I don't say banks can't lend. I say banks can't lend unrealistic amounts of money anymore. I just say the government is already placing more restrictions on banks and the limit of their lending.

The central banks don't control Australia. The only thing they control now is a big bubble of non-existant equity. When the bubble bursts, some banks will go bust, some will barely stand. The only reason your banks haven't been eaten up by the bigger Chinese / European or USA banks is because Rudd protects them from being taken over. In the world Economy, your banks mean nothing, they are smalltime players.

That being said, in Australia they do mean a lot, the 4 pillars system was meant to protect the country from collapse once the credit crisis reaches Australia, it it will. The whole credit crisis occurred because too high mortgages were given to people who could not pay them. On top of that, the banks themselves now can't use as much cash anymore, and thus are now limiting themselves in what they lend out.

I'm sure if you go to the bank now and ask for a mortgage, you won't get the same limit as you could get in 2007. Just go try it out. I don't even expect a confirmation since I *know* this to be true.

It's not coming, it's already here !
[/quote]

I will give you a confirmation, I was at my bank yesterday and I can borrow at least as much as I could in 2007.

I dont know what the "it" you refer to is but I am glad your excited its here.

BTW ,again, just to counter more bland sweeping assertions from scamp, NAB (not my bank BTW) ranks in the top 50 banks in the world (of 3000 worth evaluating) as they are similar in size the others will be in a similar ballpark but out of the top 50 (need to be a subscriber to delve further). Not too shabby for a small country. Source bankersalmanac.com.

finance is the critical path and really you should at least have approval in principle going into an offer like this.

inspections and valuations can be done in days, but lenders can dick you around.  Your profile sounds OK so on the surface it should be OK.  Any reason to push for 30 days?  agent proposal?  we usually offer 45 which is better than most people expect and comfortably do-able from every angle.

the number itself doesnt say much….what is it normally? how does that compare with other states/other countries?  is this a marked increase?  6.7 million people live in NSW (not all bankruptcy capable of course) , so if 0.2% of them make bad choices or are just unfortunate so what?…..sounds like a low "failure"rate to me.   Some of these arent bad news by the way.  We knew people through our kids school who went bankrupt to avoid debt….still had kids in private school, still drove BMWs and lorded it over us lesser bill paying beings.

seriously is scamp for real or just a troll poster – saying things to get a reaction?  if there is only one message we probably only need to hear it once, we can take it as read after that

is it analysis or just opinon ?  there are so many "it is said"s and unsupported assurances it hard see much more than a bunch of re-gurgitated media grabs.  Try looking at parts that can be substantiated  e.g. the UK immigrant statement…….UK immigrants make up 15% of total immigration (ABS).   Would part of 15% share of immigation really be noticed? people continually queue to come to OZ,  immigration dont beat the bushes to find punters.   These views ,  for me, at least represent one extreme end of the possible outcomes and blogs la la land people the other.  There is another long running thread predicting gloom and doom for two years +,  eventually it has to be true if you beleive in economic cycles thats not new news or insight,  it will be interesting to see where the real landing zone is.

what does the article really say?   there are many reasons why properties are of the market.  We recently bought a unit and spent 3 and a bit months renovating it.   It was vacant ,  and if you were a total pig perhaps you could have lived there,  but in reality it wasnt rentable or livable.   We had people inspecting as the new floors went down and it let from the day it was available.

A percentage of houses/units will always be off market pending building approvals, reno's , family dramas, financial disasters etc.

Do people really think that properties are owned/purchased and deliberately held off market by the mysterious "they"   ….. 1000's of disconnected people in a grand conspiracy to inflate rents for owners of other properties….tell em their dreamin

given my usual feelings about estate agents and car salesman, I am finding it odd that I am agreeing with you.

I deal with 3 different agents:

one old worldy , ethical gentleman type.  very straight down the line to deal with

one very professional , switched on,  nicely documented inspections etc…..wish they were all like that

one bunch of really nice but really incompetent and chaotic people to deal with.  I guess I will toss them eventually but its sort of interesting (in a watching a train wreck kind of way) to see what they will get wrong next.    As long as tenants are good and rent is paid its not a big thing, as I stay engaged with the tenants anyway.

But overall no sleazy , lying estate agent stereotypes ….as far as I know

Are you talking about split system A/C ? (the type with a wall unit plumbed to a sperate outside unit with all the noisy stuff in it)

The wall unit of a split system should only generate low level fan noise.

Some kind of ducted heating will make the property more rentable (not a big issue with demand the way it is at the moment) and allow you to command more rent.  Personally I think it also helps maintenance by reducing damp and related issues.

At our own place we have evolved pretty much like Scott describes.  Gas ducted heating at first,  A/C to living area and some good ceiling fans.  Seems to work a treat.  Recently went to double glazed windows, awnings on sun side and some more insulation.  THe last bits seemed to improve the efficiency of everything by 20-30%.

Chaser – do you run the evaporative cooler with a few of the windows cracked open.  Those things need airflow and you dont close the house up like you do with A/C,  otherwise you are just pumping the house full of humid air and it gets stuffy as you say.   We did the same thing at first when we lived in Sydney eons ago until a mate coached us on how to use it properly.

getting cheap vinyl (unless you are able to find a deal where cheap does not equal poor quality) only brings the next installation (the cost you appeared more worried about ) that much closer.   Its not a good area to cut corners in.   How many square meters are you covering?

If the cracking is significant and structural (large cracks running through external walls,  doors windows jamming) then the body corporate should be looking at repair and stabilisation work (underpinning).  If the cracks are cosmetic to internal plaster with no other major symptoms, then thats a feature of life across some areas of drought affected Melbourne especially those on clay soils that expand and contract a lot with moisture variations.

If its the former , you could be looking at falling resale value as buyers start to resist an obviously flawed structure….or….you could be up for a hefty repair bill if the body corporate …..sorry but there arent many upsides to a significant structural problems.

If its the latter there is no reason for that to be a trigger to sell unless its becoming unaffordable for you.