Re: House prices
 

Funny I said this in 2008, and nothing has changed.
East coast stalled, West called just a freak show.

Safe as houses, just dont expect the increases we all experienced over the past few years.

Re: House prices
 

Our suburb (popular South of Brisbane) dropped about 10% last year. Anything decent around the $500K mark seems to be snapped up, so there seems to be plenty of buyers around at the right price. For me, $500K for a 3bed weatherboard house in a small plot seems outrageous, but I seem to be in the minority with my views. Campbell Newman is doing his level best to bring QLD to its knees, just give the bloke some time.....

Re: House prices
 

Interesting 500-600K things in Sydney are flying off the shelves. 1 mill + has and is taking a hit. Might be something to do with average salaries and what people can afford and more likely what banks are prepared to lend these days.

I know a very wealthy individual who owns (through inheritance) a 10 mill harbour waterfront. There was a flat next door on the market for 3 mill. He was prepared to throw down 10 percent and use his 10 mil property as backup. The banks wouldn't touch him. Too much risk they said.

Re: House prices
 

And the other facts were........

He had already loaded the $10 million property with debt
He had no income to service the property
He had other committments

Re: House prices
 

Inherited property from his deceased parents - sad story. Paid off and owned outright many years ago before his parents passed away. He is an only child.

I can't say for sure what he earns. I'd hazard a guess his salary from his job is somewhere in the $250,000 range which as you suggest is probably not enough to pay off a 2.7 mill debt. He does have other business interests in Asia and property investments in Europe - again not sure how this would affect and may well have worked against him.

Point being is that if you are sitting on a 3 million dollar property and wishing to sell, there aint going to be that many people banging on your door looking to buy due to availability of credit.

Re: House prices
 

Or the global expansion of consciousness that is evolving away from object fetishism and materialistic clinging. :)

Re: House prices
 

Errrrmmm

http://static.tumblr.com/nqoef6m/Kmi...theshaving.jpg

Re: House prices
 

A billion or so Chinese might disagree with you on that.

Re: House prices
 

Stalled is an interesting choice of phrase. The suburb we used to live in in inner Melbourne (East St Kilda) has dropped over 10% in the last 2 years and may keep going. We sold our flat in 2010 for $330k and one just sold in the same block with the same floorplan etc (arguably on a more desirable floor) for $280k.

That's not stalling, it's significantly dropping. We will probably never see prices halve, but they are coming down for sure.

I predict prices to go sideways for a few years now (losing value in real terms due to inflation and no growth in price) until the total drop is about 20%.

Re: House prices
 

As property is religion in Oz, you cannot trust the mainstream media, especially Fairfax, who are in cahoots with the real estate industry, banks, local and state govts.

The better sources are http://www.macrobusiness.com.au and http://www.sqmresearch.com.au

Re: House prices
 

Not disputing market drop but do take account in regard flats/apartments a significant glut of property coming on in next 3 to 5 years.

Re: House prices
 

If you are referring to Melb, yes, massive over supply of new stuff. Sydney on the other hand - nothing unless you want a house and land package 1.5 hours from the CBD

Re: House prices
 

We are finally seeing drops in our suburb - I think -here in Melbourne. Hard to compare like with like...Thank God.

Re: House prices
 

The ONLY thing I think I have done well at in Aus in my twelve years here is property.

I came here with $12000 - my life savings - and since then haven't looked back even though I don't actually like Australia all that much, there are some great opportunities in my view. In the last 12 months, for example, Whyalla is up 11%, Emerald is up 14% and Ceduna is up 8%. I sold a house at Emerald this year and did well out of it. I sold because the price I could get was high and the economy wasn't mixed enough to allow me not to worry. Last year, I bought three blocks of land in Ceduna (about $42K each) and put a big deposit (20%) down on a house in Whyalla, where currently, the rent more than covers the mortgage. I currently own nine houses and 5 blocks of land all over the place. I'd like to buy two more houses but my wife won't let me:eek:

If you look around, do some research (actually, a lot of research) and take a look at regional towns with mixed economies, there are some great opportunities out there. Then, you have to pay what you think a place is worth and not a cent more and hold for at least 5 years, preferably longer and try to pay down the principle loan amount as much as you can during that time - that is also an important part of my strategy - I try to leverage down rather than up (might not be the most tax efficient thing to do, but debt worries me).

Ultimately, it's always a gamble and everyone has their own strategy. Mine is to aim to live in Europe within 2 years and work 6 months here and take the summers off at least for the next ten or so years until I stop working.

Not everyone is in a position to do this and I agree that this is a strange and even stressful time to be a property investor, but I quite enjoy it and I do well - not as well as some, but pretty good. And, I have only ever bought one property in a state capital city in Australia - a unit in Sutherland, NSW and made about 30% profit after costs in five years, which wasn't that great but not that bad either. Other mistakes have been Bellingen and Ocean Shores. I have made a small profit on paper in Bellingen and a paper loss in Ocean Shores. I still own both but am going to sell them this year, hopefully.

Anyway, bottom line, it won't make me rich, but it should, I pray, allow me to semi retire in my early 50's, fully retire in my early 60's and continue to provide me with a passive income for the rest of my life and let me travel a bit and never worry about bills.

As an aside, when it comes to strategies, I recently chatted with a colleague who bought (borrowed heavily and more than I would have the guts to) ten houses, sold 5 when they doubled, used the profits to pay off most of what he owed on the other five which was giving him a good passive rental income and enough to retire at 55 which he will do next year when he has paid the last $100K off. I thought about that - talk about a simple easy project admittedly very ballsy - and where I would invest if I did the same thing (which I won't and do not recommend as I am not an expert and in fact do not know anything about these things). I came up with the following list of 12 to pick 10 from:
Broken Hill, Mildura, Whyalla, Ceduna, Katherine, Tenant Creek, Townsville, Toowoomba, Port Augusta, Ipswich, Port Lincoln, Albany.
I think in these areas, which have good economies going forwards, on a 20% deposit paying an average house price in an average neighbourhood, an average rental would cover most of the costs (someone would need $600K upfront approx to do this plus a lot of time!!). There would also have to be an ability to pay off a grand a week off the principal as well in my view.

Anyway, if I'd listened to the ABC or believed what I read in the papers ten years ago (well actually, I did believe it for a while and then stopped) I'd be a whole lot poorer than I am now.

Re: House prices
 

where there is a winner, there is a loser, someones child loses at you expense he or she has to borrow more to support your win, he or she suffers so do his or hers parents, debt ain;t good but it ain't your fault the sytem is kiilin the young. just glad i am old, too many asset rich old folk, the kids ain't gotta a chance.