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September 12, 2017 - 4:37 pm

Not sure Perth has a heap of great capital growth prospects at present… Smaller units close to the city might also be for airbnb rentals??

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March 10, 2013 - 1:17 pm

Problem is that while we are reasonably competitive in the area of cereals and grains for export because of the scale of our industry, for many other products like horticulture and dairy etc we are a very high cost producer and we simply don't have the scale or the capital inputs to make them competitive with many other producers around the world, specially here in WA and so many other producers in South America and Africa and Russia etc are more likely to win markets because of this horse meat issue…   In many agriculture and food markets we are actually small producers aiming at niche markets…  We also can't export many sheep to Middle Eastern markets until they can prove they have the capacity to slaughter the sheep humanely which is self imposed regulation etc…

We also don't have the same market access to some countries that competitors will because they have better Free Trade Agreements…

The food and agriculture global markets have always been some of the most corrupted and protected and subsidised you could hope to find and unfortunately while we often do produce often very good products we can't just rely on that to make us globally successful, not in the current environment anyway…

manufacturing i would also have thought we will always struggle in, what sort of competitive advantage do we have in that area???

Education is something we should be pushing a lot more, i think we do tourism pretty terribly, i was listening to a presentation the other day and i think someone said that our hotels that we rate as 5 star are often 3 star by other countries comparisons and we charge like they are 7 star…   Whenever i think about holidaying at home or going overseas, overseas always wins…  We have such a lot of work to do…

I wouldn't mind if mining did go off the boil a bit, i have similarly heard bad news about the future with lack of investment and it might stop Perth's property market from getting even more ridiculous than it is already currently heading…

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October 9, 2012 - 1:56 am

Gazza

I have already built a house in the past, so don't qualify for FHOG and the last time i tried to build a house in 2010 my wage was low enough that with some tweaking i could qualifiy for a Government assistance scheme in WA that would have allowed me to build and only pay $50 a week while i was still renting waiting for my house to be built, but my wage is too high now…  Although i think some of the house and land packagers these days have arrangements with banks to offer deals such as this…

The fact is I have enough of a wage to already be paying $400 a week rent, save up money ($500-700 a fortnight or so) and have almost paid of my car in 2 years and take holidays etc, so its not a case exactly that its an impossible dream, its just that this announcement that they want to lock in a 12 month lease has sort of moved plans forward a bit or else I would have been on track to have the extra money saved up in 5-6 months…

And yes I would strongly be considering renting out a room to a tenant, not because i need the money, just that it would put me in that much of a stronger position money wise…

So it was just a way to arrange it to meet the loan approval requirements ahead of schedule…

The other problem is that 6-12 months ago i would definitely have been approaching sellers and wanting 5-10% discount on the property, but the Perth real estate market, at the low end anyway, seems to have bounced back so much that you often see a house for sale sign go up and only a couple of weeks later or less it has an under offer or sold sign on it, so not sure sellers in Perth are struggling to find people to buy their place, unless its a bit of a "renovator's delight"/dung heap…    

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October 8, 2012 - 4:45 pm

Ok, well it seems i was lucky when i walked into the Westpac branch to arrange to see someone about taking out a personal loan that they made the appointment for the next day (Tuesday), so maybe i will just hold off seeing them today so that won't appear on my credit record…  

The deposit has been sitting in my bank account for the last 3 years or so, it did get down to about $13,000 in July because i had to use some of the money, but what 4 months later by Thursday it will be back up to $19,000 and in another two weeks should be close to up over $21,000… 

The loan would only be for fees and stamp duty etc if that makes any difference…

So what do people suggest…  I have a car that i could try to sell privately or take to some car yard and like to get $16000-$18000, but prefer to not rush down that route…

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October 8, 2012 - 3:28 am

Ok, me again…     My lease at my rental is just about up and they want me to sign up for another 12 months and i don't want to rent that long, plus they are putting the rent up…

Which means if i say no i have like 60 days or so to move out…  Not sure if i might be able to talk to the owners and maybe negotiate another month or so???

