THE LIST of Mirages, Rorts, Grant Rorting, Land Deals, Pork Barrelling and Scandals

THE LIST … of ‘financial mirages, sports rorts, car park rorts, grants rorts, land deal scandals and pork barrelling bushfire recovery funds … all part and parcel of the current Federal political landscape’

ADD to the Mix the Scandals of NSW:

$40Bn rail corporation described as a RORT by former NSW Auditor-General Tony Harris

-the workers’ compensation scheme ICARE; Dominic Perrottet will continue to be dogged by the scheme; that failed to serve injured workers

-a land deal near Parramatta under an ICAC investigation

-Gladys Berejiklian in the ICAC witness box due to her former lover Daryl Maguire

shredding of documents relating to Berejiklian’s approval of grants from the Stronger Communities Fund

-NSW INC planned to borrow more than $10Bn to inject into its NSW Generations (Debt Retirement) Fund to play the financial markets

-the creation of a $40Bn rail entity in 2015 to hide the costs of the NSW rail system by shoving assets into a shell company; to dupe the public the budget was better than it was

-in 2018 NSW Treasury was able to use TAHE to mask the government slipping into a deficit

.when the accounting rules changed the government was under pressure to turn TAHE into a legit independent commercial entity through hiring PwC to achieve that

.the government was considering commercialising the entire public transport and road networks

.the government, it appears, were willing to breach procurement rules or hire consultants without going to tender; paid $big bucks to do this

.KPMG prepared separate reports for Treasury and for Transport of NSW

.TAHE created a deep rift between Treasury Secretary Mike Pratt and then head of Transport, Rodd Staples about safety issues yet Staples was sacked without cause

‘With a parliamentary inquiry in the wings and shadow Treasurer Daniel Mookhey on top of his brief, as well as the Auditor General scoping a performance audit into TAHE, it is only a matter of time before the truth dribbles out.’

READ MORE!

Federally and in NSW, political naked bodies are piling up

What else apart from Low Interest Rates and Govt Grants pushed up House Prices?

WHY did house prices jump $200,000 over Christmas 2020 into January 2021?

NOW house prices have jumped $500,000 or more to August 2021 …

APART from very low interest rates and government grants that benefited builders and pushed up house prices … competition from foreign Juwai.com buyers … and investors!

WHAT ELSE CONTRIBUTED TO THE HOUSE PRICE HIKES … FOR THESE SAME AWFUL HOUSES?

WHAT role did the Realtors play in all of this?

They set the prices … there may be a charade of asking buyers ‘what price would you put on this house?’ 

After having indicated ‘The Guide’ price

How do we know any of this is so?  When it is only what they tell us!

Early 2021 agents opened a home once or possibly twice a week for home buyers to view for as little as 30 minutes at each ‘Open Home’.

That’s all …  in the house advertisement the agent may invite buyers to contact them and arrange an inspection … however when buyers contacted agents … we have learnt … they were then told that they would have to attend the ‘Open Home’; no other times could be arranged!

The ‘Open Home’ was marketed on two major real estate sites:  domain.com.au and/or realestate.com

This marketing led, in some instances, to hundreds of attendees.   This huge competition for each home would not be about creating FOMO, would it?  (FOMO = fear of missing out)

Now in COVID August 2021 agents have had to reorganise the marketing with one to one private inspections …

SO NOW Agents are running ‘Pre Auction’ Views … ‘Expressions of Interest,’ and invite Buyers to price properties … WT ****!

Not only do Buyers do most of the work searching the marketing sites of Domain or realestate.com, and drive all over Sydney and beyond, but now they are expected to price properties …

WHEN will Buyers wake up?  Why price up properties?  Because not only does it mean a bigger mortgage, but will strip one of any $$ to update, and it means more Stamp Duty

So stick to ’the Guide’!  FFS!

Construction Boom: Costs of House and Land Packages Blown Out!

