An emergency. Then crisis. Now a pandemic? Falling confidence. Market correction. Talk of recession. Social distancing. Cancelled events. Closed borders. The list goes on and on. No good news anywhere. Panic! There is little doubt that it is serious. And I don’t want to make light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) but I am of the…
When comparing the performance of various property markets, most focus on the change in property values. But there is much, much more. I’ve included two tables this post. Please take 30 seconds to look at them. Most will focus on the price column in the first table and then spend most of their time reviewing…
James Carville, allegedly, helped win the Presidency for Bill Clinton in 1992 with a sign in the campaign’s headquarters saying, “The economy, stupid”. Well maybe there should be a sign saying – “Demographics, stupid” – on our desks as well. Many in the economic, town planning and property space, including investors, tend to ignore or…
The average floor area of a new free-standing house in Australia is 254 square metres. Our homes are much larger than those within Europe and even many American cities. Why has this occurred? It is simply economics. The actual land component of a new house and land package is very high and fixed. And these…
People appear to be ageing in place. The latest statistics suggest that homeowners are staying in the same digs, on average, for 11 years. This is up from 7 years a decade ago. That’s a 59% increase. My chart shows that this increase is widespread. The high and rising transaction costs plus limited affordable housing…
What is Australia’s PIN CODE? You know that 4 digit number that you need to unlock your phone or get the credit card to work. For mine it is 1 1 1 1 See the graphic below. It shows the likely distribution of a variety of important housing-related things over the next decade. The simple things…
How low can they go? Most of those working in the dismal science are calling for several more drops in the RBA cash rate, with some calling out a 0%. Interestingly many of these same cats were talking about interest rate rises only 12 to 18 months ago. The chart shows that falling interest rates…
I keep getting emails telling me about how much more affordable housing has become now that interest rates are declining. Yet the evidence is wafer thin, with more often than not, an index chart attached to the spruik which needs a magnifying glass and a lot of imagination to see any actual improvement in housing…
Our cities are going to get bigger. We shouldn’t waste our time trying to stop this. So this week I look at the projected increase in the number of households in Australia. I have included two tables below. Key points The forecast is that we will see the creation of an additional 1.56 million households…
It was all doom and gloom in the lead up to the federal election and now, apparently, the housing market is set to improve, with some predicting another boom. Hmmm. For mine nothing has really changed as the Australian housing market still faces the same range of issues. 10 Things Future Housing List I like…
