Bus takes about 30 minutes from where I live, train takes 20. I too would prefer a NASA jetpack though

Hi have I missed something? What crash,I haven't heard anything about property crash,tell me more,would be just my luck to buy somewhere and then it takes a nosedive.

Cheers Lorri

It's not specific to Australia. Many western states now have seriously inflated land prices due to a combination of unprecedented inward migration and overly-centralised planning legislation.

The house price/wage ratio should be somewhere round the 3:1 mark to make it affordable. In Canada it's something like 3:1, but getting worse all the time, especially in the western provinces. In Britain and Australia it's more like 7:1 or 8:1. In some regions it's more like 9:1.

This means that mortgages are getting bigger and bigger, and this means that less is being spent in the high street and this means business will suffer and this means unemployment will rise and this means foreclosures on mortgages and this means a crash.

In all seriousness, I cannot see why the next crash will not be the worst in history, and I say this because if you look at the price of houses and study previous crashes, things have never been this out of control before.

People have been saying that for years. Don't see it happening while demand outstrips supply.

For a crash to happen people lots of people would have to be forced out there homes pushing up supply.

What might happen is prices will stagnate for a while while inflation catches up.

Sure Merlin - and that's why every month they're pushing interest rates up a quarter point. Eventually, all the people that bought houses above their means through self-certing, etc., are going to have to sell those houses, and that gives your extra supply.

Take a look at the last 30 years of housing rises and corrections. It's not a question of if but when and how hard.

I don't think you'll ever get agreement on this! I work in the industry (Town PLanner) and there are a range of opinions floating around!

Generally the consensus is that there will be a slow down, with perhaps a bit of a downturn in the housing market.......although others predict that the 'downturn' will be more like a HUGE CRASH.....only time will tell!

A

Of course part of the fuel is immigration. If that is slowed or stopped things could crumble rather quickly.

Yeah - there is a range of opinions on the matter. The most compelling is that produced by a group caling itself Demographia who produce an annual housing affordability survey. I found their comparative case study of Perth and Austin persuasive. I would be interested to hear your opinion as a planner. Are you familiar with this survey?

It seems that too many people who are either in power or have the ears of those in power have too many vested interests in the situation continuing. As I understand the larger your property portfolio grows over time the lesser your degree of risk.

I don't think either of the Aussie parties has the moral courage to deal effectively with this situation.

Time will tell.

The Australian dream is ill, but not terminally...

At this years's federal election please vote for the kind of Australia you want to live in. Our dream is not dead, but it is ill. It's up to you.

Why has Perth real estate become one of the most expensive in the world? Just behind L.A? Why has Australia, once the land which prided itself on a fair go for all and opportunity, surpassed England as one of the most unaffordable nations on Earth?

Why? When 10, even 5 short years ago, you could buy a house and land for $150 000, and now that same house and land is worth $400 000? I used to feel good about living here. Now I feel worry and concern for our future. I find it totally ridiculous, in a land of only 20 million people, and in a continent the size of Australia, that we should be paying that much for land (and living like modern day slaves to pay off our mortgages).
I think I'd rather live in shed for the rest of my life than live a life paying off a huge mortgage that I'll have until I die.

Come on Australia, what the hell are we thinking!?? It's not a good thing that your house is now worth $400k.

If you don't want to see the way of life that people here have fought and died for in the past, go down the gurgler, then god damn, your arses out there and fight for what you believe in!! Make your voice heard.

But if they can't agree on the cause they won't be able to agree on a solution. The survey I referred to in my previous post places the blame squarely on government planning policy, but the survey group itself could of course have an interest in making this conclusion!

At the beginning of every public statement or opinion by these groups or politicians or Journos I'd like them to say how many investment properties they or their spouses own.


Greed.

<sigh>

I'd vote for that! People with lots of properties can't lose. When the interest rates are low they can buy more with cheap repayments and expand their portfolio. When the interest rates go up and people can't afford to pay their mortgage they end up renting - from the people with lots of properties. I would suggest a cap on how many properties an individual could own but there are so many ways round this it would be pointless, also a free market is a free market, and I strongly believe in the free market. Got to take the rough with the smooth I suppose.

There is no such thing as a truly free market, that's what monopolies and mergers commisions are all about.

If business can't play fair the government could and should step in.

How about if Woolies takes over coles and starts to put prices up by 5% per month? (would we notice :-/ )

Housing now is becoming a social issue because social implications will arise from making an underclass with no stake in the society.

Feral? Try the USA for a society of winners and losers.

Off my soapbox now and into another Crown Lager.

You mean in the same way Woolies & Coles are pricing the independent fuel retailers out of the market then hiking prices up once the competition has been eliminated