‘The time it takes to build a house is blowing out due to the country’s ongoing construction boom, with reports some builders are increasing the build price to avoid making a loss, and devastated home owners walking away from contracts altogether.’

AS economists predicted the ‘Home Builder Grant’ and first-home buyer grants would push up prices like those dating back to the Howard years …

SO all along were these Scomo Government grants all about creating a building boom, and not about helping aspiring home builders?

ADD to the mix Covid …

-and supply shortages

-increased material costs; longer build times

-land registration pushing out to 6 – 18 months

READ MORE!

‘Time and cost of building a house blows out due to construction boom’

The Emergence of ‘Celebrity’ in Real Estate!

The Emergence of ‘Celebrity’ in Real Estate as The Divide is growing … the cream of our Intelligentsia … University lecturers, Computer Scientists, Scientists, digital technology technicians … and many others have lost their careers … or remain screwed on very low wages

YET we have real estate agents cruising in their ‘Beamers’ wearing Italian-made suits, and sporting Saint Laurent pointed toe boots …

They are moving up to Hunters Hill … and investing in acreages … while buyers do all the work!

Buyers spend hours daily on the internet searching for ‘a home’ …

Buyers have to slot in as many inspections as they can … driving themselves … long gone are the days when the agent ‘looked after’ the buyer

Earlier in 2021 buyers were joined by hundreds of others at 30 minute ‘Open Homes’ X 2 per week … could this have been to create competition and price hikes? 

Now as COVID steps up its agenda … there are one-to-one private inspections for 10 minutes …  in a time slot from 1.00 to 3.30 p.m., one or two days a week.

Back at the shop, agents call the ‘interested buyers’ and suggest the property is now selling $300,000 … $500,000 more than the Guide! 

Is this the case?  It’s all by the agent’s suggestion, isn’t it?  How do we really know?

Commissions of $30,000 and more on each property sold each week!

As if this is not more than enough … with so much cash to splash some are now having their faces plastered on billboards … they are on Instagram …

The ‘winners’ among them are those that can make connection and feign emotional intelligence … afterall they are ‘wired’ to sell at the highest price!

READ MORE!

‘Living Large:  The Rise of Celebrity Real Estate Agents

India-Australia Free Trade talks set to reopen following Tony Abbott’s visit to New Delhi

UNDER the cover of Covid Tony Abbott has visited New Delhi, and India-Australia Free Trade talks are to resume! 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-12/india-australia-free-trade-talks-to-resume-abbott-tehan/100373390

Discussions began back in 2011.

How is this in the interests of Australian manufacturing and business? Picking up from where we left off with China as Scomo makes much noise about his stand off with the PRC …

It is anticipated by Trade Minister Dan Tehan that an agreement might be struck in the not too distant future.

Despite India’s policies to promote their own industries against those of other nations.  Protectionist! They are not stupid …  

And this, it would seem, explains partly why negotiations broke down.  India turned down Australia’s demands for improved market access as Australia during 2011 refused to loosen restrictions on Visas for Indians who wanted to work in Australia. As they had already rorted Australia’s ‘skilled’ visa and student visa systems.  As reported by the ABC 7.30:

‘Corruption and widespread rorting ‘undermining Australia’s immigration programs’ … with people smuggling …

Nick McKenzie when interviewing Jasvinder Sidhu uncovered that many Indians had paid large cash sums (as large as $45,000) to illegally obtain skilled or student visas to gain permanent residency.

These people paid a large wad of cash to fabricate a job which did not exist to gain ‘permanent residency’.

Thousands of fake Indians are being sponsored through this corruption!

Just as we see … it is alleged our unemployment is falling due to our borders being closed to Visa workers … why would we adjust our sovereign borders to India (or any other Nation) because what it means weakening our Australian wages and conditions for increased market access to what are inferior products to our own.

Abbott alleges these trade deals ‘… would be an important sign of the democratic world’s tilt away from China, as well as boosting long-term prosperity of both our countries.’

