Good news for those on their way over this year and looking to buy property.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3531575.stm

Although, with the appreciation of the AUS $ its not all good news. At least you are not getting kicked in the teeth twice !

Glad to hear it as we're one of the ones who'll probably be trekking over to Brissy at the end of this year

All I want is :-

> UK houses prices to shoot up
> AUS house prices to drop
> GBP -> AUS exchange rate to keep on increasing

Not much to ask is it

Prices in Sydney have dropped by 2% in february according to the news here last night, I don't know about the rest of Oz, I think that they are still appreciating in SE Qld. or is this wishfull thinking?


Slater

hi snj,

which part of bury were you from, I grew up there before migrating to rochdale

andy

Think I will be renting for the foreseeable future until I get a feel for the market. With all those buy-to-letters out there, there must be a bargain to be had.

If you already have bought in SE Qld do you care if the price still goes up? If you move the place you buy will also have gone up. Only any use if you are moving much further I would guess.

Lived within staggering distance of the Welly on Bolton Rd through '70's and '80's. Still go back several times a year.

What about you ?

fine pub or what, used to live in Hollins, went to Unsworth Comp

my thoughts precisely. i also realised the other day, if i invest some of my money the interest will pay for a weeks rent every month. It will then also be there if/when i decide to buy. I can't believe i'd not thought of that sooner.

Exactly. Earn 5% on your money in the bank (hopefully!) to contribute to your rent rather than pay 6% to the bank and see your capital tied up and not increase (or worse, decrease) for the next few years.

Happy days

Just to put a dampner on things.

That 5% is before tax and if you are on the top rate tax band (approx $60,000) with your earned income, your investment income will be clobered at 49% so your 5% interest works out at 2.5%, just about keeping up with inflation generally.
House inflation is still running in double digets in most areas.

Whos right?

Seems to be a conflicting opinion

in Sydney mean prices are down but median prices are up. Investers are certainly moving back to the stock market.

From todays Courier mail.

BRISBANE'S rising house prices have contributed to the biggest quarterly jump in Australia in 14 years, defying concerns of a market downturn.

House prices increased 6 per cent in the three months to December 2003 – the biggest national quarterly increase since the March quarter in 1989 and almost double September's rate.

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, Brisbane's prices were up 12 per cent for the quarter and 35 per cent over the year, beating all other cities in the country.

Sydney recorded a 5.3 per cent jump for the quarter and 15.5 per cent over the year, and Melbourne prices were up 3.8 per cent and 12.5 per cent for the same periods.

Full story

Seems to be the same story that HUP posted but different paper.

have been looking at property for sale since xmas, the market in this area at least has certainly cooled, houses that before would have been sold within a week of going on the market are still for sale 6 weeks later. Theres property for sale here that was for sale before xmas. Make of it what you will.

"OZ property market" contains dozens of smaller markets, you cannot lump an apartment in Melb, with a beachfront in Qld for eg. Thjere is a guy on here from London who reguarly pops up announcing the OZ housing market has crashed but the guy would not have any idea of the hundreds of factors that make up each different sector.

What has changed is over the last 2-5 years (depending on where you are) prices were going up 30%+ a year, some areas saw gains of 80% a year. I doubt anybody with brain cells would have expected that to go on forever. Some people are still listing houses expecting similar gains to just go on year after year. They are the houses that wont sell. Brisbane is expected to increase 30/40% over the next three years, not per year! Steady but still a very nice profit.