So went into ANZ on Friday to see about getting a home loan and they said that i almost have enough of a deposit for a $350,000 loan (on thursday will have about $19,000) but the lady said i would need another $12-15k for stamp duty and fees etc, so I was planning today to go to Westpac and see about getting a $15,000 or so personal loan, which hopefully by the end of the week (if its approved) should give me the funds to meet ANZ's lending criteria (I think that should even give me close to the amount of funds required to go up to $370-380,000 loan…)

The plan would then be to go looking for a place to buy and hopefully i can get settlement and all within that two month period and be in it by mid December…  This is probably being optimistic??  I know it sucks to put myself under such time pressure to make such a big monetary/lifestyle decisions, but as i said don't want to be renting for another 12 months and can't be stuffed moving to another rental for 6 months with all the costs and hassles involved and they would probably want to force a 12 month lease on me in the tight WA rental market anyway…

So, ANZ, i think the lady said i could go for a variable or fixed loan (with maybe a variable component so that i could make extra repayments over and above the fixed repayments)…  For 3 years fixed it was about 5.69%, but because i'm a customer they could bring that down to 5.5% or so…  On their website i note that a 5 year fixed loan is only 5.99% (hopefully able to be discounted down to 5.7% or so)…  They have a bunch of comparison rates which i don't really understand but 5.5% or 5.7% seems pretty competitive to me as not sure the variable rates will get down that low although their ANZ Simplicity plus package seems to have a variable rate of 6.10% and i think i am eligible for a 0.7 or 0.8% discount so i guess that could be a lower option???

http://www.anz.com.au/personal/home-loans/compare-home-loan/

I do like the security of having a fixed loan so i know what i will be up for, but also being able to make extra repayments as my original goal was to either have loan with a redraw or offset account so i could put my full pay in there and live off my credit card for the month and pay the loan down that much more quickly…  So would like to see about being able to get an account with such a redraw or offset account…

Finally i was thinking about seeing if the bank would allow me if i could get it as an interest only loan which would make my fortnightly repayments i am actually obligated to even lower to give me that extra bit of security as a single person taking out a hefty loan, while all the time having the goal of sticking as much of my pay as possible into the loan and getting ahead of the curve from the start…  And would this also be a decent way of arranging the loan in case in the future i want to rent it out???

Any thought would be appreciated from the guys that know all about the loans/finance angle or if you know of any other better deal out there…    I might also contact one or two finance brokers to see if they can come and talk me through it…

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July 18, 2012 - 5:48 am

Ahhh well, if it can get you over the first hurdle of getting into the loan/place… 

Depends if you would genuinely be hocking yourself to the eyeballs to get a home, or whether it would just speed the process up a little including it not helping to be paying rental payments of close to what the weekly repayments would be plus trying to save up the deposit…

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July 11, 2012 - 3:28 am

Ahhh ok, back in 2010 i think it was i had signed up with Homestart here in WA to build a place down in Bertram, I think the package was about $337,000 or so and I only needed to have saved up about $21,000 i think…  I got to that and had the whole deal pretty much signed and sealed, all I needed to do was provide 1 letter showing one of my credit cards had been closed to bring me down to the allowable amount of credit to have open and still satisfy the loan requirement from whichever bank or finance option they used…  But at that time property prices were falling and interest rates went up about 5-6 times in the year, so I bailed out of the deal as it didn't seem right at the time…

Not sure if building through one of those house and land package deals made the stamp duty less or whether my wage then was also less and whether that qualified me for any government programs or whether they could wrap some extra costs into the loan…  My salary was still in the $80k range but whether now I'm higher still whether i might not qualify for some govt assistance on stamp duty or somethign that i did back then…   $29,000 will take a little bit of time with $400 a week rent.. 

But if anyone would like to have a chat with me, or could recommend a broker I'm all ears… 

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July 10, 2012 - 8:36 am

Yeah i aim to hopefully get it up around $20,000 within several months, but with the money sitting around for a while it has drifted lower a little…  So that is the first thing to get the deposit amount back up…   Then if I could get a 95% LVR that should allow me hopefully to get the ball rolling…  Just have to find out which lenders allow those…   Does a 95% LVR for $350,000 require $17,500deposit??  Ideally i would like to find some place that i could bargain down to $330,000, but i like the flexibility to be able to go up a little if i have too…

Then there is a whole bunch of other questions…  Should i wait till i have the deposit saved back up to the needed amount or start contacting a finance broker or two???

