Monthly Archives

April 2016

Apr 04
0

Fastest Price Growth in Australia

By | best investment, Economy, Financial, Home Loans, Investment, News, Properties | No Comments

Price Growth the Highest it’s been in 8 Years!

Number of Property Sales Approaching All-Time High

Price growth to Continue

Economy Witnessing Rapid Expansion

These ‘Headlines” are true but you really have to read between the lines to see and understand them.

Instead you get to read,

” The boom time is over for house prices in Sydney and Melbourne, with top economists from our major banks and universities projecting prices will rise by less than 3 per cent across both cities in 2016.” –

http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/businessday-economic-survey-what-will-happen-to-house-prices-in-2016-20160127-gmfolm#ixzz3yslpWtTh

 

price-growth
……  Or if you really want some cheering on the same day’s media you can read

“The latest Sydney weekend auction market results are sobering for both buyers and sellers.”

http://www.domain.com.au/news/lowest-january-auction-results-in-10-years-20160131-gmiayu/

Keep looking and reading and you can clearly see these stories are for local Sydney consumption are both are only discussing the Sydney or the Sydney/Melbourne housing markets.

There are always opportunities somewhere in Australia to make excellent gains in property investment. If you do read between the lines in much of the media we see in Sydney at the moment, the articles often point to the fact that Brisbane is growing! So if you do want to read some more positive commentary on the current housing market, you may have to start reading the Courier Mail or some of the other Queensland –based newspapers.

~ Lime Property Solutions

Apr 04
0

Brisbane Market Growing

By | Home Loans, Investment, Market, Properties | No Comments

Sydney Residential Property Prices Drop 3.1% over the December Quarter

Since early 2010 the Sydney property market has been on a growth cycle. Most of the growth up until mid 2012 was around the CBD and inner suburbs.

After a slight drop in median price in mid 2012, the housing market has had phenomenal growth all over the Sydney basin. However, after three years of soaring property prices in Sydney, house prices have fallen by the largest quarterly drop on record.

Sydney’s median house price dropped 3.1 per cent over the December quarter 2015 according to the Domain House Price Report released last Thursday.

It’s what Lime property Solutions has been forecasting for the last 18 months so it shouldn’t come as any surprise to our clients.

 

The good news of course, is that the Brisbane house market is still moving upward from its slow growth start back in late 2013.

Read full article at: http://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-house-prices-drop-3-per-cent-domain-group-20160127-gmd7pl/

~ Lime Property Solutions

Apr 04
0

Change Your Home Into The Best Investment Ever?

By | best investment, domain, Home Loans, Investment, News, Properties | No Comments

Is It Really So Easy to Buy the Best House? Or Change Your Home Into The Best Investment Ever?

According to a recent article posted on domain.com.au we can all live in a much healthier home by doing eight very simple little things – according to science!

investment

 

What really attracted me to this article was the fact that I do really like to think that I am somewhat in control of my health and well-being but I am also pretty de-motivated at the thousands of articles I read that suggest I should be doing a lot more exercise or going on to one of the latest fad diets. Either of these suggestions (if implemented) does not make my home “healthier’; in fact either could create depression if implemented!

So maybe I could try all of the following?

Here are eight ways to make your home instantly healthier.

  1. Dine with coloured dinnerware
  2. Turn down the thermostat at night
  3. Wash your linen weekly
  4. Add a mirror to your dining room
  5. Create a charging station (Are we really so connected today??)
  6. Downsize bowls and glassware (Ok – there had to be something about diet or size of proportions!)
  7. Add greenery
  8. Build a home playlist

Full explanations of the above can be found in the full article; http://www.domain.com.au/news/eight-simple-ways-to-create-a-healthy-home-according-to-science-20160125-gmdwwh/

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Twitter: @LimeProperty1

~ Lime Property Solutions

Apr 04
0

Home Loans for the Rich and Home Loans for the Poor!

By | banking, Building, Economy, finance, Financial, Home Loans, Mortgage, mortgage rates, News, Properties, Property Solutions | No Comments

Best Mortgage Rates – Home Loans for the Rich and Home Loans for the Poor!

There seems to be an emerging pattern in the last few blogs – money makes money!

All seems very typical of the banks – always giving out free umbrellas but very quick to take them back if it starts raining!

We seem to be back to a two-tier mortgage and/or investment loan market which is basically working on the principal of the more you can actually afford, the cheaper your loan will be. Of course, the reverse is also true; the less you have in equity or income the more the banks will charge you for your investment loan.

