Its that time of the year when many Australian property investors and owners will be receiving their Council rates bill. It is of course traditional to complain about ever increasing Council taxes but they may be the best value for money taxes that you pay on behalf of your property.
domain.com.au has a high profile in the Australian real estate market which is hardly surprising as its part of the Fairfax Digital Network which owns a number of Australian TV channels and newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (Melbourne). domain.com.au also sponsors the long-running popular “Hot Property” TV program.
The headline caught my eye:
“Built for Two – from first-home buyers to empty-nesters, our small lot special has options for everyone.
This from the local paper’s weekly New Homes guide which tends to focus on the 4 bedroom, 2-bathroom plus pool MacMansion segment of the market.
The reverse-mortgage market is in full retreat in Australia, with the fourth lender this year announcing it is pulling back.
Reverse mortgages have been headline news in Australia and New Zealand for several years as a retirement funding solution for seniors who are asset rich but cash poor. A way to cash in on your, normally unintentional nest egg of your home.
Australian’s traditional houses were made of corrugated iron, roof and sometimes even walls, in the absence of wood, with big veranda all around. The veranda started off purely practical – a tin house turns into an oven very quickly in Australia’s heat.
Jan and Ian Somers entered the Property Investment industry in 1989. somersoft.com.au is their website which they use to support their books and software over the years up until the latest book “More Wealth from Residential Property”.
When buying an investment property in Australia or New Zealand the usual agreement is by “private treaty” when the buyer makes a written offer and the seller either accepts, rejects or counter-offers.
When a written offer is presented to an agent it is usual practice for any other interested parties to be contacted so that all offers can be presented to the seller together. Although the agent is obliged to present the offer as quickly as possible, the agent also has an obligation to inform the seller of any other potential offers. Normally what happens is that the agent “calls interest” giving all other agents in the agency a few hours to get any of their prospects to make a written offer. Beware that your initial offer may be your only chance and that a low-ball offer may be unofficially outbid. Now this does not necessarily you should make your best offer or an unconditional offer but think before you act.
First home buyers are returning to the Perth market: which is good for everyone including investors.
On the back of reported property price drops in Perth it looks like first home buyers are starting to look again. Loans to first home buyers are now around 30% of all new loans approved according to REIWA.
The continuing mining boom and related job opportunities fueling net immigration to Western Australia isn’t stopping the state’s property prices dropping reports the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia.
WA house prices peaked at the end of 2007 when the Perth median price reached $475,000, prices have now dropped to $446,000.
Not long after all the publicity of Nicole Kidman filming the, soon to be released, Baz Luhrman film “Australia” in the Kimberleys comes some sad news about another Kidnam. S.Kidnam and Co have put up for sale the enormous Ruby Plains and Sturt Creek stations which together cover almost 8000 sq km of cattle country in West Australia’s East Kimberleys.
