photo credit: waferboard
The Urban Development Institute says there are currently fewer than 1400 blocks of land for sale in Perth.
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But, the Real Estate Institute believes there are a lot of speculators sitting on land waiting for prices to improve before releasing them for sale.
The UDIA is concerned that with 1200 migrants visiting Perth each week, the 1400 blocks of land for sale is insufficient to address affordability.
With only 7 auctions last weekend and 20 on Feb 21, for example, it seems that the property downturn in Perth is still in effect. How many other blocks are being withheld and aren’t up for ransom at present?
With higher populations, the demand for land will rise. The REI rightly states that many speculators are sitting on idle blocks waiting for money to grow on trees.
Higher populations should encourage development upwards, not outward. Prime locations become more valuable, ensuring that owners have to make their land more productive to warrant the investment.
The issue is that with more and more builders turning to land banking as a means to an ends – free skiing in Aspen funded by you the taxpayer, you the worker – there is less motivation to build upwards.
This trend will hit the Rudd Government this election year. The rush to remove democratic rights of appeal for local communities in a bid to counter the private sector’s preference for land banking, may well cost some Victorian ALP members their seats.
When will government’s of all persuasions look lobbyists in the eyes and tell them to disappear? Land banking is not only forcing our mortgage costs through the roof, but it is robbing communities of our best and brightest people. How many GP’s have given up their practice for such speculative activity?