As it makes India’s wealthy, and Indian-Australian ‘Permanent Residents richer too!

Why not produce Australian owned, grown or manufactured goods here to improve our economy?

Read and watch!

Corruption and widespread rorting ‘undermining Australia’s immigration programs’ – 7.30 (abc.net.au)

What the Removal of ‘Willow Grove’ tells us about those Pseudos in Macquarie Street

WHAT ‘pseudo Australians’ we have allegedly representing our interests in the Big House in Macquarie Street … they live here … they have achieved ‘high office’ … but are they really ‘of us’?

… When they have seen to the destruction of:

-our Australian Heritage Windsor Bridge and Thompson Square

The unknown builders hired to demolish ‘our Willow Grove’, a non unionised Haus Building Services, awarded $1.9M contract by ‘limited tender’!


Who, among the construction consortia, will be contracted for the new museum?  Will it be Chinese state-owned John Holland, LendLease, Richard Crookes or Multiplex?

How clever of the ‘pseudo” to have restored 50% capacity for construction workers as they bar public pickets and protests to defeat the ‘Green Ban’  … ?

READ MORE!

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/removal-of-historic-willow-grove-starts-to-make-way-for-parramatta-powerhouse-20210812-p58i61.html

OPAL Tower Builder denies involvement in Rosebery apartment complex found with defects!

the outside of a block of apartments
The company ordered to fix defects at Rosebery’s Otto apartments denies any links to the complex.(ABC News: Simon Amery)

Corroding balustrades which pose a “threat of collapse” are among the many defects found in an apartment complex in Rothchild Avenue ROSEBERY in Sydney’s south!

  • Icon Co (NSW) Pty Ltd was issued with an order to fix defects at its Rosebery complex last Thursday
  • In June, the project’s two developers, Capital Corporation and HILLSONG Church’s property branch — Sydney Christian Life Centre — were the first to be hit with orders to rectify the defects.
  • But Icon Co is now facing an order of its own with the Office of the Building Commissioner deeming it also responsible, as it purchased the apartment’s builder, Icon Constructions Australia, and shared its directors for the last five years. 

READ MORE!  

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-11/opal-tower-builder-denies-link-to-rosebery-otto-complex-defects/100355622

Predictions our ‘Hot Property’ market could escalate further when Borders reopen!

Who are ‘the Suits’ in Australia … the ‘Judas’ in our midst seeking more Hot Money in our Real Estate?

Is there no end to their greed?  

How about our Rich Listers fly off and buy in Beijing … Shanghai … ?

Juwai IQI chair Georg Chmiel has reported that in both Los Angeles and Montreal house prices have surged triple that of Sydney

Enough is enough!

Not only should the Australian Government put a stop to ‘foreign buying of our home market’ through the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) ruling, but it should reverse the exemption granted to the Real Estate Gatekeepers for the second tranche of the Anti-Money Laundering Laws.

We heard muchin fact continuously about the cheap money from the banks and government grants for First Home Buyers and renovators which pushed up house prices … again to benefit this Sector! And through Government media, Australia was promoted as having largely restricted the Pandemic outbreak … was this to entice more foreign buyers?

This campaign has locked out even more Australians seeking a home.

 
Where is our federal government intervention?
At least in New Zealand their central bank has introduced lending restrictions to pull up these runaway house prices unlike here where investors have taken up where First Home Buyers have again been locked out of home ownership.

According to Chmiel our city house prices are closer to the ‘middle of the pack’ … cheap, eh?  Our price growth he says is measured, that  in London and Tokyo fell by 6% and 7% … we wish!  True, our borders were closed to migrants and Australians stranded overseas, but not to some 15,000 wealthy foreigners especially Chinese buying our mansions, and homes with large land lots! 

https://bit.ly/3C6txPF

… So it seems Juwai figures this Boom will continue as the lockdown retreats with the return of Chinese students gaining Family Visas and all …

So what is the Morrison Government going to do about this?  This disease is not going away any time soon especially with China’s very big problems

Wuhan has reported a new and growing cluster on 3 August sparking a new round of testing. And scientists say China’s vaccines are less effective against new strains of this virus.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-09/wuhan-mass-virus-testing/100361016

And an outbreak that started in July has now spread to about 40 cities!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-07/china-covid-outbreak-nanjing-wuhan-delta-variant-risks/100345914

Is this government going to risk the health of its constituents, and our broader economy just to look after the property sector?

