Housing dream turned nightmare
There is no doubt at all that the housing market in Australia has become uncontrollable, unstable and unaffordable for the average person on a normal wage.
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The housing market prices now outstrip the average wage by 14.5 per cent. So how can the average person or family, ever hope to repay the massive debt that they are being forced into paying for existing residential properties that have seen a 23 per cent average increase within the past 12 months?
There are various factors that have and are contributing to the specific reasons for the massive increase in residential home prices, with everyone; real estates, investment companies, governments, and the public sector all with their own ideas and theories.
I would like to point out a couple of salient points causing what I believe to be the greatest contributor to the massive price increases.
My son is trying to buy a residential property. He started in this endeavor five months ago and found that he and his wife needed to borrow more money just to be able to keep up with the ever increasing rise in prices to stay in the search for a home. They found that a property would go on line, photos, story, etc, etc, but with "no asking price" or any relevance as to what the property was worth.
So they would ask the various agents about the price and on every occasion the respective answer has been; "It's in the $700,000s, $800,000 or $900,000s" and so on.
My son naturally started out offering the asking prices only to find that he was wasting his time. He started offering $25,000, then $50,000 more and after five months is still looking.
What other item does one purchase where you are given an inflated estimated price range for what you seek to buy, and then you are left to guess what you are going bid within a hundred thousand dollars or so? Cars, boats, planes, building a house, TVs, golf clubs, clothes, groceries? No, they all come with a set price with the variance being quality, styles and in some cases quantity.
Yet the prices of residential properties have $50,000 to $150,000 open ended variances or guestimates for the untrained purchasers to try to work out so they can place a sensible bid. In some cases, (due to supply and demand) completely rundown residences are being sold, thousands, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars above their worth. The banks and fiance companies are to blame here too, offering the funds up front on these and other residences that they must know are massively over priced.
This scenario again adds to the ridiculous price increases. An estimate of price for properties should be set by the owner and agent before the property is listed for sale. With a between base price and highest price level of expectation given.
When this kind of selling regime is in place, of course people are going to offer the highest price possible, knowing that you only get one bid, no second chance, and you need a home for your family.
So off to the bank you go to borrow more money just to keep up with the rising prices with the dream that you might be successful next time. And in doing so up go the prices further and further.
What will happen when interest rates rise, as they surely will?
Even a two per cent rise will see thousand of loans defaulted and dreams becoming a nightmare.
Dennis Johnson JP,
North Nowra
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