The most corrupt people are the older upper middle class Australians. They are happy to do nothing at all other than "own property" and rake in ridiculous amounts of money. All they are doing is sucking the money from younger or poorer people and transferring it to themselves without actually doing any work or adding any productivity to society.
I live in an area with lots of these investors and they don't work. They talk about it in hushed tones like it is a scheme or a rort, which is obviously is.
>Pronouncements like this come out all the time in Australia, for at least the last 7 years. This is an example of a headline that can't lose - you are telling people that can't afford a house what they want to hear, at the same time spreading fear amongst those that do own property, and eventually you'll be 'right'.
Well no, it is true. A shock to the economy will obviously create a major effect in high-cost structure societies compared to low cost structure societies. That is what I like about some places like China. Here in Australia, people just think "well my wage pays for it so who cares". They don't see how it exposes you when you suddenly don't get the wage or when you want to do something other than get paid a wage.
What is not true is that this is some kind of bubble due to house prices and wages being out of sync. In reality, house prices can continue to rise even if wages don't rise simply because the definition of a house is not a constant. A house becomes a small house, becomes an apartment. You can keep creating affordable housing simply by increasing density.
>The problem primarily exists in Sydney and Melbourne.
and Brisbane and surrounding areas, which encompasses most of Australia's population.
>who will continue to invest in property and transfer wealth to their children
>And then you've got pretty much the rest of the country which is reasonably priced.
>I watch some American shows where they're house-hunting and get pretty much mansions for 1/4 of the price of a normal house here, but, I suspect those are in semi-remote places.
No they are not semi-rural places. They are literally 1/4th the price. I grew up in Logan, which is outside of Brisbane. My parents house was sold for $700k. It takes about 1hr 15min to get to the city in peak hour, and public transport isn't really viable.
$700k is about 7.5x the average income. Homes used to be larger, within 30 minutes drive of the city during peak hour, and 3x average income. Taking 7 years to just save for a deposit and taking out a 600k loan and paying it off over decades is not affordable in any language.
I live in an area with lots of these investors and they don't work. They talk about it in hushed tones like it is a scheme or a rort, which is obviously is.