Vacancies up, House Prices Up

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Renegade Economists Show 422

As broadcast on the 3CR airwaves 5.30 – 6pm Wednesdays.
Subscribe to the free weekly podcast.

Catherine Cashmore discusses her Speculative Vacancies report findings of 82,724 empty homes, up 22% on last year. How can house prices keep increasing?

Vacancies Up, House Prices Up by Renegade Economists on Mixcloud

Show Notes
Media release
AFR – Almost 20% of investor homes empty
Murdoch on vacancies

23 advantages property investors enjoy

Related Links

Music – Doctor Turtle (FMA)

Poster Design – Craig Broughton – go on tweet it up like so many have this week!

Glossary

Here’s the Twitter and watch #LVT, #commons, #rentier.

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Free Demolition

Karl FitzgeraldMultimediaLeave a Comment

Renegade Economists Show 421

As broadcast on the 3CR airwaves 5.30 – 6pm Wednesdays.
Subscribe to the free weekly podcast.

Show Notes
One mistake and your mp3 is history on the podcast feed. Sorry bout that, we are working on it. Listen via Mixcloud instead (below). Braybrook storyteller Lucy tells of a fire at derelict home and the cost to the community after Karl runs through recent economic trends, events as outlined below.

Our big Speculative Vacancy report is out Wednesday the 9th. Come to a packed event.

Free Demolition? by Renegade Economists on Mixcloud

Related Links

Value Capture Parliamentary submission, presentation.

NSW roads minister on VC
Roads Minister Duncan Gay hints light rail route will be built in Sydney Olympic Park.

Sources have said the route announcement is on hold until the state government determines how to fund the construction through “value capture”, a finance mechanism that seeks to regain the value uplift properties get from being located near public transport.

Media release

Capturing the value of transport infrastructure
New inquiry

The Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities has launched an inquiry into increased transport connectivity and economic activity, with a particular focus on value-capture as a funding mechanism for infrastructure development.

The terms of reference for the inquiry are:

Identifying the likely impact on property values and property-related tax revenues as a result of transport connectivity;

examining options for the application of value-capture mechanisms to sustainably fund transport infrastructure;

considering means, including legislative and administrative actions, by which government and the private sector can best utilise value-capture funding mechanisms;

considering the appropriate roles of each of the three levels of government in establishment sustainable value-capture funding mechanisms for planning and infrastructure construction;

examining any international experiences of the delivery of high speed rail projects by value-capture methods and the impact of high speed rail on city and regional development;

examining methods of implementing value-capture in both greenfield and brownfield developments; and

examining ways to capture future value opportunity when reserving transport corridors.

The committee invites interested persons and organisations to make submissions to the inquiry addressing the above terms of reference. Submissions close on Friday 12 February 2016.

The excuse to tax the family home for which states have been waiting – Michael Pascoe

I can hear the chorus of state treasurers now: “Sorry, voters, I didn’t want to introduce a broad land tax, but that mean federal government made me do it.”

An important speech by the Federal Minister for Major Projects, Paul Fletcher, has given fair notice that the Turnbull government will force the states and territories to capture the increased property values that follow improving infrastructure.

And a good way to achieve “value capture” is via a broad, no-exceptions land tax. Hence the excuse the states need to grow a spine and introduce the most obvious of the major tax reforms that the nation needs.

It has been a glaring missed opportunity for states not to capture the increased value created when infrastructure is improved. There are experiments around the edges by some states and local governments – the humble development levy is a form of “value capture” – but nobody has been politically game enough to take it seriously.

As the situation generally stands now, if the government builds a new train line, it provides a windfall capital gain for those people owning land around the new station. Developers tend to capture a disproportional share of subsequent rezoning and, in the case of owner-occupiers, it’s a totally tax-free boost courtesy of other taxpayers.

…. The commonwealth and states can get fancy with financial engineering of uplift bonds or whatever, but the underlying factor is the increased value of the land. Go for it and blame the feds.

Fire devastation Braybrook – as told by Lucy.
Detail on the Fire Services Levy

Paris climate – LVT holistic move away from commodification of the earth to productive future

Oz to double our r n d to $200m
whoa!

I almost got to this
Gina’s 1st iron ore to be sold $7 below cost price, then had a 7 day shipping ban imposed @$50k p/d, then ore price drops further overnight.

Glossary

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The Black Box

Karl FitzgeraldMultimedia2 Comments

Renegade Economists Show

As broadcast on the 3CR airwaves 5.30 – 6pm Wednesdays.
Subscribe to the free weekly podcast.

Show Notes
Roman Lanis (Assoc Prof Accounting, UTS) discusses tax evasion strategies by oil companies undermining one of our ‘most efficient’ taxes.