Bottom line is, for anyone with a little bit of equity or savings and a reasonable, steady income, there are still good deals out there and it’s a great time to be buying a good little investment property!
Read more: www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/banks-get-picky-with-mortgage-deals-rewarding-cashedup-owneroccupiers-20160125-gmdx28#ixzz3yP8wj0DN
Follow us: www.facebook.com/pages/Lime-Property-Solutions/138210849608998

Twitter : @LimeProperty1 |
~ Lime Property Solutions

Apr 04
0

Rents Falling in Sydney

By | News, Properties, property cycle, Property Solutions, rent | No Comments

Rents Falling in Sydney

Sometimes trying to understand how the property cycle works can be pretty basic. We haven’t been able to avoid the media hype over the last couple of years on the booming Sydney market. It has been growing at what some have described as an alarming rate, in some suburbs by over 100% in just the last 5 years, in others over 30% in just one year.

With this massive demand, it’s pretty predictable that developers would be out there building as much as they possibly can ‘making hay while the sun shines’.

Now can it be much of a surprise to read that 61,000 new apartments will be completed between 2015 and 2017 throwing the rental market into an oversupply situation?

With oversupply, renters now have much more choice and landlords must lower their expectations on what rent is achievable, so it’s now a ‘renter’s market”!

Yields, that is rental income, is now so low in Melbourne and Sydney; reported at just 2.6%, the lowest on record in Melbourne and not much more in Sydney, that investors are walking away from the market. If we do not have the buyers, then the developers will stop building; over a few years, rental property will start to become scarce again and yields will start to rise. When yields approach 4.5% – 5% of purchase price, investing may seem like a good option and investors will start returning to the market and thus cause price increases again.

How long will this all take? History shows that the next growth cycle will probably be in around 5 to 6 years depending on economic and population growth.

Brisbane, however, unlike Melbourne and Sydney, is still very attractive for investors with yields of over 5% still attainable on many new investment properties.

Read more: www.propertyinvest.co/media or http://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-apartment-rents-fall-as-building-boom-takes-toll-domain-group-20160113-gm3umw/

~ Lime Property Solutions

Apr 04
0

Who Really Sees The Financial Gain

By | Economy, finance, Financial, News, Property Solutions | No Comments

Who Really Gains in our Western-Style Economies?

We’ve been hearing for a while now that the rich are getting richer at the expense of the poor. In the USA Robert Lieberman made the following comment a couple of years ago,

“This is what the political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson call the “winner-take-all economy.” It is not a picture of a healthy society. Such a level of economic inequality, not seen in the United States since the eve of the Great Depression, bespeaks a political economy in which the financial rewards are increasingly concentrated among a tiny elite and whose risks are borne by an increasingly exposed and unprotected middle class.” Read more: www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2011-01-01/why-rich-are-getting-richer

economy

 

Increasing inequality in Australia has also been highlighted recently but the latest report from Oxfam should have us all thinking….  Just 62 people in the whole world have as much wealth as poorest half of the world’s population! The richest 62 people have seen their wealth grow by a staggering 44% in just the last 5 years.

“The big winners in our global economy are those at the top. Our economic system is heavily skewed in their favour. Far from trickling down, income and wealth are instead being sucked upwards at an alarming rate,” the report stated.

Another eye-opener refers to a Credit Suisse study that revealed the richest 1 per cent now have more than the rest of the world. This occurred a year earlier than predicted.

The world really does need to do something about tax avoidance by multi-nationals and the super-rich.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/sixtytwo-people-have-the-same-amount-of-wealth-as-half-the-world-says-oxfam-20160116-gm7h6y#ixzz3xecOHK6i
Follow us:  www.facebook.com/Lime-Property-Solutions-138210849608998/

 

~ Lime Property Solutions

Apr 04
0

The Not-So-Lucky Country!

By | News, Property Solutions | No Comments

The Not-So-Lucky Country….. If You Are A Pensioner!

So the recent OECD report on the World’s top performing 32 countries has Australian pensioners ranked as number 31, just ahead of South Korea, as the worst off!

If this is not a reason for the average Australian to re-think their financial goals for 2016, I don’t know what could be?

According to the recent report, 36% of Australian pensioners are now living below the poverty line – more than one-third of our pensioner population! Yet all it takes to avoid living your last 20 or 30 years below the poverty line for the vast majority of working Australians is an investment in a very affordable investment property that in many cases may not even affect current cash flow!

