SM – thanks, but the projects I was referring to is a $8.8 billion LNG project by Santos (and Petronas) which will see coal seam gas being converted into LNG at an LNG plant in Gladstone. There is also a BG (together with QGC I believe) LNG project which is also aiming to produce coal seam gas and sell LNG through a Gladstone LNG terminal. Both…[Read more]

I've been investigating cashflow positive property to balance my existing grwoth portfolio and of course mining towns like Moranbah, Dysart and Blackwater etc. all appear on the radar screen. But as has been mentioned above by others, these places seem to be too close to their top and any mine closures could be devastating. Long term I believe in…[Read more]

Richard – please do disagree if I'm wrong! But would appreciate to hear some more of your thoughts on this then. The way my solicitor explained, when we setup an Australian company which buys as trustee of an Australian trust the FIRB will not need to give approval. It does mean that the business needs to have an Australian resident director.

EK,

Best to check with a solicitor but as far as I understand with your 457 visa you can

– buy your on house to live in
– buy new units or houses for investment that have not been pre-owned or lived in (the usual FIRB regulations)

My solicitor has explained to me that if I set up an Australian company and the company buys as trustee of a trust…[Read more]

Some more on the AUD (courtesy of CBA):The AUD often trades as a "barometer of global financial market sentiment". When financial market sentiment turns to panic, the AUD gets oversold.The reasons why the AUD gets sold are understandable*. What is less understandable is why the AUD gets oversold. The main reason why the AUD gets oversold is…[Read more]

SCAMP, you are so full of yourself that it makes me laugh

My views:The 30% drop in AUD had NOTHING to do with interest rates, but everything with the carry trade unwinding, that is institutions borrowing in low interest JPY and investing in high interest AUD/NZD. These trades were unwinding because of risk in the financial markets as a result of the credit crunch. This became a self fullfiling spiral…[Read more]

Nat,You said it yourself, the financials on this property don't seem to make it a great investment property, but before you rush off to sell consider the following:- how do you see the long term outlook of the area the property is in? does the area have a solid historical population growth and capital growth? If you held on to the property for 10…[Read more]

KW I struggled with this one for quite while myself. We bought our first few IP’s in our own name but have since started using multiple trusts (which in QLD can help you to avoid paying land tax). You need to consider what you want to achieve with your structure: asset protection, tax minimisation or estate planning or some combination of those…[Read more]

StumpCam, I can understand your scepticism as these rates do seem high over the long term (I personally am a lot more conservative and aim for 7% over the longer term and that with selecting strong groth areas)But if you take into acccount population growth both in AU and the UK and the fact that the average property of today offers a lot more…[Read more]

Very likely that in the long term property will continue to double every 10 yrs or so.

The question is how long the current bearish period will be…

Michael Keating states in his blog entry of 24th January 2008:
– Australian property prices have averaged 10.4% growth over the last 120 yrs
– UK property prices have been recorded since the year…[Read more]

I know a lot people say go for small developments, because that means scarcity, but scarcity means does not automatically translate into demand… One of our best investments is a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom unit in a development called The Emporium in Fortitude Valley (Brisbane) – with indeed a parking space. It has all the usual items of a large…[Read more]

Here is something we all know: savings rates are down and the average citizen in the US, Uk and Australia has more debt than ever and less wealth then before. Right?Well, maybe not quite, an analysis by the Reserve Bank of Australia burried in the RBA's Statement on Monetary Policy from May 2006 shows that if you take the traditional definition of…[Read more]

Barbara, there is no issue buying property as a non resident. We're non resident investors and since 2004 we have built up a portfolio of 10 properties (whilst living overseas but migrating in the next couple of years). Some things to keep in mind:- your purchases will be regulated by the Foreign Investment Review Board (http://www.FIRB.gov.au) and it…[Read more]

Regarding investing in property in the Philippines:- yields tend to be good indeed, i.e. 10% or above, but for holiday lets consider that during the rainy season most (beach) resorts struggle to get many guests- legal system is ok, you can actually buy more than just the usual condominiums like land, houses etc. but then you need to get a business…[Read more]

Sandy, If you're into property with a longer term buy and hold perspective no need to consider demographics and what that will do to the types of properties in demand. In my view, going forward well positioned units close to employment centers and with facilities (nearby) will do very well in the future. Much better than the average house+land in…[Read more]

ummester wrote:
ErikH, RP data is a company that profits exclusively from the property market, which slant do you think they prefer to give? There is no way the information they provide is unbiased – they need a strong market to remain operational.Consider thishttp://www.jenman.com.au/news_article.php?id=226I never realized, before skulking…[Read more]

Here are some interesting statistics, issued by RP Data and based on ABS statistics:First, Australian population change is bigger than ever before (incl. going all the way back to 1789) due to both peaks in net immigration and births:Add to that that the size of the average household is projected to decline from 2.6 in 2006 to 2.3-2.2 in 2006 and…[Read more]

imugli – nice one! I agree with you that you're better off buying when you can then when you can think is the right time, otherwise you'll never buy anything, just make sure that what you buy and how you finance it take account of the current situation… and since you did I'm sure it will work out nicely.

mackar, it was an article on the basics of property investing and in a section on "timing the market" versus "time in the market" the author highlighted how since the mid 40's there had always been good reasons not to invest in real estate, e.g. high interest rates, recession threats etc etc Don't remember who wrote it and I didn't keep the a…