Tag Archives: housing

As many units as houses approved in Queensland in last 12 months – is a unit price crash coming?

In March, QUT Media reported that, based on analysis by Professor Chris Eves, “Brisbane’s inner city apartment market will crash in 2016, due to oversupply driven by belief in inexhaustible international demand.” (See Collapse of Brisbane’s inner city apartment market … Continue reading

Posted in Housing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

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

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

Posted in Housing, Tax | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

RBA should leave fiscal policy advice to the Treasury

RBA Governor Glenn Stevens gave an odd speech in Brisbane yesterday, in which he more-or-less suggested the federal Government should try to offset the demand shock from the end of the mining boom with expanded infrastructure investment, and that now … Continue reading

Posted in Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

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

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

Posted in Housing, Tax | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Residential building will help economy adjust to end of mining boom

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

Posted in Housing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

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

Posted in Housing, Tax, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Urban sprawl filling in the 200km City

In the first seven months of financial year 2014-15, the top five suburban areas in Queensland for residential building approvals were: Newstead-Bowen Hills (1,358 approvals), Southport (1,305), North Lakes-Mango Hill (612), Caloundra-West (406), and Jimboomba (401) (see map below based … Continue reading

Posted in Housing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Up-tick in Queensland building approvals, while Victoria surges

There was a welcome 5.6% increase in building approvals in November last year according to ABS data released yesterday (see chart above), largely due to approvals of new apartments and townhouses. Of course, the volatility of approvals from month-to-month means … Continue reading

Posted in Housing, Macroeconomy | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Residential building activity recovering nicely, but still below levels of mid-2000s

Builders across Queensland should have noticed higher levels of residential building activity lately, although they may still be disappointed activity remains below the levels of the mid-2000s (see chart based on ABS building activity data released yesterday below). The new … Continue reading

Posted in Housing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

HIA wants debate on stamp duty, not negative gearing

The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has released an excellent report from the consulting firm of top Australian economist Chris Murphy on The Economic Impacts of Negative Gearing of Residential Property (see the news report Don’t slash negative gearing, says HIA). … Continue reading

Posted in Housing | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments