Read an interesting statistic the other day....
The government has officially handed out 1,000,000 First Home Owner's Grants (FHOG). And with the average amount being $7,000, this amounts to over SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS in FHOG's!
Now for some discussion...
1) What has this money actually done? Has it helped first home buyers, or has it simply increased property prices by an extra $7 Billion over the last few years?
I would suggest that this money has simply slipped through the hands of those for which it was intended and has now ended up with property sellers, investors (who held property over this time), land rats (PM's charging extra commissions), state governments (Bracksy is killing us down here with stamp duty), BANKS (makin' more with the extra lending) and possibly builders and developers. I doubt that it has really helped home owners as a whole especially with debt levels now apparently out of control etc.
2) Is this really a beneficial use of tax-payer money? With all the talk of affordable housing, the government has single-handedly increased the price of residential property by $7 Billion. It seems to have had the opposite effect.
$7 Billion is a lot of money. I'd like to think that something slightly more constructive could have been done with this money?
3) Is housing affordability really an issue that can be solved, or is it simply an oxy-moron? I think it's obvious that more money doesn't work (regardless of where this money comes from. eg. work, FHOG, sharemarket, savings etc).
Vacancy rates are very low, so obviously someone can afford this unaffordable property. (I've made this point before, everything is affordable for somebody).
Or is the issue as simple as....
X number of people want to live in suburb A. Suburb A can hold 0.1X number of people, therefore 0.9X number of people complain that housing is unaffordable.
And as the population grows, and more people desire a nice location to live in, that ratio is going to change. (eg. 0.01X and 0.99X)
(This example would be especially true for many parts of Melbourne.)
Thoughts, ideas, comments?
The government has officially handed out 1,000,000 First Home Owner's Grants (FHOG). And with the average amount being $7,000, this amounts to over SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS in FHOG's!
Now for some discussion...
1) What has this money actually done? Has it helped first home buyers, or has it simply increased property prices by an extra $7 Billion over the last few years?
I would suggest that this money has simply slipped through the hands of those for which it was intended and has now ended up with property sellers, investors (who held property over this time), land rats (PM's charging extra commissions), state governments (Bracksy is killing us down here with stamp duty), BANKS (makin' more with the extra lending) and possibly builders and developers. I doubt that it has really helped home owners as a whole especially with debt levels now apparently out of control etc.
2) Is this really a beneficial use of tax-payer money? With all the talk of affordable housing, the government has single-handedly increased the price of residential property by $7 Billion. It seems to have had the opposite effect.
$7 Billion is a lot of money. I'd like to think that something slightly more constructive could have been done with this money?
3) Is housing affordability really an issue that can be solved, or is it simply an oxy-moron? I think it's obvious that more money doesn't work (regardless of where this money comes from. eg. work, FHOG, sharemarket, savings etc).
Vacancy rates are very low, so obviously someone can afford this unaffordable property. (I've made this point before, everything is affordable for somebody).
Or is the issue as simple as....
X number of people want to live in suburb A. Suburb A can hold 0.1X number of people, therefore 0.9X number of people complain that housing is unaffordable.
And as the population grows, and more people desire a nice location to live in, that ratio is going to change. (eg. 0.01X and 0.99X)
(This example would be especially true for many parts of Melbourne.)
Thoughts, ideas, comments?