How can the impact of foreign buyers be muted when millions are either of Ultra High Net Worth or HNW can fly into Australia?  China has 1.4 Billion people keen for the uptake of new builds … inner city apartments, mansions and suburban homes … that is looking like a plague in proportions!

We figure a lending intervention will only work if at the same time the Government puts a stop to ‘wealthy foreigners buying our homes’

It’s time the government looked at the role of the agents in all of this … during 2021 we had the Open Homes of 100 or more buyers now replaced with one to one private inspections booked on top of one another …

Followed by auctions or Private Treaty where agents communicate inflated prices on properties setting up FOMO buyers!

An increase in supply will only work to return this market to Australians if the Government puts a stop to the overseas sell-off .

Related article:

What SMH Readers believe will bring an End to the hideous Housing Boom!

‘ … we have to get the Tax Bludgers out of the market by doing away with negative gearing and also the DivImpCredrefund bludgers.  Why should the many be paying the taxes of the few?’

OR put another way …

-House prices are primarily influenced by 2 things:

1. NG and CGT tax concessions
. These are not only ridiculous in an overcooked property market, but also unaffordable given the high level of government debt approaching $1.4 trillion. Remove them and prices will not only plateau but fall back towards normality, and

2. Interest rates. Even a small increase in interest rates will see many defaults in the mortgage market leading to prices falling.

The real question is how long can the RBA continue playing games holding the official cash rate at 0.01% while the real rate of inflation on essential items is 5% p.a. (45% over the last decade).

The global bond market knows that inflation is rising, hence the higher yields which is normally followed by higher interest rates.

Then from another who perhaps has a vested interest in high immigration wrote:

‘One interesting thing is all those people wanting immigration stopped because it was causing the housing market to spiral out of control were wrong. And as for immigration taking our jobs, wrong again, as unemployment is (slightly) falling’

Which drew this response:

‘It’s not wrong. Just look around. Go to a physical auction and see the demographic makeup of the bidders.

Blind Freddie would tell that is a major factor. People forget we are twenty years into an immigration explosion.

The gates were opened back then, and now It’s a self-propelling momentum driven market.’

CAAN:  How can this be disputed? 

The Howard Government in the late 1990s enticed the Middle Class Chinese to invest in education and our real estate lured by ‘flexible citizenship’.  This led to a housing boom in 2004!

AND …  permanent migration of 70,000 p.a. was replaced with temporary migration through a large number of Visas including a range of investment visas, AND … family, parent, grandparent, guardian, student, PhD student, the 457 visa later replaced by the skilled work visa enabling these people to gain permanent residency esp. if they bought a ‘new home’!

Prior to the Pandemic there were 2.3 MILLION Visa holders in Australia of which 1.6 Million were visa workers!

Many from overseas were lured when they gained either student visas or work visas with the prospect of ‘permanent residency’.  They were willing to work long hours and for low rates of pay!

There have been numerous reports about the exploitation of these people.  They have come here in large numbers and this led to high unemployment and underemployment of Australians!

Read more!

‘The one million Australians forgotten in the unemployment statistics’

https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/work/2019/10/17/unemployment-figures-marginally-attached-australia/

AND …

-Why does this article not include the opinion of Prof Cameron Murray, an expert in property economics? He produces relevant, thoughtful and informative pieces on a semi-regular basis, and knows what he is talking about.

Given the very wide range of “forecasts” this article’s experts have produced and the uncertainty that they demonstrate, your readers might have been better served by an opinion piece informed by just one economist.