Image

The Black Box by Renegade Economists on Mixcloud

Related Links
Secret ASIC list for grandfathered insiders
Roman on PRRT tax evasion
Roman on:
Westfield’s Tax Avoidance
REIT tax avoidance:

… our report, commissioned by union United Voice suggests the Westfield Group effectively paid just 8% tax in the seven years to 2013, and its property arm, Westfield Retail Trust (WRT), no tax at all.

This is due to extensive use by the both the Westfield Group and Westfield Retail Trust of trust structures known as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), which it has combined with stapled securities.

The accounting trick that helps multinationals avoid paying tax:

However, in preparing its financial report Chevron Australia applies the Reduced Disclosure Requirements (RDR) which is allowed under the Australian accounting standards.

The RDR allows large proprietary companies that do not have public accountability to voluntarily apply the disclosure requirements of just a few accounting standards. Applying the RDR relies on the idea that the only companies which have such accountability are those which issue publicly tradeable equity or debt securities.

The consequences of allowing large proprietary companies such as Chevron Australia (and almost every other subsidiary of a multinational operating in Australia) to use RDR are enormous in terms of transparency. The ATO, in the past, has indicated that it relies on the annual reports of companies for related party disclosures in identifying tax avoidance.

Non-disclosure of this information by large proprietary companies makes it difficult for the ATO and anyone else in Australia to identify tax avoidance.

My big report, the Total Resource Rents of Australia found:

Accounting practices turned the PRRT’s 40% into an effective 3.2% rate when comparing resource rent revenues to profits for the two Australian companies ($174m/$5.5bn).

Glossary

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Into Focus

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Renegade Economists Show 419

As broadcast on the 3CR airwaves 5.30 – 6pm Wednesdays.
Subscribe to the free weekly podcast.

Show Notes
Mary Rose Liverani, author of ‘Sicily, a Captive Land’ joins to discuss the relationship between the Catholic Church and mafia in Sicily, then onto the land reform zest in Scotland.

Music – Doctor Turtle (free music agency)
Image Unsplash Samx

Into Focus by Renegade Economists on Mixcloud

Related Links:
The Guardian:

“The fact that 750,000 acres of Scotland will still be held in tax havens by a global, untraceable elite, is inexcusable.” Jen Stout, Scottish Land Action

Nicky Lowden MacCrimmon SNP at the Our Land conference

“This motion talks about a road to radical land reform and I don’t think as a party we can say we’re being as radical as we can be, as we should be and as we have the powers to be right now.

I cannot support the motion wholly as I and many other grassroots members of the SNP believe that our vision for land reform is not radical enough and that we’ve not had an opportunity to debate that as a party and think where are we going to go with land reform.”

“Does radical land reform leave tenant farmers with no right to buy, no security of tenure – farmers who have invested in that land, worked that land for generations, who have kids in the local school, who contribute to local economies being told your tenancy’s up, find somewhere else to live, work, raise a family. No it doesn’t and we have the power to change that now.

And what about some of the gems Mary Rose dropped?!!

“the logic is unassailable ….land is the best treat. Land ownerships sees people drop to their knees in deference, it make a lot more impact on lives than shares.”

Steve Wall was a Scottish Georgist who penned this key article in 1985 – An entrance fee to life on earth. If anyone knows of Steve and can unfurl more of his descriptive prose, let me know!

Get your head around these concepts by reading our Glossary

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Ripping Yourself Off.con

Karl FitzgeraldMultimedia4 Comments

Renegade Economists Show 417

As broadcast on the 3CR airwaves 5.30 – 6pm Wednesdays.
Subscribe to the free weekly podcast.

Show Notes

Jason Murphy joins to discuss his wake up call that small business has dried up in the face of the immense profits in real estate speculation. Economics IS interesting!

Image

Ripping Yourself Off by Renegade Economists on Mixcloud

Related Links
Falling Land Prices Could Make us Richer – Jason Murphy

The jaw-dropping graph:
77afb6eda8f769d5da7311da879e00d8

Why people think tax reform is a knife, and why that is a problem for Australia

Chevron Paid $248 on $1.7bn

How Land Tax works, taken from my recent submission to a Parliamentary select committee (no time to even mention this!):

As a cost of ownership, property buyers incorporate effective future value capture (Land Tax) charges and reduce their purchase price offering by the according amount. This acts to channel the naturally rising value of prime locations away from property owners and towards government. In effect, this is directly inverse to current behaviour, where buyers and investors incorporate expected future capital gains into a purchasing price that is often triple what net rents OR wages can justify.

Seven lenders offering 40 year loans (with massive interest costs)
I’ll eat my hat if we are anywhere near a global recession – Evans Ambrose-Evans

#Notetoself – don’t lie down doing interviews, you sound a little laconic!

Follow Karl on Twitter and #LVT, #aushousing, #rentier.

Share with your friends, or if you could, provide an itunes review for the show. Thankyou!