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July 10, 2012 - 6:51 am

Thanks Spiro, yeah there definitely is that factor of a broker being able to give me info on the whole range of what is available out there…  Is the industry pretty good these days in terms of them not directing you to loan products that THEY benefit out of so you will get the unvarnished truth?  

May it also be the case that they have lenders they prefer to deal with or do a lot of business with and so if you agree to go that route you might get access to loan terms that me rocking up to a bank might not be able to convince the bank to let me have???  I'm not talking crazy stuff that would be detrimental to me or the bank, but just if there was one bit i didn't quite have for a loan can the broker have a good relationship with one of their bank/lending companies to get it over the line or is it all sort of very hands off???

I guess having started this process and then stopped a few times I just want to get something started soon as homes seem to be moving here in Perth now, not long on the market before an Under Offer sticker is up so need to get my ducks lined up and work out my strategy to buy or build…

Mark

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March 15, 2012 - 8:36 am

Paullie, if your wondering where all the people are, or are going to be, I imagine many more people are going to be happy to co-habit with others from now on…  In 2009 i moved in with a friend and lived with him in his place for about 18 months, going from a rent of $400/week to $130/week put an awful lot of money in my pocket….  I eventually moved out about 6 months ago and am back up to $400/week but would now consider having someone move in with me to my rental….

Similarly i know a female friend who had bought a 3bed/2bath unit…  She now has two other people staying with her which is helping her bottom line considerably…   The fact that people might reduce their minimum living requirements i don't think was factored into all thos equations that you have to either buy yourself or rent yourself and that there would be this massive undersupply of housing and getting worse every year…  

People will adapt and find new ways when the market is crazy or they are caught in a trap where they can't afford to buy or rent and live a half decent life…   In the older days it was move back home and live with parents, these days you can't hardly go past a notice board without someone renting out a room or being willing to share a house with a student/stranger…

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December 1, 2010 - 7:48 am

vj, we will find out, but my thinking would be that i have a pretty decent credit history (have paid off several loans) and seeing that i would be swapping one debt for an equal amount and so my credit/debt situation would not be changing (i could then close or majorly reduce the credit limit on my first card)…   i guess its just up to them to assess how much of a risk i am seeing i have enough cash to pay it off in the bank, no debt, low rent and reasonably high 5 figure salary…   and for them the plus side that i won't be able to pay it off in the 12 months of 2.9% interest or whatever and that they can then role me over into a 14-18% credit card rate on what is left of the debt…    seems not a lot of risk to them….   but again we shall see…

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December 1, 2010 - 5:42 am

yeah, i'm trying to figure this out myself, although always been more of a southy…

Are you planning to buy and live in it and then sell eventually, buy and maybe ventually sub divide, buy and then maybe rent it out later?   Depending on the long term strategy might also impact on the decision…

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December 1, 2010 - 4:36 am

g0b, I think the worst idea would be to flush the money down the toilet, so buying a car rates somewhere above that…   :o)

For various reasons i am wanting to buy a property in WA which will most likely be my PPOR for at least a time until i move out and convert to an IP or buy another IP once equity has been built or another deposit saved, so not able to look for the best performing markets around all of Australia to purchase in, want to be closeto work etc…   the figures for october say that house prices in perth dropped 1.8% and units 3% and have been on the slide for the last couple of quaters, this is before the double wammy of interest rate rises in November which i can't think is going to  increase the punters confidence, this bodes well potentially for people that want to buy into the market but i think it has a bit further to go until at least Feb when the market might pick up if its not hit with another rate rise, so at present for the next several months at least i don't want to jump into the market….