…..

Auctions …  and/or pressure from Sales Negotiators …

‘If there are two people who want the same house then the prices will go up, if there is one or none the prices will stay the same or drop.’

-The “property boom” has resulted from every government in Australia ratcheting up house prices artificially over several decades by throwing cash at first home buyers.

This massive misallocation of capital, coupled with outrageous lending practices by banks, has created a potential economic disaster, which, once the slide in house prices begins, will lead to the banks ending up in difficulties again.

Intervention by the regulators could trip the collapse of this wobbly pile of debt.  Other triggers could be current fall of payrolls induced by the egregious mismanagement of the SARS COV-2 epidemics in Australia.

And an eventual increase in interest rates for house mortgages is, in the long term, inevitable.  It is simply a matter of which trigger is reached first to give an avalanche of foreclosures.  The legal practices handling bankruptcies will become the new hot industries.

Whichever party in power at the APH will collect most of the opprobrium.

-Meanwhile we keep buying properties, keep renting them out and keep getting tax advantages whilst enjoying almost free money. Long may it continue.

And there lies the reason why our future generations will largely be consigned to rent for most of their lives!

The exceptions will be those inheriting a large proportion of a house, or multiples thereof, and the highest-earning professionals.

Having a go from a base of $0 won’t be enough for most young people to enter the housing market.

Read more!

‘Housing boom tipped to end this year’

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/housing-boom-tipped-to-end-this-year-20210804-p58fo6.html#comments

FACTS SHEET … on the 2021 House Price Booom!

Yes, we need a top-level Inquiry into Uncontrolled House Prices

Find out more!

https://bit.ly/3lnIfvM

Under the Cover of Covid 15,000 Wealthy Foreigners given Australian Visas!

https://bit.ly/3C6txPF

GEN X bears the Debt Burden … the Cost of Buying a Home has increased by 130%

MEANWHILE … many GEN Y and Z are locked out of home ownership … and this explains why!

https://bit.ly/3AcRbIE

How have Sydney House Prices been cooked?

Is Everybody happy?

How did the house price rise rot set in?

Clearly we were set up not only by the big boys in Real Estate but the RBA!  FFS!

‘ …Centre for Independent Studies chief economist Peter Tulip said it was “well within possibility” that Sydney house prices would rise by 30 per cent by the end of the year.

“Almost all of that has just occurred within the past six months, as I understand, so we are on track for a very large increase in 2021.”

In 2019, he modelled for the Reserve Bank of Australia that a permanent one percentage point cut in the cash rate would result in an increase in house prices of 30 per cent after three years.’

WHAT role have the realtors played in this price hike? They do set the price …

The pattern from the end 2020 was for agents to advertise a home $100,000 below the guide said to attract more buyers.

But then in January 2021 prices were advertised $200,000 above that gained just weeks earlier! For like homes … however some did not even have a lick of paint!

‘ … the massive daily house price growth has locked many people out of the market, including first-home buyer Pankaj Kumar, who has been looking to purchase a house in the Ryde area for more than three years.

He started with a $900,000 budget in 2019. But even with an increased amount of $1.65 million today, he is still priced out of the area.

“There was a time when properties were selling $30,000 or $40,000 above [the price guide], but when they go $300,000 above, you can’t budget for that,” Mr Kumar said. “It has become impossible.”

The Ryde region recorded one of the highest house price rises in Sydney, jumping 11.7 per cent – or $219,500 – in the second quarter to a median of $2.1 million.

It rose 26.9 per cent – or $445,000 – in the year to June.

‘Sydney house prices reach record median $1,410,133 – rising almost $1200 a day in just three months’

https://bit.ly/3CmyC6z

OBVIOUSLY we do need a ‘top level Inquiry into Uncontrolled House Prices‘ because this not only locks out many Australians but may well negatively impact wealthy Boomers who have gone guarantor for their families to buy a home!

WHEN will the Scummo Government do what it should?