Category Archives: Housing

Curtis Island LNG projects more-or-less doubled heavy construction activity in peak period

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Gene Tunny

About the great American mountain-man Jim Bridger, Johnny Horton sang “That he was making history never once occurred to him.” I wonder if the men and women who have worked on the Curtis Island LNG plants have realised that they … Continue reading →

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Stamp duty has to go – time to consider greater reliance on land tax & GST

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Gene Tunny

It is lamentable that our State Governments are so reliant on a source of revenue, stamp duty, that is very costly to the economy and has no defenders outside of State Treasuries who would greatly miss the money if it … Continue reading →

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Brisbane City Council made right decision on Toowong towers

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Brisbane City Council deserves credit for ignoring its own City Plan and approving the development of three new high-rise apartment towers at the old ABC site at Toowong (see Toowong towers nine storeys too high: Labor lord mayoral candidate). I’ve … Continue reading →

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Upcoming Young Economists Coffee Connections to discuss negative gearing & capital gains tax treatment

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Gene Tunny

I await with interest the Hansard transcript of Treasury Secretary John Fraser’s testimony before Senate Estimates in Canberra yesterday, because in his reported comments he appears to be saying that any housing price bubble that may exist in Australia isn’t … Continue reading →

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Clear evidence re-zoning decisions favour politically connected – new paper by Murray and Frijters

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Cameron Murray and Paul Frijters from the School of Economics at UQ have an excellent  paper out proving what we’ve all long suspected: that the politically well-connected do much better in the property development game than those less well-connected (see … Continue reading →

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Residential dwelling investment crucial to re-balancing of Qld economy

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Queensland Treasury’s latest set of State Accounts, which have created so much controversy (see my previous post on Qld’s technical recession), show just how extraordinary the private sector investment boom was in Queensland, with investment increasing as a share of … Continue reading →

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Residential building will help economy adjust to end of mining boom

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Gene Tunny

March quarter building approvals figures released by the ABS today show that the residential building industry, no doubt encouraged by very low interest rates,  will help the economy adjust to the end of the mining boom (see the Queensland data … Continue reading →

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Bad day for developers in Queensland – risk to future investment and jobs

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Gene Tunny

At a time when the Queensland economy is experiencing a huge negative shock from the downturn in the resources sector, and at a time when the health of our recovering building industry is very important, it is discouraging that some … Continue reading →

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Grattan book City Limits highlights problems with current planning and transport policies

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Jane Frances-Kelly and Paul Donegan, formerly and currently of the Grattan Institute respectively, had an excellent book published earlier this month called City Limits, which argues strongly for cutting red tape from town planning processes, introducing congestion charging for roads, … Continue reading →

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Feedback between interstate migration and employment growth

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Queensland has, in recent years, experienced relatively low employment growth and low net interstate migration (see chart above). In previous posts (e.g. Victoria continues to lure Queenslanders), I have noted how fewer employment opportunities in Queensland may have reduced the … Continue reading →

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