JonoP

Every time house prices start to dip, the EAs trade bodies try to start a panic about rising rents. I suspect that they think that if they can talk rents up there would be a level of support for high house prices. The thing is, it is a pure pipe dream. Rents are NOT shooting up It is utter fiction. My last 2 bed flat in the UK was 725 per month. I was paying 750 a month for a nastier place of a similar size in 2001. Some rent rise.

You can pass emergency legislation to stop people withdrawing large amounts of cash.......

Thing is, Seoul is 50km from the NK border. NK have hundreds of thousands, or it may be millions, of well dug in artillery pieces pointing at Seoul. They can flatten Seoul if they so desire. And the SK cannot really take out the NK artillery as they are all well dug in to bunkers/caves etc.

Hmmm. Interesting. He has been spouting off all over the shop but that is the first time I have seen him specifically mention war. I stand corrected though.

Really? They are keeing it bloody quiet over here.......

I do agree that wage inflation is the one thing that could bring Aussie house prices back in line with salaries, which would underpin the fundamentals of the housing market. However, the deal mentioned above is only 4.5% per year, hardly outrageous. And also, if inflation picks up, will overseas lenders still be prepared to lend money to Australia………. your mortgage industry is scuppered without it………..

Every few years there is a concerted effort to ramp the cost of rentals. You will no doubt shortly hear ARLA banging on about ‘shortage of supply’ and ‘huge increases in demand’. Thing is, this ramping tends to happen at a point where the capital appreciation of houses has stopped, or is reversing. We saw it in 2004, again in 2007 and hey ho, they are trying it again now. It was bull$hit when we heard it before and it is bull$hit now. Just ignore and make your own mind up from the number and prices of rentals available on Rightmove.

The RBA thing amuses me. The governors of the central banks in the US, the UK and Ireland (amongst others) all stated regularly that there were no housing bubbles in their respective countries. They were wrong. Why should we believe the RBA?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/rising-interest-rates-add-to-homes-stockpile/story-e6frg9gx-1225957998574

Atlanta really is a deeply unpleasant place. I have the misfortune to travel there quite regularly. It is very very deprived, the city centre is horrible and there are few major employer’s (aside from Coca Cola). The airport is probably the worst in the world outside of Africa. It is also one of only two places in the world where I have had someone point a gun at me. The only two things it has going for it are the Aquarium and a particularly fine Hooters Diner. Oh, and Fat Matt's Rib Shack.

I do not think the OP was looking to hide money. Tax avoidance is not the only reason to open a Swiss account.

Money Week recommend using Micheloud & Cie. They help customers identify the correct bank to meet their requirements and help open the account. http://swiss-bank-accounts.com/e/index.html

Yeah, it is like watching an entirely preventable train crash happening in slow motion.

Read the other article I posted. About the not so mythical 105% mortgages.

No, I cannot find it. However, it was well over a month ago that I read it and it could well have been in the AFR which you cannot access via the web. Anyhow, here is a similar article to fill the void. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/industry-sectors/banks-in-battle-so-go-in-and-barter/story-e6frg96f-1225925596434

Thought it was in The Australian but it was actually in the local WA paper (I was in Perth yesterday and read both papers on the way home) http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/new-bank-bonds-to-cut-rates-pressure/story-e6frg2qc-1225954202969

Nope.

Of course, you would not have to import so much if Australia actually had the skills to manufacture anything locally. However, with the exception of some OK'ish laundry airers, the Aussies fail in this respect. Even in in the realm of laundry airers, the ones manufactured in Europe are of far higher quality (I know this as i have just bought one). :-)

They have to be. There would be no ‘new blood’ able to afford to enter the housing market if they lent at more normal salary multiples. Gotta keep that Ponzi fuelled somehow. On a similar note, I saw an article a few weeks back in one the newspapers. It was one of the usual ‘pat ourselves on the back’ type articles that Aussie financial journos churn out on a daily basis. This particular article was praising the big four Aussie banks for being so risk averse in their lending. The article soundly chastised US/European banks for issuing mortgages at 100% of the property value. This, the article stated, would lead to disaster. The article then went on to state that the big four Aussie banks were capping their LTVs at a ‘sensible’ 98%. Which, they had recently raised from 93%...... The reason that prices are static here is that the pot of potential new mortgagees has been ‘fished out’. They are very few people left who could potentially afford a mortgage that do not already have one/some. It will be interesting to see what happens next. My guess would be that the banks would like to go down the Northern Rock path and start issuing crazy LTV mortgages (or, as they would class it ‘fight for market share’). The only problem is that they are struggling to secure funds to do this. There was an article in the paper yesterday saying that they want the government to start allowing them to underwrite their bonds with depositor’s cash savings. Interesting times. The other thing over here is that you have the usual issues around the wider economy being reliant to house prices to drive spending. All those new cars, boats, couples on cruises, designer sunglasses, handbags, IPods/Pads etc that you see everywhere….. I wonder how many of those could have been afforded without the ‘miracle’ of easy housing cash………

Yeah, I must admit, it does not feel like the market is on the verge of crashing. Yet. It is kind of teetering on the limits of debt fueled affordability. I still think an external shock is required that will drive up the cost of imported capital before we have the main event. 12 to 24 months I would guess.

And the leasehold charges. You start adding them up over 25 years and appartments are WAY more expensive than comparable freehold places. That siad, I have no problem with apartments and would actively choose to live in one if a) They were built to reasonable dimensions They were built with plenty of storage space c) They each had some form of outdoor space (a balconey/courtyard). d) Leasehold charges were fair and reasonable

Depends to a degree on the height you are flying at :-)

Now now, calm down, there is no need to despair :-)

That is a credible source of information. If I was you, I would go and borrow lots of money and invest it where they tell you as I am sure they have your best interests at heart.

Ooooohhh, a whole 18 thousand jobs!!!! A shame they do not mention the timeframe this employment miracle will occur over. Will it be 18k jobs over 25 years or 18K over 60 years? The mind boggles. Meanwhile, back in the real world, the UK public sector is shedding 500K jobs over the next few years. That is what happens when your credit is crunched. Bardon, you need to stop swallowing EVERY line the Aussie PR industry feeds you…………………..