Property News

Stamp Duty Cuts for First Home Buyers

by Chris on April 25, 2011

I am always happy to give you some good news whenever I get a chance. So here goes – the amount of stamp duty first-home buyers pay in Victoria will be reduced by 20 per cent on July 1, 2011. This will be followed by further reductions of 10 per cent each financial year until [...]

1 comment Read more →

Rumors About a New Vendor Tax on Investment Properties

by Chris on April 22, 2011

When I saw a report in The Age about the Gillard Government discussing a new 4% sales tax on investment property and a reduction in negative gearing tax benefits for investors, I simply couldn’t believe my eyes. Are they really going to do this, NOW? Falling auctions clearance rates and new property listings adding up [...]

3 comments Read more →

Don’t believe auction results that you see

by Chris on March 7, 2011

I don’t quote the news often, but this deserves your attention. Apparently quite a few agents are not reporting failed auctions in a desperate attempt to cover up. In News.com.au they call them “embarrassed agents” – I, however, think this act has little to do with embarrassment – when a growing inability to sell a [...]

3 comments Read more →

The real estate debt is in overdrive in Australia

by Chris on March 5, 2011

The figures as per the latest reports by the Reserve Bank of Australia prove that the real estate debt in Australia is spiraling out of control. Australia is facing an economic crunch and the finances of most of the households are collapsing under the pressure of debt. Despite lowered spending, household debt has increased by [...]

1 comment Read more →

Combating mosquitoes in your property

by Chris on February 15, 2011

After recent rains mosquitoes quickly became a problem even in places that never had them before. While mosquito bites annoy most people, not everyone sees them as a threat – and perhaps we should take another look at these tiny insects and diseases they transmit. The main health concerns are related to Australian encephalitis, Dengue [...]

1 comment Read more →

Home DIY tips: how to fix a sliding door

by Chris on February 2, 2011

Let me begin with another typical for a first home-buyer situation: you’ve bought an old house, moved in, and began discovering nasty surprises. Even though you’ve done the pre-settlement inspection, somehow there were things that escaped your attention. For example… this stuck sliding door that you couldn’t move an inch if your life depended on [...]

0 comments Read more →

Queensland floods and how you can help

by Chris on January 15, 2011

Even though there is a 99.9% chance that Aussie readers of Home I Own know about the Queensland floods with their devastating consequences, I still feel it’s important to bring this up, at least for the sake of international readers who may not be aware of what’s going on in Australia. The worst flooding in [...]

0 comments Read more →

Happy New Year 2011!

by Chris on December 31, 2010

I feel very lucky to be here today, wishing you, the 168,020 wonderful people who visited Home I Own in 2010, a very Happy New Year! One of my New Year’s resolutions is to keep improving Home I Own, and for that I am going to need your advice – I’d like to know what [...]

0 comments Read more →

Interview with Chad Stephens: How 1Form.com.au was created

by Chris on October 6, 2010

As you could have guessed from my previous post about 1Form.com.au I think this new service that allows to apply for rental properties without filling tons of paperwork is a great idea (and no, they didn’t pay me to say this). So when I was presented with a chance to ask Chad Stephens, a co-founder [...]

6 comments Read more →

First Home Buyer Grants: the good news

by Chris on July 8, 2010

If you are considering purchasing your first home in Victoria, the good news is that our government might give you more money.

From the 1st of July first home buyers purchasing a newly constructed home may be eligible for an increased First Home Bonus of $13,000. People buying their first (newly constructed) home in regional Victoria got even luckier – on top of First Home Bonus they may be eligible for another payment of $6,500, the First Home Regional bonus. This is all in addition to the First Home Owners Grant ($7000), of course.

It is funny how these adjustments to grants and bonuses point at the main goal. What the government would really love to see people doing is showing preference to newly constructed houses (as opposed to the established ones), so they take the 2K bonus that established houses were previously eligible for and give it to the newly constructed homes in metro and regional Victoria, raising the total amount from $11,000 to 13,000. And to encourage people to buy homes in regional Victoria even more – they raise the regional bonus another $2000 – from $4,500 to $6,500.

Another funny little detail that I noticed is that to qualify for the FHOG the property should cost less than 750,000 – when previously it was caped at 600,000. I wonder if this is because the median prices went up 25%(!) last year. What do you think?

4 comments Read more →

Are you sick of salespeople door knocking your home?

by Chris on May 14, 2010

If your answer to the question in my headline is yes, then you will be happy to hear the news. There is a way you can stop sales people from bothering you after work, when you are cooking dinner, settling your kids to sleep, or (finally!) sitting down to read a book on the couch, after a day’s work.

Remember when “Do not call” register was introduced? Well, now there’s a “Do not knock” campaign that can help you limit, if not completely eliminate, door-to-door sales.

“A man’s home is his castle” is not just a saying. It is enough to affix a “Do Not Knock” sticker to your front door (which you can get from Consumer Action here) to warn traveling sales people that they are breaking the law if they dare knock on your door.

Those of you sick of door-to-door sales yet too busy to put a sticker on the door will be happy to know that there will be changes to hours when sales people can and can not knock on your door.

Right now sales people can knock seven days a week, 9am to 8pm. After the new laws come into effect, we get a whole day off, on Sunday, and the rest of the weekdays they can’t bother us after 6pm (or 5pm if it’s Saturday!)

I do realize that sales people are just doing their job. But the rest of us are just living our lives. I can’t speak for everyone else, but my own selfish nature doesn’t take it well when strangers intrude on that hard-earned free time that I get to spend with my family.

So the new laws get a big YAY from me! How about you?

1 comment Read more →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →