Anyone see the article in today's smh?
DANIEL COX thinks the housing shortage is a myth and he has a map to prove it.
An anaesthetist by day, he has started a Wikipedia-style website that allows anyone to upload onto a map the locations of empty houses, vacant lots and disused buildings anywhere in Australia.
While there may well be vacancies in outlying areas or outer suburbs, I don't believe that this is true of any inner city areas. I can speak directly about Brisbane and advise that there are virtually no vacancies in my area (West End, Highgate Hill and South Brisbane).
While it may be true that some properties remain empty because the owner wants it that way, it does not necessarily compute that therefore there is not a housing shortage.
I just tried to go on this site in an attempt to ascertain what type of properties were being shown, unfortunately the site is currently not available. I predict that unless the site is maintained better than Real Estate.com it will be next to useless as properties that are taken up will remain on show and just distort the real facts.
I really don't see the benefits of this site. Perhaps I am asleep.
Very interesting MultoGrande. Thanks for the info! Something to think about hmmm…..
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 dreaminIf you read the article in the SMH you would have realised that many of the properties are unliveable for various reasons (as highlighted above). Many are perfectly habitable however due to mortgage foreclosure (there aren't 1000's of them) cannot be used and likewise people moved into care have a year to rent out their house.
This site is no magic cure – only incentives to invest in property (for rentals) or a massive disincentive to invest (via increased land tax, property tax, removal of negative gearing etc) will cause a price correction to entice people to change their habits.
And the Labour Govt have stated that they have no intention of changing-ve gearing tax rules
….. 1000's of disconnected people in a grand conspiracy to inflate rents for owners of other properties….tell em their dreamin
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