on a mission

Having read many posts, and being on the property market many times, I get the feeling we a re nations obsessed by property and status.

We all need somwhere to live granted, but cant help feeling our obsession is fuelling the market and DIY stores.

Just an observation.

Amazulu

People invest in property as it's a great way to make money.

on a mission

And the ordinary joe, spends 30 years paying it back to a bank, just to leave it to their kids,

sounds a great plan to me, with the current prices and interst rates....

Vim Fuego

Probably broadly accurate, no different in most 'developed' countries though, I'd imagine.

I will say this, some people seem to want more out of a house than they need (the 'perfect' area, the 'media room', the pool, etc) and this will not help the housing situation ...

More Aspiration = Bigger Loan = Harder To Make Repayments = Credit Card Debts = Realisation That They Didn't Need The Plasma TV = Realisation That THINGS Don't Make You Happy = Defaulting On Loan = Divorce = Unhappiness All Round.

Probably

ozzieeagle

In most cases, and historically speaking, after 7 years it tends to get easy (ish). So the 30 years is a bit of a misnomer really.

Hey feel free to buy someones house for them though, to be truthful renting is more likely to feed banks profits, because most buy to lets in Aus at least, are interest only loans.

on a mission

Vim,

you are dam right mate, I had it all, pool sea views and a fk off debt that meant i could nothing else, and half the house empty!!!! typical mentality of keeping up with the jones's

Personally hindsight i was happier in my 3 bed unit, with cash to do what i wanted and when.

suppose we could argue this all day,

datamile

And negative gearing is the big seller. Lose money while you rental out your 5 properties, claim it back against your income tax, and pay no tax while your investment value grows

Vim Fuego

As someone who arrived in Oz with $60K of credit card debt then I can speak from the experience of mindless pursuing things that were not going to make one iota of difference to my fundamental happiness.

Sure, I spent some of the cash actually treading the path to get here (and if I hadn't got into debt then I wouldn't be here, perversely) but in the end it was a long lesson in discovering that the pursuit of things is not the way to go.

For me anyway ... I'm sure other people have different aims in life and good luck to them too.

This is what gets me sometimes about the immigration thing, is it just another thing to pursue (the 'If I get there I will finally be happy' mentality)?

Is it driven from within or has it been marketed?

And in the end ... does it matter?

You can tell I have some free time before I go off and play trivia

Hey, a bar open after 9pm on a Wednesday in Brisbane ... whodathunkit?!

Amanda Jayne

One of my mates have just taken out a 40 year mortgages! :curse:

Amanda

moneypenny20

I think there's slightly less of this over here. More people seem just as happy to rent and have money for leisure stuff, than own a house with a bloody great mortgage attached to it. It's probably going the UK way though. There's possibly more of a "live for today" mentality here which obviously has it's good and bad points.

Vim Fuego

There is a lot of 'build huge house on tiny block' around ... this I just can't get my head around. And luckily I don't have to

rabsody

Ownership of property is one of the fundamental principles of the liberal ideologies that underpin western beliefs. (i've just been at my politics lecture! )

ozzieeagle

Gardens = work, which eats into leisure time, thats most probably the biggest factor in people accepting the small outdoor areas.

aston man

lucky us eh mate,what an investment we have made,money well spent in my book..i wouldnt swap my investment for the world..

The S's

Not really.

realistically my mortgage payments will become more affordable whilst your rent will go up year after year. When I retired i will have paid off my mortgage (hopefully) while you still have to fork out for your rent.
Also I have no intension of leaving my house to my kids, I will down size and buy a big F off boat.
They can buy their own property, I had to.