I don't think current predictions of 'gloom' are based in any reality what-so-ever.

Firstly we do know that every other country with booms like Australia has had have since fallen over, Ireland, Britain, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, US. But the difference for Australia is that the prices seem to be justified. Other counteries (mainly Ireland, Britain, USA) had homes costing a higher and higher amount of average income. We all hear the stories about how australian houses were 4x the average income but are now 7x the average income. But this is just pure lies. The ratio has been constant and consistent since 1991. The higher prices have come simply because wages have moved up in line with them, completely different to the other counteries, where people with lower wages started to lend more money.

Secondly there hasn't even been a downturn. The rate at which property prices are increasing has reduced, but the prices themselves haven't and are unlikly to now that interest rates have dropped again. Brisbane has been at 20% per year since the year 2,000 and slowed abit to about 10% when the interest rates were up at 8%, now the prices are moving back up again. The rental vacancies are the lowest ever. Yields are going up. If you do the math you can hold an average $280k house for about $50 per week today. Melbourne has tradiontional been the worst and isn't set to change. I would invest anywhere where population is set to explode, mainly NT and SE QLD.

I think the big thing that you look back and remember is that these have been extremely good times for investors. Absolutely everything has gone our way, only a few tiny pockets of properties have ever gone down. We have had cuts to capital gains tax that makes capital gains tax pretty much insigificant. We have tax deductable negetive gearing, making interest partially free. We now have interest rates lower than rental yields. And the most important thing is that we have had a housing shortage that has continually worsened. The housing shortage is going to get much worse, especially in growth areas like SE QLD. Everytime you think prices have jumped enough, they keep on jumping. I brought one house ins 2007 for $330k that I thought would not go up for many years after it jumped from $200k to $330k in about 4 years. Much worse ones in the neighbour hood are now going for $380k. Property is still going up nearly 20% per year on average and with the shortage worsening, not getting better, and interest rates dropping, we are set for property to boom even more. If interest rates stay low we are going to have booming prices as all the people paying high rent will be looking to buy. I don't know about you but so many properties are nearly positive geared! Rental yields are now higher than interest rates!

People hoping for a solution to inceasing debt need to understand the moeny system. I don’t think most people understand that debt has to increase. The money system IS debt. The banks create money by converting private debt into money. It is impossible for everyone to ebolish their debt. To repay one loan, more must be loaned because the interest simply does not exist, it must be repaid by creating more private debt. This is why a certain percentage of loans always fail, it doesn’t matter how successful companies are, a certain percentage must fail because of fractional reserve banking.

The problem here is that without huge economic reform you can’t expect debt to ever lower. Infact if we hit economic troubles, this will only result in a very low interest rate that will encourage loaning of money (see japan).

Your account is correct.

Think of it this way, you cannot loan money to pay for rates and expect to claim that interest. You can see here http://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/content.asp?doc=/content/66031.htm&page=9&H9 the basic overview. You cannot claim interest on anything but the actual loan covering the cost of the property, not coving the fees etc you had to pay.

Firstly, good luck finding a rental. Most houses for rent have 30+ applicants now, as even the cheap (as you say bad) areas all have houses seling at $300,000 and are becoming unaffordable to most of the average working families. I don’t know what job you have and if you have kids etc. but you want to look like a rich single couple tto get picked for a rental and probably won’t have a choice of which one to take.

My main tip is that the intersection roundabouts at north end of loganlea road and the M1 freeway are terrible terrible terrible in peak hour. And if you are going to logan hospital this is the only way you can come unless you come from the south. You can spend 15 minutes in line waiting.

The north/west section of loganlea isn’t a great area, but none of the areas around there are that bad at all. Medowbrook for example which is right beside the hospital is pretty good. Daisy hill and almost every suburb to the east of the M1 is good. The only ‘bad’ areas are woodridge, kingston, logan central, some of loganlea. You can also look to the south, there are nice areas in Waterford and Waterford West past the south end of loganlea road. What is your budget?

Is still believe the best start is to always get yourself out of debt. If you don’t own a PPOR then don’t invest. You probably won’t make more than the interest rate on debts once you consider all the costs involved.

I assume it is brick house?

What you can do is pay about $2,000 to $3,000 and render the house with coloured concrete, will look like a different home, no cracks to be seen, and then get rid of it.

As long as the foundation is ok then cracks are not a worry. IT is when you have cracks from the corner of a windows running out to the corner of the wall that it is a problem, because this means the floor is either sagging in or pushing up.

Hi have heard nothing but bad stories about buying new units of plans.

Firstly thay almost always cost far to much. You need to start looking around tonnes of units that are similair and see what they are selling for. Remember the actually selling price is usually 5% to 10% below the asking price, and then all the other costs etc. Claiming 7% below market value is probably just an our-right lie. There is no way they could be that exact. Everyone I have seen who brought new units off the plans was unable to sell for profit until about 3 years had pasted.

If you are single income then I think your number 1 proiority is always to avoid debt. If you can sell it to totally live out of debt you will be far, far, far ahead of the average australian family that pays over $500 per week to service debts. Basically if you are single income you won’t be paying down any loan quickly at all, probably 20-30 years, in which case you would be paying back the money 3 fold. I would sell it, it will be load of your mind and you can go live without having to worry about such things. Remember when you are in credit you never ‘loose’. Just put some money in a bank with 6% PA savings or term deposits and rest in managed shares that should return up near 9%.

LOL my girlfriend works for Ozinvest

All I know is they about 800 properties in SE QLD and about 1,500 around sydney. THings have been all good for a long time particularly in brisbane because rentals are so hard to find, and I can’t see this changing anytime soon.

What I would do is try and buy below $300k and stick to an area close to freeways. There are alot of areas that have over-shot and are now falling over because they are in the middle of no-where (forrest lake for one, and almost anything on the north side). Try and get on the south side near the main M1 freeway and value is sure to go up.