I am at a point where parts of my present '98 model car (that i have had for 10 years and got my moneys worth out of ) are not working that well and are starting to cost me money, plus life has to have a few other enjoyments than just living in bricks and mortar…   when i add all that up, i think buying a nice second hand car, for the best deal i can, armed with a strategy to get credit that will cost me almost nothing (taking into account cash not directly paid on it for how ever long i choose to not pay off the debt will be sitting in a higher interest bearing account than the low interest rate on the credit car so it will probably actually earn some small amount of interest even after tax in net terms) seems to add up…    the type of car is my choice which is part rational calcualtion with a bit of emotional satisfaction thrown in… 

the deposit will be there ready to jump in whether i see a place that suits me in 1 month or 6 months and then the debt (which will be being paid down already) can quickly be paid down as required…   its not a car OR property strategy, its a strategy to get both at the right time…    so plenty of worse ideas out there i think…   :o)

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December 1, 2010 - 2:09 am

Thanks Dave, will think all those things through…  

And Duck, that sounds like an ok offer but not really wanting a Toyota (sure they are good and all) and not wanting to shell out for a new car….    so this strategy suits me more…   but for someone else the Toyota would probably be good…

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November 30, 2010 - 5:02 am

Hi Dave…   Yeah i know the depreciating asset thing, but the only thing worse than the depreciating bit is paying high interest on something devaluing…   if i can at least save half the equation…  :o)   and thanks for that advice, this is getting better with all the tidbits i am picking up…  i am a pretty crappy negotiator so i am going to look at three potential cars hopefully at different car yards and hopefully let them play off against each other in terms of the best package…   give them one day or so to come up with the best deal they can do and send offers to me, i will then come look at the best and hopefully arrange an inspection next day….    i think i will just miss the end of month thing as it will probably be later this week or next week i do the deal, so will be a new sales month for them…

have contacted the perth RAC and gotten the average price for a 3-4 year old car with between 45k-65k km on the clock, so that gives me a bit more ammunition in terms of what they say (think its the red book) the price i should be looking at…    i was originally thinking cheaper with mitsubishi 380, but then it climbed to 2007 VE commodore and the longer i have thought about it its now gone up to a 2007 VE SV6…   :o)   i kept my old car for like 9-10 years so i guess i got pretty good value out of it….   and buying second hand should hopefully reduce the drive the new car out of the lot and lose $3-4000 straight away thing…..    plus at like $35k and up i couldn't afford a new SV6 anyway….     i don't really do much driving for work as usually take department cars out to events and all….   thought about maybe salary packaging but think this low interest rate arrangement on cards will probably end up with me forking over the least amount i'm thinking???

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November 30, 2010 - 1:43 am

Thanks Terry, that's a good idea about trying to avoid the fee and will try it, the only thing is if i bargain with the car yard (or several car yards to get the best package) i would want the RAC to come out and check the car before i finally bought it on maybe the next day…   i was going to stipulate on the contract "conditiional on it receiving a satisfactory assessment"…..       

hopefully they would still go for the credit card payment with no fee if i said i agreed to buy the car if the report was satisfactory the following day or else yes i would walk away and come back later or maybe go somewhere else…   not quite the same leverage though…   did u go for the atuo check or just buy it there and then?

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November 29, 2010 - 6:07 am

Dan42, paying it off inside 12 months would be pretty tough, not impossible, but tough….  if for any reason i couldn't balance transfer to another low rate cc for another 12 months when the deal came towards its end i would probably try and take a personal loan out for the rest of the time…  even then, the interest saved paying 1 year of the money off at 2.9% rather than 11.99% would mean i would probably come out ahead???

but the plan would be to find something cheaper amid the myriad of card deals out there…  i am just wanting confirmation that these balance transfers don't have some big fee or charge that they don't advertise, is it just a nice smooth transfer over and you pay out the old card and start fresh with the new card after paying an opening fee….

