HN Explorer

Tell HN: The Australian housing market, open to the world, is going up $900/day

8 points by andrewstuart ↗ HN
Anyone in the world may buy housing in Australia.

And the prices are going up at an astounding rate.

In some suburbs, house prices are accelerating up to $880/day.

Australia is also one of three countries in the world where real estate is exempt from money laundering reporting laws, so likely criminal cash is flooding in from Russia, China, Burma, anywhere in the world that has dirty money that needs cleaning.

Money is pouring in from rich people in countries where economies are crashing.

Prices are absolutely skyrocketing, supply is nowhere near keeping up with demand and the government is running a massive immigration program.

These house prices are going to accelerate to the moon.

What does all this add up to? It's a terrible thing if you are an ordinary Australia who hoped to own a home. It's a miracle if you are a landlord in Australia. It's an incredible opportunity if you have global money that you want a high rate of return on. It's a gift from god if you are a criminal wanting to stash your ill gotten millions.

4 comments

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lmiller1990
I bought my first house for 650k (Brisbane) just before covid. It’s now worth about 1M. 350k appreciation in ~4 years - bonkers. Glad I got it then since I probably wouldn’t be able to buy it now.

You can still get a place in the 700k area but it’s a lot further out, a lot older and will likely need a lot more work. That said many in our generation inherited the boomer attitude of big house and big backyard - I think expectations need to change, but negative gearing really needs to go.

nextos
It seems like the floodgates are open in the Western world and very few countries have had wise politicians who care about keeping the market affordable for locals. Unaffordable housing is one of the major causes of low fertility rates, touristification and lot of other maladies. In the mid-term, it destroys communities that took centuries to build. Sad.
impendia
It seems like the Australian government has an opportunity here: pass stringent money laundering laws, go aggressively after those in violation, seize any ill gained foreign-owned properties, and auction them to Australian citizens.

And start charging extremely high property tax rates on any properties which sit vacant for over six months and whose owners are not Australian or are large corporations.

I suppose this is too simplistic for some reason or other, but I'm quite serious: why not do this?

andrewstuart
>> why not do this?

It's simple.

Both the major political parties in Australia WANT this outcome.

Most politicians have extensive property portfolios. House prices going to the moon is going to mak them all unbelievably wealthy.

Successive governments on both sides have avoided implementing Tranche 2 anti money laundering regulations for decades for the simple reason that the property industry makes vast money from criminal cash, and in Australia the property lobby is extremely influential.

Australian politicians don't serve the Australian people, they serve the financial donors, vested interests and themselves.