way out of this predicament?
In the final days of last year, National Housing Supply…
An “eco village” in the UK. With the right policies, energy-efficiency has a future in Australia.
telex4
Mandatory energy efficiency ratings for houses have been in force in parts of the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe for some time and appear to have gained general acceptance. New homes in particular…
Our property prices are propped up by a range of political, economic and even emotional reasons.
AAP
Welcome to Safe as Houses, a series delving into a topic close to the heart of many Australians – property. This is not a series on where the market might be heading. Instead we aim to explore how we view…
Bigger houses (on the left) – not smaller lots – are killing the Aussie backyard.
Tony Hall
Welcome to Safe as Houses, a series delving into a topic close to the heart of many Australians – property. This is not a series on where the market might be heading. Instead we aim to explore how we view…
Welcome to Safe as Houses, a series delving into a topic close to the heart of many Australians – property. This is not a series on where the market might be heading. Instead we aim to explore how we view…
Reducing the finance costs of housing will also reduce house prices.
Flickr/kennymatic
Welcome to Safe as Houses, a series delving into a topic close to the heart of many Australians – property. This is not a series on where the market might be heading. Instead we aim to explore how we view…
Buyers' playtime: Australians have splurged on mortgage debt.
Flickr/Bill Ward's brickpile
Our Safe as Houses series delves into a topic close to the heart of many Australians – property. This is not a series on where the market might be heading. Instead we aim to explore how we view property…
Interest rates would appear to be a national obsession: but are we worrying too much?
AAP
Welcome to Safe as Houses, a series delving into a topic close to the heart of many Australians – property. This is not a series on where the market might be heading. Instead we aim to explore how we…
Are ordinary homeowners perpetuating Australia’s property bubble?
AAP
While my recent commentary (here and here) demonstrates Australian housing is in a bubble, I have not explained where this situation has come from.
Asset markets, in this case, property, are the subject…
Farmers have been shocked to find coal seam exploration companies can enter their property.
kateausburn
All over Australia, landowners are fighting to keep mining companies off their property.
From the Darling Downs to the Liverpool Plains, farmers have been locking out coal seam gas extraction companies…
House prices grew by 127% between 1996 and 2010, but few people believe there is a property bubble.
AAP
One aspect of housing and stock market bubbles continually repeats: the vast majority of economists either miss or deny their existence.
In recent years, enormous asset bubbles have burst in many countries…
Could a housing bubble burst occur in Australia on the same scale as in the US during the financial crisis?
AAP
By now it should be obvious to anybody who is not a banker or a real estate agent that Australia is in the grip of a substantial housing bubble.
The greatest housing-price rise in the history of Australian…
