Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe and his board have pushed up interest rates yet again – for the twelfth time in 14 months – because they want to damage the economy further. Home prices have been climbing for three straight months – in March, April and May – instead of continuing to fall as they…
You’ve probably heard about the “great resignation” which saw large numbers of people resigning from their jobs in the US in 2021 and 2022. We didn’t see resignations over and above what is normal in Australia. However, we did see workers resisting the post-COVID return to the office. To better understand these trends, we conducted…
Sixty years ago the animated series The Jetsons finished its first and only season before being cancelled. Just 24 episodes were broadcast between September 1962 and March 1963. Despite this, the cartoon has achieved huge influence in popular culture, with countless reruns, a reboot in the mid-1980s (51 episodes over two seasons) and a feature-length…
![The world’s happiest countries in 2023 [Infographic]](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/world-1-270x200.jpg)
Measuring subjective ideas like happiness and life satisfaction is tricky business. Are wealth and prosperity legitimate measures of happiness? How about safety and health outcomes? In the West, we view democracy as a key component to happiness, yet there are countries under authoritarian rule that score high on the Happiness Index. Questions like these make “ranking happiness”…
We all know factors like vacancy rates, rent prices, interest rates and other trends directly impact the investment property market. But you may not realise these can also affect landlord insurance. Let us explain… There’s no shortage of news articles and data about Australian property. While providing a snapshot of the investment market, these figures…
Can a tenant sue an agent or landlord for negligence? In a word – yes. Negligence. It’s a word that doesn’t have a nice ring to it. It’s kind of ominous – and for good reason. If a tenant is using the words ‘negligence’ or ‘negligent’ when referring to their landlord or property manager, they…
![How global housing prices have changed since 2010 [Infographic]](https://cdn.propertyupdate.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/house-price-bg-270x200.jpg)
In many countries around the world, it seems like house prices have been constantly climbing. Houses fulfil a rare mix of necessity, utility, and sentimentality, and for many, also act as a primary investment to build wealth. And it’s that last angle, combined with increasing demand in many countries, that is driving housing prices skyward….
Think of a time when you felt vulnerable. Perhaps you were in a hospital corridor, or an exam hall, about to be tested. Now, focus on the building you were in. What if, without you knowing, the design of that space was affecting you? We study environmental psychology, a growing field of research investigating the…
Measuring GDP per capita is a common measure of economic wealth on a per-person basis. This article sorts countries according to the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections on GDP per capita for 2023. Currently, this metric is at $13,920 globally in 2023, up from $13,400 in 2022 and $11,160 in 2020, all nominal figures,…
It has long been known that incomes in Australia are more evenly distributed than in the United States. But Australia has been thought to be a less equal society than many European ones, sitting somewhere in the middle between the United States and countries such as France. We can measure income equality using the so-called…
