The latest regional population figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal an increasing trend toward inner city living, as Gen Y leads the surge of people choosing to move closer to our major CBD’s.

As they leave the sanctuary of their parents’ homes and realise true independence, most Gen Y’s are opting to live closer to employment opportunities, established infrastructure and lifestyle amenities, including public transport, shopping, restaurants and entertainment facilities.

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Last week it seemed sellers had a case of spring fever, with a flurry of auction activity as winter came to a close. This week, while stock levels were not as high, all cities apart from Sydney experienced a clearance rate comeback to healthier levels.

According to the latest RP Data Rismark Home Value Index however, Australia’s capital city property values have slowed considerably, with predictions that prices will continue to show minimal change for the remainder of the year.

Read on to find out more…

The Australian economy will rebound and inflationary pressures will force mortgage interest rates above 9% within three years according to the BIS Shrapnel’s Long Term Forecasts, 2010 – 2025 report.

While this will bring the current property cycle to a halt there are some great opportunities for smart property investors before then.

Read on to find out more…

MORE than one million Australians will have pay rises eaten up over the next three years because tax cuts are off the agenda for both parties.
 
Workers earning $34,000 a year will see their tax rate double from 15c in the dollar to 30c in the dollar in the next three years as politicians focus on paying off the nation's debt.
 
Workers who earn $73,000 a year, the average total weekly earnings for males in New South Wales, will be pushed from the 30c tax bracket to the 37c tax bracket by 2013.
 
It's called bracket creep and it happens when the tax scales are not indexed to take account of inflationary growth in wages.
 
The age pension and other welfare payments are indexed twice a year but the tax system is not automatically adjusted for inflation or wages growth.
 
A series of tax cuts by governments over the last decade has protected Australians from bracket creep.
 
But on July 1 workers received the last of the scheduled $34 billion tax cuts promised by both major parties at the beginning of the 2007 election.
 
An analysis prepared for The Daily Telegraph using the Melbourne Institute's tax and transfer simulator at the University of Melbourne showed that, without further tax cuts, in two years 735,000 workers would be paying a higher rate of tax as wage rises pushed them into a higher tax bracket.
 
Within three years, the time of the next election, 1.14 million Australians will be in a higher tax bracket.
 
To prevent bracket creep the threshold for the 15c tax bracket would have to rise from $37,000 per year to $41,619 per year by 2013, and the threshold for the 30c-in-the-dollar tax bracket would have to rise from $80,000 per year to $89,989 per year.
 
The Henry Tax review commissioned by former prime minister Kevin Rudd called for a major simplification of the tax system that would see the current $6000 tax free threshold to be lifted to $25,000.
 
Anyone earning over $25,000 would pay a flat tax rate of 35c in the dollar and there would be only one other tax rate of 45c applying to earnings over $180,000.

That sounds like a pretty good idea to me. It’s a pity the government of the day commissioned this tax review and then rejected most of its suggestions

LENDERS are making it harder for people to borrow for homes by lifting the size of rate rises customers must show they can handle.

This means borrowers wanting to secure funds for a home purchase or a property investment must be able to show the banks that they could handle the loan repayments if interest rates increased further.

Research by Mortgage Choice revealed that in early 2009, when borrowing costs hit 60-year lows, lenders were applying rate-rise stress tests that ranged from 0.75 per cent to 1.5 per cent.
 
It is now 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent – in other words borrowers must be able to demonstrate their budgets could cope with an interest rate rise of 1.5% to 2.5%
 
With this new buffer requirement and an average mortgage of $452,000, a borrower has to show they have as much as $800 a month extra. Obviously this will mean some potential property investors will not be able to borrow as much as they had hoped.
 
And this is evident in the Australian Bureau of Statistics' housing finance figures, which had been declining for the past seven months.
 
It is unlikely that this situation will improve for a number of years as the cost of funds for banks is likely to remains high while all the overseas financial and economic problems slowly work their way out.

Spring is here and homeowners and property investors are waiting with to see what's in store.

Will the property market experience its traditional spring rebound? Will buyer demand keep pace with housing supply? And everyone wants to know what will happen to prices.

At the coalface, the markets are patchy, fragmented and uneven. Some suburbs are still performing well with multiple buyers for every property for sale pushing up prices, while other suburbs are eerily quiet.

Historically, the spring market tends to be the most active time of the year and usually delivers the strongest price growth of any quarter. But this year it’s likely to be different. Prices are unlikely to grow significantly.

With all the mixed messages in the media people are very cautious, and are holding off making major buying decisions.

On the negative side there is the depressive effect of the Reserve Bank's six interest rate rises; worsening housing affordability; wobbles in the financial markets and persistent fears about the fragility of the international economy; the uncertainty caused by the delays in the outcome of the federal election.

And, yet, there is still plenty to be positive about. Australia's economy is among the healthiest in the world. Interest rates, while higher, are still comparatively low. Population growth remains robust and there still aren't enough properties being built to satisfy long-term demand.

The buyers’ agents at Metropole tell me that good properties are still selling well, there are lots of buyers out there for great properties, but secondary properties such as on main roads or in porr locations are struggling to find buyers.

We have turned from a sellers market in the first half of the year into a buyers market now. If you intend to by a new home or property investment, this could be a great time to buy. In the past year or so it didn’t matter if you overpaid because in the rising market your property would have increased in value even before you settled on it.  

Things are very different today. You can’t just buy any property – you need to be selective, do your research and buy well. Buy below intrinsic value in an area that has always had strong capital growth and buy a property to which you can add value

When it comes to property investment you’ll often hear two somewhat conflicting philosophies being bandied around, so a common question beginning investors ask is – which is better?

Read on to find out…

Signs of spring are becoming apparent with warmer weather on the horizon. Traditionally for our property markets, this time of year sees an increase in buying and selling activity.

It’s therefore not surprising that Sydney and Adelaide clearance rates picked up this week, even though Melbourne and Brisbane auction results remained fairly sluggish.

Read on to find out more…

When I was still a novice investor one of my early mentors taught me that the four most dangerous words a property investor could say was “this time it's different.”

Unfortunately in my early days of investing I ignored his advice, to my detriment, as I found that history does repeat itself.

The best way to explain is to look back to earlier this year as many of our property markets boomed and two extreme opinions came out. One group suggested we are in for a long boom and another said the property markets would implode. At the time I made it clear that my view was the extremists, in both directions will be wrong.....

Please click here now to read my best property investment lessons...

Today’s blog is a little different – it’s not about property – it’s about you!  I would like to share the words of the late, great Jim Rohn. He said:

Here's the great challenge of life - You can have more than you've got because you can become more than you are.

I have found that income seldom will exceed your own personal development. Once in a while income takes a lucky jump, but unless you grow out to where it is it will go back to where you are. Somebody once said if you took all the money in the world and divided it among everyone equally; it would soon be back in the same pockets.

However, you can have more because you can become more.

You see, here is how the other side of the coin reads - unless you change how you are, you will always have what you've got. In order to have more, you need to become more.

The guy says "If I had a good job I would really pour it on, but I have this lousy job so I just goof off." If that is your philosophy you are destined to stay there. Some people say if I had a lot of money I would be really generous, but I don't have much so I'm not generous. See, you've got to change that philosophy or you will never have "the lots of money".

Unless YOU change, IT won't change. Amazingly, however, when we throw out our blame list and start becoming more ourselves - the difference is everything else will begin to change around us.