When families buy together
With affordability at its lowest level on record, first-home buyers have to think outside the square.
The home-ownership dream rarely used to feature a sibling in your bathtub and a parent on your certificate of title. But these days, first-home buyers are prepared to be flexible.
Housing affordability fell to record lows in the March quarter this [...]
Tax hurdles trip property investors
INVESTORS own around two million homes in Australia, and every year thousands claim deductions they are not entitled to and fall foul of the Australian Taxation Office.
The result can be a kindly warning or a significant fine and large interest bill.
The tax office says it is investors’ responsibility to get their tax returns right [...]
Beach bargains are just a fairy story
CASHED-UP Melburnians keen to snatch beachfront holiday homes for a song from struggling vendors may be in for a big disappointment.
Plunging average prices for regional seaside homes don’t tell the full story.
Valuer-General Victoria sales figures released this month by Land Victoria show median house prices rose in a third of seaside towns!
From the [...]
High interest rates benefit investors
What happens if rates go up? In today’s low-interest-rate environment one of the common questions property investors ask is, “What happens if I buy now and interest rates skyrocket, like back in the 1980’s?”
An understandable concern and today’s historically low interest rates can’t be sustained forever because at some point the economy will begin [...]
Melbourne auction market clearance rate peaks
Of the 452 properties up for auction, 83 per cent sold and 77 properties were passed in!
But the number of properties for auction was 126 fewer than at the same time last year!
Real Estate Institute of Victoria CEO Enzo Raimondo attributed the high clearance rate to the extension of the first-home buyers grant [...]
Variable home loans at record levels!
Home buyers are flocking back to variable rate mortgages which now account for 91% of the residential lending market, their highest proportion in four months.
Mortgage broker Mortgage Choice reported in April, basic variable mortgages accounted for 48.15 per cent of all home loans approved - up nearly one per cent from March, while standard variable [...]
First homebuyers improve rental vacancy rates
Melbourne’s outer suburb vacancy rates have improved from 0.7 per cent to 1.8 per cent in the past six months, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria’s April vacancy rates.
The vacancy rate across Melbourne is reasonably steady having been between one and 1.4 per cent for 12 months. However it‘s significant that there’s a [...]
Commercial building holds up
The value of commercial building permits in Victoria increased in the March quarter, despite a fall in the state’s building industry overall.
Building Commissioner Tony Arnel says that when compared to the same period in 2008, the value of building permits in the state has decreased by 11 per cent to reach below $4.2 billion!
When [...]
How to profit from the next property boom!!
Property investors should plan ahead in order to take advantage of the next upturn in the property cycle, according to quantity surveying firm Asset Economics.
“Property booms never last (and) neither do property busts,” the firm says in its latest newsletter.
To take advantage of the next boom, investors need to buy for long-term capital growth [...]
Classic Double Fronted Slate Roofed Hawthorn Brick Victorian Residence of 6 Main Rooms, 3 Bedrooms + Study
551 Punt Road SOUTH YARRA
Painstakingly renovated with an open cheque book from the ground up, this stunning home has been re-stumped and rewired with new double glazing. It features a stunning gourmet kitchen opening to a large family room at the rear which overlooks the back garden and entertaining area.
Accommodation includes three huge double [...]