Declining property prices have seen many investors wonder whether their investment is worthwhile. Experts remind investors to take a long term stand and not bail out, selling too early. “Property is cyclical. There are periods of growth and decline in terms of property prices, this is just part of the cycle,” explained Madeleine of LJ [...]

Read Full Post »

What do you do if you are young and thinking about investing in property? A 19-year-old I know has plans to save up to buy his first property, and mentioned that he’s not too sure where to start. Should he do a property course, he wondered? And how do you know where is a good [...]

Read Full Post »

Commonwealth Bank of Australia has launched an online game created by ad agency BMF to allow would-be investors to simulate life in the property market.   The announcement:“Commonwealth Bank today released Investorville, an online simulation tool for budding property investors. Investorville helps users de-mystify the often complex world of property investment, including simulating ongoing costs, without [...]

Read Full Post »

Australia’s largest independently-owned mortgage broker has found that of those who will buy their first investment property in the next two years, for 19% it is their first ever property purchase. This incidence was highest in New South Wales (26%) and lowest in Western Australia (13%). Gender-wise, males were more likely than females to make [...]

Read Full Post »

The Australian dollar’s strong foreign exchange rate is not putting off overseas property investors.According to David Rees, head of research and consulting at JLL Australasian, the country has one of the most “transparent real estate markets in the world and good financial regulation”.These factors are attracting foreign investments, along with Australia‘s proximity and investment in [...]

Read Full Post »

Today’s market conditions favour property investors who are looking to benefit from ongoing seller discounting, healthy rental income growth and longer term capital gains, says Australia’s largest independently-owned mortgage broker, Mortgage Choice.This may be why the value of housing finance demand for investment lending – fixed loans rose for the first time this year in [...]

Read Full Post »

By allowing ordinary taxpayers to deduct their losses from investing in residential property against their other (mainly wage and salary) income, the current system provides a significant tax incentive for people to invest in rental accommodation across Australia.Encouraging this demand, by the simple laws of the market, does hold property prices higher than they would [...]

Read Full Post »

Australian property investors risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars after snapping up thousands of US housing bargains at forced-sale prices, experts have warned.The lure of a perfect property stormEmboldened by the soaring local dollar, Australians invested about $600 million on US residential property last year, according to the Washington-based National Association of Realtors, as [...]

Read Full Post »

Asian property investors are feeling extremely optimistic, according to the recently released Colliers International Global Investment Sentiment Survey for Q3 2010.91 per cent of Asian respondents to the survey said they wanted to buy property in their domestic region and 73 per cent of Asian respondents expect to expand their property portfolio over the next [...]

Read Full Post »

AUSTRALIAN real estate investment trusts are very attractive to international investors due to the underlying quality of assets and stable economy, according to United States property advisers.Ron Sturzenegger, the global head of real estate for Merrill Lynch, who is attending the firm’s inaugural Australian REIT conference in Sydney this week, said the one hurdle for [...]

Read Full Post »