The report, released in December 2015, found the Australian government contributes less to old-age benefits than other OECD countries. The Australian government spends 3.5 per cent of GDP on the pension, below the OECD average of 7.9 per cent.

If we can’t depend on our government to look after us in our old age, surly we have a responsibility to ourselves to ensure that we can live a comfortable life in retirement and all it takes is a phone call to 1300 31 11 41 to find out how you can avoid being in that lower 36% in your ‘golden years’!
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/onethird-of-australian-pensioners-live-in-poverty-oecd-report-20160106-gm0uno#ixzz3wbzE0rJm

 

~ Lime Property Solutions

Apr 04
0

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

By | Building, News, Property Solutions | No Comments
Lies, Damned lies and Statistics –“Building approvals slump for apartments and houses”

How can someone living in Sydney or Melbourne obtain any real understanding of the Australian Property Market?
Our ‘National” Press have been bombarding us with headlines from the beginning of 2015 about some magical property boom going on throughout Australia and more recently about how this ‘boom’ has come to a sudden stop with prices rapidly going backwards.
There is a great article in the Australian Financial Review on 6th January 2015 by Mathew Cranston informing us;
“Apartment approvals across Australia have given up their record-breaking numbers, with the latest official figures showing they slumped 23 per cent in November.”
The full story can be found at: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/building-approvals-slump-for-apartments-and-houses-20160106-gm0ucv#ixzz3wWSow34X
It goes on to state that , “Sydney property prices fell for the second consecutive month dropping 2.3 per cent in December, according to CoreLogic RP Data Home Value Index.”
I can only assume this is another general piece of parochial Sydneysider reporting with the impression that Australia stretches from somewhere around the Hawkesbury river to Port Philip Bay and all to the east of the Great Dividing Range!
This following piece must also only refer to the Hawkesbury/Port Philip Bay area
“Lower level approvals is not unexpected given the higher levels of approvals throughout the whole year,” Mr Harnich said.
“This could be good for first home buyers as it may put some downward pressure on pricing and help them into housing market.”
Brisbane is Australia’s third largest city and the following is a quote from the Australian Bureau of Statistics web site –
“The trend estimate for total number of dwelling units approved in Queensland rose 0.9% in November and has risen for three months. The trend estimate for the number of private sector houses rose 0.1% in November and has risen for seven months.”
Don’t believe it…. try: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Latestproducts/8731.0Main%20Features3Nov%202015?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=8731.0&issue=Nov%202015&num=&view=
By definitions above, we must be expecting some growth then in Brisbane? This I could agree with!

~ Lime Property Solutions

Apr 04
0

Do It Because You Can!

By | News, Property Solutions | No Comments

DO IT BECAUSE YOU CAN – Why Do Today What You Can Put Off Until Tomorrow?

I don’t believe most people really appreciate the unbelievable cost of “thinking about it”; “putting it off” or using the word we often use “PROCRASTINATING”.

We know a few people from around mid 2015 who were reasonably keen on investing in property but decided to “wait a couple of months”.  They came back to talk to us a couple of months later and we had to inform them that if they wanted to go ahead now, they would have to move from their current lender and find a lender who would do a loan of just over 80% loan for them. The lending ‘rules’ changed and they could no longer do what they were able to do just four or five weeks earlier!

In a volatile market place, rules are constantly changing. Major banks have again just announced a tightening of borrowing criteria. We now find that an average income family on a combined income of $120,000 per year purchasing an investment property, will have to make do with up to $80,000 less from a major bank than they would have had a year ago. This sounds pretty bad but Mr & Mrs Average still have a pretty good borrowing capacity for investment if they act now.

To measure the impact of tougher bank lending policies, Homeloanexperts calculated the borrowing power or maximum loan amount for a couple earning $60,000 each, with two children and came up with some interesting comparisons across the four major banks.

Commonwealth Bank, for instance, could have lent $640,000 as a housing investment loan (Not owner-occupier)a year ago, compared with $560,000 now – an $80,000 reduction. Other major banks had similar reductions in lending capacity over the year.

(Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/maximum-loan-sizes-slashed-how-banks-are-cracking-down-on-borrowers-20151222-glt9xv#ixzz3wQsVLaE6 )

 

The big question is “How much less may you be able to borrow if you procrastinate for another year?”

 

One of the many important reasons for taking action now at the beginning of 2016 is quite simply do it “BECAUSE YOU CAN!” It might be a completely different story in a few months time and you may have lost your opportunity for ever!

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