Flats 90210

The average Australian family can no longer afford the average home mortgage, according to new figures that paint a devastating picture of how unaffordable housing has become in capital cities like Melbourne.

As the Reserve Bank considers raising interest rates again this week, figures from the Real Estate Institute of Australia suggest households on average incomes would need to spend $3 in every $8 they earn just to service an average mortgage.

After tax is deducted, it gets worse: the figures imply that almost half the typical family’s disposable income would be consumed by the average mortgage.

The housing affordability index, published by the Real Estate Institute and mortgage guarantor Deposit Power, shows that the combination of soaring flats prices and higher interest rates is pricing both buyers and renters out of the market.

The situation is the same in the whole world, Governors, do something for us! Stop using money to build Army Headquarters…

Cheers

I´m a young guy and i have a bunch of goals in my life, its normal. But I hate the stablished statments in this corrupted and perverted society. Mortgages for the whole life? Whats that? You kidding me? Its suposed to be a human right, a bloody roof to live in, I cannot understand the world´s situation already.
My goal is a flat, a small one, I dont want those flats full of furnish crap or a couple of cats waiting for me in the kitchen, no mates, I just want a roof, and I want to pay for, I dont want presents.
Obviously I have another goal, Find the girl of my dreams… Dont you?
Darkenss, I see darkness everywhere…
Cheers

HDFC Property Fund’s international wing has picked up a nearly 50 per cent stake in Mumbai-based developer ACME Group’s housing project in Thane, on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Though the fund has bought the stake in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to develop an eco- township, the exact financial details of the deal is not known. ACME Ozone, a 1.1 million sq ft township, will have 760 residential flats and a small commercial space based on the eco-living theme. The company has already launched the project, expected to be completed in four years.

K G Krishnamurthy, MD & CEO, HDFC Property Ventures, could not be contacted for comments. When contacted, Pravin Doshi, chairman of ACME Group said, “It is true that HDFC fund has picked up almost 50 per cent stake in the project. However, we cannot reveal the financial details due to our non-disclosure agreement.

Over the last two years, land prices have shown a northward trend. Now, it’s time now for a realty check. Record land auction at Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex- like the Rs 46,000 per square ft buy by Wadhwa Builders in November 2007 are passe. The last auction at BKC, by Jet Airways, has seen rates tumbling to Rs 32,000, a drop of a whopping 30% in just about four months.

Year 2008 has already seen some setbacks in land prices across Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and Gurgaon. Most agree that land rates across cities are coming down and deal volumes have decreased. “There has been a visible downward trend in land auctions that started beginning of this year,” says Anuj Puri, chairman and country head, Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL).

Consultants like JLL claim that land prices at Thane’s Waghale Estate has come down from Rs 20 crore an acre about 6-9 months back for an industrial plot to Rs 15 crore, the asking price today.

Even at Turbhe and Nerul in Navi Mumbai, rates are down from Rs 18-20 crore an acre to Rs 15 crore. A deal for a housing society at BKC’s neighboring Kalina was called off a while back as the Rs 30,000 per sqft price being quoted was too high.

Cheers mates!

Rental flats expenses that can be claimed in the year they were incurred include: advertising for tenants; mortgage discharge expenses; bank charges; pest control; body corporate fees; property agents’ fees ; cleaning; repairs and maintenance; council rates; bookkeeping fees; electricity and gas; security fees; gardening and lawn mowing; insurance; postage; interest on loans; telephone calls and rental; land tax; some legal expenses; travel expenses; lease costs; and water charges.

Expenses that taxpayers cannot claim in respect to rental properties are mostly those not actually incurred by the taxpayer, such as water or electricity charges borne by the tenants.

The Institute Of Chartered Accountants In Australia says you are generally entitled to claim deductions from the time the property is available for rent, even if it is not rented.

However, for it to be “available for rent”, you must make active and genuine efforts to rent the property during the period, such as having the property listed for rental with an estate agent.

Falling consumer confidence in America allied to the continued drop in flats prices is pointing to the lowest level of spending since the 1950s, official data showed yesterday.

According to the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index, the outlook of Americans last month was the most gloomy since October 1992, with expectations for the future declining even further.

Economists said that, if their expectations are borne out, consumption would fall by 2.5 per cent - the worst decline since 1959. Consumer demand accounts for two thirds of US economic growth.

At the same time, new data showed that house prices are falling almost five times as quickly as in the last US recession in 1991.

HIA chief economist Harley Dale said higher interest rates and rising petrol and grocery prices were affecting housing affordability and “at best” new homes sales would remain flats during 2008-09.

The state with the biggest fall in April was Queensland, where new home sales slumped 9.4 per cent. For the three months to April, sales were down 7 per cent and were 14 per cent lower than in the year-ago period.

In contrast, West Australian sales jumped 21.8 per cent in April. For the three months to April, WA new home sales were down 11 per cent and were 9 per cent lower than the same period a year earlier.

Housing Industry Association WA executive director John Dastlik said it appeared the WA housing market had stabilised. WA’s second biggest home builder, Dale Alcock, said falling house and land prices in the past few months had lured back first home buyers.

New home sales in NSW eased 0.4 per cent in April and fell 4 per cent for the three months to April, but were 1 per cent higher than a year ago. In South Australia, sales climbed 14.7 per cent in April but were down 5 per cent in the three months to April.