Left wing political group orchestrating home buyers strike...

G

GoingDHfast

Hi Guys,

Thought I'd draw this to everyones attention, the Leftie group GetUp! has finally had enough of renting so they are attempting to bring down property prices through an organized property boycott.

http://suggest.getup.org.au/forums/...5687-first-home-buyers-property-buyers-strike

Also they tried to add their campaign to this page but I've removed it, does anyone know more about Wikipedia rules to stop this being added (its blatant self promotion of their own cause and not relevent to the page but not sure which Wikipedia rules this breaks?)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_property_bubble
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Australian_property_bubble&action=history

Hopefully this crap doesn't hit the newspapers but knowing The Age in Melbourne it will probably be front page next week... :mad:
 
As I said on a more bearish leaning forum, people are greedy.

Sure I might say I am looking at stock on market and not going to buy till this falls and then sign onto the home buyers strike but is the home buyers strike really going to come into play in a decision to buy?

I don't think it is.

Say this scenario plays out, house prices fall 10% over the rest of 2011, the government due to dropping state revenues either has to split taxes up differently or achieve the same ends and put a fire under house prices again with another grant perhaps at the same time as dropping interest rates.

Stock begins to clear again and a potential buyer is faced with buying at what he/she thinks is comparable to renting or holding the line so to speak. When the other option is taking a 5 year fixed rate at 5% or some such and it costing less than rent I suspect most will quietly go and buy a house.

Some will say no they are not greedy but usually even the act of saying this is only in self interest. i.e. greed is in our nature.

Of course the likes of a strike on buying whale meat when you are talking substituting with a new product like steak can work as it is not a big issue for the individual but when you are talking 10s of 1000s I can only imagine it having an effect on a very very small minority.

Of course this is its effect on the demand side. It could as you point out have a profound effect on the supply side if there is already percieved weakness and the papers start running the story and then it is erroneously linked to the lower clearance rates etc.
 
This reminds of footballer Eric Cantona calling on 20 million French bank account holders to withdraw their cash en masse in order to bring down the “corrupt” banking system.

It was a huge flop.

Cantona was apparently the only person in France to heed his revolutionary call. The millionaire went into a bank and withdrew, if I remember well, the huge sum of 100 euros. It also emerged that his wife was paid thousands of euros to star in a TV advert for banks.

What a clown.
 
GoingDHfast said:
Thought I'd draw this to everyones attention, the Leftie group GetUp! has finally had enough of renting so they are attempting to bring down property prices through an organized property boycott.
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lol it was not GetUp that started the poll, I did. The suggestions area allows anyone to create a campaign suggestion for people to vote for.

I saw the home buyers strike on propser.org.au which is a non politically aligned organisation working toward economic justice and decided it was an idea worth spreading: http://www.prosper.org.au/about/
 
wow, strong words.

“I remind you there are 1.3 million Australians with negatively geared rental properties. They are diverting all rents and some personal income to meeting interest payment in the hope of capital gains. When only capital losses are expected, investors will flood the market and overwhelm demand. Buyers will step back, making it virtually impossible to sell at any price.
Do not underestimate the scale and significance of the transformation that is about to unfold. Price falls are imminent – protect yourself. Don’t Buy Now!” Collyer concluded.
 
pfff - whatever.

it'll fall on the ears of economics students and permabears.

mums and dads who own, or are in the process of owning, their home - that make up 80+% of "the market" - probably don't even know what GetUp! is.

FTR - they have some good causes. most of the time it's socialist propaganda. sometimes is just downright daft, like this subject.
 
Aaron Sice said:
it'll fall on the ears of economics students and permabears.
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It must be tough to continue to be a perma-bear for years, when all the historic evidence shows house prices steadily going up with the odd flat spot or correction along the way.

It must be like thinking the sky is red, but it continues to keep on coming up blue every day - it'd do yer head eventually.

I would have though an economic student would be easily able to look up this and verify these facts and move on with a sensible outlook on the world of property world wide (current USA position notwithstanding :D).

They must really love the short term corrections that occur; what do they do for the other 90% of the time?
 
Marc,

Everything goes up. Its called inflation mate. ;)

BayView said:
It must be tough to continue to be a perma-bear for years, when all the historic evidence shows house prices steadily going up with the odd flat spot or correction along the way.

It must be like thinking the sky is red, but it continues to keep on coming up blue every day - it'd do yer head eventually.

I would have though an economic student would be easily able to look up this and verify these facts and move on with a sensible outlook on the world of property world wide (current USA position notwithstanding :D).

They must really love the short term corrections that occur; what do they do for the other 90% of the time?
Click to expand...
 
GoingDHfast said:
Hi Guys,
Thought I'd draw this to everyones attention, the Leftie group GetUp! has finally had enough of renting so they are attempting to bring down property prices through an organized property boycott.
Click to expand...

:confused: It is like saying we'll bring down food prices by not eating.
There is cheap accommodation in every city and if they don't want to pay rent they can always live in a tent
 
As you read through the stories of these people who are refusing to buy a home, it becomes quiet clear that many of them could afford to, but they are choosing to wait. Either for lifestyle reasons (holidays etc) or because they genuinely believe prices will come down to such a level that they can justify buying.

None of us has a crystal ball. Prices may decrease substantially. Conversely, they could also rise substantially (over time). Where will the people who chose to wait for substantially lower prices be then?

Sure, some of the people are investing in shares and other assets and have chosen to rent instead of buying a house. No problems with this - I think it can be a smart strategy.

However, I bet a certain % of them are not investing at all though and they may find out too late that they should have bought when they had the income to support a mortgage.

Others clearly cannot afford to buy in an area that they would prefer to live. So they are holding off buying until prices in these areas drop.

As to how this will play out for current investors in the housing market - who knows. My guess is though that although they think the market is overvalued etc - there will be buyers in the wings who will pay the current prices, regardless. Prices may slide a little - but to wait for a 50% drop in the investor section of the market is, I think, wishful thinking.

Regards Jason.
 
Back in my late 20's (about 6-7 years ago) I had mates who asked me about buying property, I told them to find something they liked and jump in, because that way they wouldn't still be paying off a home when they wanted to retire. Several of them responded that they were waiting for the market to drop.

In the last 2 years, the same guys have now bought homes, paid waaaay more than had they bought 6-7 years ago, but are now crowing about 'making 100 grand'.

The residential property market behaves as it does because the majority of players have very limited knowledge. Even us investors don't know as much as we sometimes think we do.

What we're seeing now is little different, in my opinion, to the early 90's.
 
Aaron Sice said:
mums and dads who own, or are in the process of owning, their home - that make up 80+% of "the market" - probably don't even know what GetUp! is.
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Call me crazy, but I don't think that mums and dads that already own a property are the target of a first home buyers strike :p

VYBerlinaV8 said:
What we're seeing now is little different, in my opinion, to the early 90's.
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Inclined to agree, I think the price falls will be a little steeper, but I think a property slump (not a crash) is what's in store for the next 5+ years. No doubt permabears will be all over every negative tick down in prices claiming that it's the start of a crash to half price homes, etc. They will be sorely disappointed and most will probably miss the opportunity that's right in front of them to buy at a heavy discount to current prices...
 
lol this type of campaign reminds me very much of the 'don't fill up your car on X date to bring the Oil companies down' campaigns that sometimes circulate through emails, FB etc...
 
joeExpat said:
A speculator you mean, dependent on growth to exceed their losses.
Property investors should welcome the removal of negative gearing, I know I would. Lower prices & hence better yields.
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Why would you say that? Plenty of investors use negative gearing to get started on what end up becoming long term positive cashflow investments.
 
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