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November 29, 2010 - 6:03 am

JacM, no you never buy stuff to earn frequent flyer points solely as its usually always cheaper to buy the thing direct….   i'm saying its a nice little bonus on the side….

as for buying some property, i'm not 100% sure its exactly the right time to buy in at present….  it doesn't sound like there is going to be much appreciation in 2011 (unless u buy very astutely) with more interest rates rises to come etc so just not quite ready to buy in at present…   it could easily be that houses in Perth might continue to drop over the next 3-6 months which would negate any savings in terms of buying a car using that strategy…

as for cc calculations, doing a quick calculation at ANZ site a car loan at 11.99% for two years will cost me $2,600 interest…  if i take that out to 5 years it will cost me $6,635 or over 25% of the of the original loan…   now if i buy my car and then balance transfer wihtin 55 days to say an ANZ low rate mastercard that has a 2.9% interest for a year with a fee of $58, while at the same time i am keeping my over $20k (and growing by anywhere from $500-1000 a fortnight in a high interest savings account at 6% pa (even taking into account losing 30-37% on tax)) that looks to me effectively like almost no interst at all accummulating on the $20k debt…  

the money i earn on interest by having it in the bank might even work out to be more and so i'm ahead on the arrangement and leaves my lump sum in there already sufficient to act as a deposit on the type of property i am looking at should it suddenly become available and continuing to grow a bit with a savings history so i could jump on any opportunity that came up…    after 12 months i can find another low interest credit card to balance transfer it over to but i will already be paying the loan down as there is usually a 2% a monthly repayment requirement….

anyway just a thought about using the banks terms to try and get some quite cheap credit….   i have read elsewhere about using such a plan for other types of investments as well….   so not just for cars etc…

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November 25, 2010 - 6:19 am

Mark from South Lakes (Perth)

bought and sold a house and made a tidy profit in 2003 (would have been tidier if we had hekd on), but starting again now, wanting to listen and learn and get ideas (and contribute where possible)…  the more uncertain the times the more you need to know what your doing and what your options are…   next year want to get back into the property market if the situation is reasonable and the right opportunity comes up…

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November 25, 2010 - 5:58 am

Thomson, couple of things, i work in the agriculture and food industries and repeatedly hear there will be 9 billion people by 2050 and how are we going to feed all of these people with current land and water resources etc etc…  the thought always occurs to me it might be the other way around, if we don't have the food and land and water to feed/house them all, then we probably won't reach 9 billion, or they will be dropping like flies and we will all be paying astronomical amounts or fighting for a multitude of increasingly scarce resources…  i think a bit of it is people looking at a graph and just projecting the line up and saying this is where we will be without taking into account a whole bunch of other fundamentals that will be required to underpin it or assume they will be magically solved…   so yeah we may have a huge world population by 2050 or we may have a bunch of circumstances (including urbanisation and rising living standards that often cap birthrates) which will cause a different result….

the other thing, i alwats think back to the dot.com boom (businesses who don't have a website won't survive, B2B, B2C, just start anything dot.com related and float it on the stock exchange even if its losing money and become a millionaire etc), the food/oil/mineral/ethanol inflation/hype of 2 years ago (oil will get to $200/bl) and a trend starts, maybe a bubble of some description or maybe not, but everyone starts repeating the same lines until it becomes orthodoxy that this will happen, becomes accepted reaility and no longer questioned as its all you hear the experts/authorities saying (mostly probably just repeat themselves what they just heard)…   then something comes along and pricks the bubbles or upsets the orthodoxy and you find everyone just started suffering from group think, we all wonder what were we thinking and how were we all taken in/when did we stop think rationally/critically???  

maybe mass migration will flood us, maybe there really are 200,000 short fall in houses, maybe we haven't gotten into some sort of speculative property bubble where people only buy because they expect it will keep going up forever, maybe Australia's economy can keep expanding when the majority of the rest of the world seems to be struggling, maybe in an environment of large numbers of single households because of family breakup or partnering up later you can have a situation where house prices can only be afforded by two well paid people???  maybe we can afford to keep paying more for fuel, for houses, for energy, healthcare, for food etc each year (although i doubt it if they all have increases of 7-10% a year)    if any country should be able to manage these last bits Australia should if we do it smartly and look after our own interests…

or maybe we (and a bunch of 'authoratative commentators' plus a few vested interests) just keep hearing and repeating this stuff ad nauseum???    i don't have the exact answers myself but worth stopping and thinking about anyway…