always very funny that all the junior reporters from newscorp always read the questions from their phones
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If Iâm not wrong young Bill flagged my post about the Pal protest chant being misreported, got it removed. Certainly came down hard on it didnât you William?
But itâs fine to imply and insinuate and lead. Especially when it involves not just the country in question but an indigenous figure and the flag. Too delicious to resist.
Iâm not reading your pm either billy
Agreed. Itâs such a shame people of moderate intelligence canât figure out how to get the DW40 nozzle unblocked so they can take care of how rusted on they are. The worst are the ones who claim theyâve gone âtealâ or independent or just not voting at all, when you just know theyâre ticking that blue bloke every time.
theyâre not reading questions, theyâre reading notifications from an app they have that reminds them to breathe in and out
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Disagree.
Having a million houses empty across the country is driving up house prices.
Immigration is an easy target. Time to start pointing the finger at those who have holiday houses empty for 11 months of the year.
Itâs killing rural communities
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I thought you wanted it ?
Rather than this site descend into a middle east war zone âŚâŚthe mods sensibly made a decision not to allow posts about the big conflict in that region. If you have a problem with their decision take it up with them. Iâm comfortable with the decision they made
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What about all the Chinese and other foreign buyers whoâve purchased houses in Melbourne (in particular) the last decade and they often never intend on having anyone live in them. Some of them buy multi million dollar mansions and say their international student child will live in it (but they never do / intend to).
Thereâs so many ghost houses owned by the Chinese in Toorak itâs a joke. The FIRB (or whatever itâs called) donât crack down on it. Unfortunately for too many years successive state and federal governments have / continue to used policy levers to support a robust housing market. They have facilitated foreign buyers buying our domestic houses and itâs been an elephant in the room for years. The govts, real estate agents, house sellers all complicit and turning a blind eye.
Oh, and immigration is a material factor too. One of several.
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Relaxed and comfortable Iâm sure. But if you wouldnât mind could you please refrain from hinting at the Middle East war in here and offering to send salacious articles to members of the thread? Itâs very unseemly for such a staunch arbiter of the thread decorum. Your mate likes it though.
Back to proper ozpol and hereâs the good doctor Fels on what we all knew, the swell old boy free market entrepreneurs of the grocery world are having a laugh
Age - "âIn short, firms are free to charge as much as they like. They can price gouge lawfully as long as there is no unlawful collusion,â Fels said in the report. âThis has given rise to a policy gap â there is no set of government policies about excessive prices.â
Fels said over recent years there has been a âdramatic increaseâ in prices paid by Australians, and some of the biggest increases have occurred in sectors where there is little competition.
âAt the same time as consumers experience significant increases in costs â across food and grocery, energy, and financial services â corporate profits are up,â he said.
âSome of Australiaâs largest businesses, often supplying inelastic goods, are maintaining or even increasing margins in response to the global inflationary episode.
âThis is a situation that warrants further investigation.â
I caught some of that NPC talk over lunch, was an interesting one.
Mate
Place like Apollo Bay and Lorne are ghost towns due to out of town owners air bnbâing or just coming down during the summer. The whole, "its âthemâ, ( insert chinese/middle eastern/african ganz) line of defence is dog whistling atm.
There was Chinese $$$ coming in to OZ and Canada, ( especially Vancouver) 2015-2018. Absolutely. And it did begin to distort the market. But the local home owners jumped on the bandwagon and pushed the prices to the stratosphere.
Air BnB/ short term rentals is an idea that has been perverted from its original âaltruisticâ ideals, and is a big issue.
The amount of property that is investment/recreational sitting idol is ridiculous.
This is the real issue. But try telling that to âHowardâs battlersâ who now see it as a right ,(and not a privilege) to own investment/recreational property.
FWIW I am a realtor in Canada, and see the effects of this first hand. We were exposed to the negative side when we came back here in 2017 from OZ. Foreign buyers may have started the bubble, but cashed up home owners and corporate buyers have run with it.
Rant over
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FIRB has significantly tightened foreign ownership of residential property. Fees have more than tripled for purchases, with an added high tax or fee on property not rented out. Surveillance has also increased
Special measures were taken during the COVID travel bans
Even stricter measures applied from 2024.
For mine, no negative gearing unless the home is available for long-term rentalsâŚat least 75-85% of the year.
And they get to pay higher rates and a duty unless they make it available for long-term.
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you are a sage my friend.
Thereâs a myriad of factors. Your example a good case. Having said that Iâm against requiring people to fill their holiday homes. Just my view but I get how some think this should be the case given current crisis.
The foreign buyer aspect always irked me. Itâs a factor that is driving up prices and given theyâre owned by foreigner nationals it doesnât sit well with me.
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The fees mean nothing when weâre talking about foreign buyers with tens, sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars. In essence itâs just a good (new) tax on foreign investors which I thinks a good thing. But the ones buying properties worth $2M++ arenât too concerned about the new fees being imposed.
Airbnb in regional places are likely earning property owners at least 20 to 100% more per annum than just renting it. plus they may also be able to use it. even with higher rent it is still likely in Airbnb favour. Lots of councils are looking into charging for fees/rates for AirBNB owners.
Trend in Tasmania now is business owners buying hotels / properties to house itinerant work force. (fruit pickers from pacific etc) as there are little private rental stock.
potential places like Lorne Businesses may need to do that for their workforce too.
Coles Bay in Tas has influx of tourists over summer season and little accommodation for the extra workers that come in to service the tourists.
From my perspective a lot of long term land lords have left the rental market selling properties since covid price rises, and then many more have switched from rentalâs to air bnbâs.
Local govt offer extra $$ incentives for low income rentals, but homes need to meet a few criteria - flat block, close to amenities, etc.
I cant see govt changing negative gearing after failing last time. Grandfathering it, or limiting it to one property per individual would help a little. But then you probably have more Trusts and Companies owning them.
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Is there a factual source for allegations of Chinese buying up big in Melbourne and in Toorak in particular? Also who are the non Chinese foreign buyers? What is the major foreign source of residential property purchases? What are the trends over the last few years?
To note that FIRB conditions on residential property do not apply to permanent residents or Australian citizens.
Ethnic Chinese copped a lot during the height of the COVID pandemic. We need to avoid racial dogwhistling .
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