I think its all rubbish, these bank ceos make these comments to benifit themselves (the banks) . In my opinion property prices are going to go down before they go up (and I dont think they will make an upward movement for years to come) , people talk about the shortage of houses and land, all you need to do is pick up your weekend paper and take a look at all the houses in the real estate section, or drive out to the outta suburbs and take a look at all the for sale signs on the vacant blocks of land. There is NOT a shortage of houses at the moment what there is a shortage of is money and people that can afford to pay the prices for these houses. Once house prices come down and 'meet' the market then you will see them slowly go back up but how far they will go down we will just have to wait and see. My advice to first home buyers, dont buy a house for 2-3 yrs , If houses dont sell then the prices will go down… Investers, banks and land developers want people to 'panic buy', Panic buying is what investers and speculators want and alot of people during the boom fell for it and now im sure alot of those people are regreting it, my advice stay at home if you can of if you need to rent share it with 2-3 other people so you can still save for a deposit. Thats what im doing, I live in perth, there is 17 000 houses and blocks for sale at the moment with no buyers, soon (in the next 6 months) there will be even more houses for sale when peoples fixed interest rates go from 6% to 9%, and if there is a recession and unemployment goes up there will be more banks taking houses and more houses for sale. Way to many ifs and buts for my liking, ill keep my ass outta the property market for now thank-you

Devo76 may I ask how "Italian Dragon"  is not here to help? Just because he is not here trying to talk up the market or tell people to buy dosnt mean he's not here to help, if anything he's is making people more aware of what is going on in the market such in this case as all the bank repossessions going on at the moment due to morgage stress which does affect the market. It annoys me when property investers and real estate agents come on here and just try 'talk up' the market and how prices are going to keep booming etc. then when someone comes on here and looks at things from a different angle they get told to go away.  I think anyone that is going to buy property at the moment do your OWN research and dont listen to bias opinons from people who have an invested interest in the market continuing to boom.

Well I can tell u in perth I am confident house prices will drop espically at the lower end of the market, there is 17 000 houses and blocks for sale with hardly any buyers, houses are just sitting on the market, agents cant sell them . In my opinion in a years time there is going to be more people in morgage stress, so there is going to be even more houses for sale, what are people going to do that cant sell their house and need to? drop the price is what they will do , and eventally across the board i think prices will fall in perth. There is no guarantee but i think it makes alot more sense that prices will fall than increase, people cant afford to fork out more moneyto buy a house, now with higher interest rates, higher fuel prices, we are also paying more for food , water, council rates . Yields are also very low in perth and I can tell you now there is no investers buying property in perth not like when the boom was when every 2nd buyer was an invester and now its the investers that are flooding the market with houses for sale and making it harder for each other. I only really follow the perth market but ive heard inter state things arnt much better.

Hi , nope you cannot claim any interest on vacant land, the only way you can claim interest is if you buy a house or unit and rent it out to someone then you can negative gear it. As to your other question, with the price of land , maybe for a little extra you could buy a 1-2 bedroom apartment of flat somewhere close to the city? Then you could use it for tax purposes too, where in australia are u thinking of buying tho? If you are thinking of perth where I live i would suggest dont buy anything at the moment because i think the market may take abit of a dive as there is way too much for sale and no buyers. As far as land investment goes too I would suggest you will not make a quick buck in this market and u would want to be prepared to hold onto the land for a very long time, an example, I bought a block about 1 year and a half ago when perth had a supposedly 'land shortage' . I ended up buying a block in the northern suburbs, 500sqm and close to a shopping centre, I paid 195000 for it,  I thought i would hold onto it for a while then sell it as I thought i picked it up for a good price, I paid interest only on the loan and after a year I put it on the market, I was hoping to get 260 000 or atleast 250 000, 6 months later I sold it at a price where when i added everything up i barely broke even. Problem i had was there was way to much land for sale and no one buying land plus all the developers couldnt sell land either so there all offering incentives to buy land off them because even if the markets quiet they still need to keep selling land. And they are also dropping the price, before i bought my block i looked at an estate in butler (outer northern suburbs of perth) and for a decent size block u would be looking at around 210-230 range, now in todays paper satterley is advertising they are releasing blocks in the 500-600sqm size for 180000- 190000. So basically anyone that bought land off them a year ago going by those prices would have lost 20-30 grand atleast.

Gday Wayne just got a question on that “cost base” that u were talking about, just wondering (because i also have an investment block of land) would getting a firebreak done on the block come under that?? I had to get a firebreak done on my block last month and just wondering if i should like keep the reciept for when I go to sell it etc. ?? thx!