WELCOME TO AFFORDABLE RENTALS BRISBANE

YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. In this blog we will write articles about the Social Security System and those issues, that affects people that rent, and also those that own properties for rent. We hope that our articles will help them understand the situation better. L S H.

Sunday, December 24, 2023

Building a veneer house.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, YOU ARE INVITED. In this blog, we will discuss rental problems that we may encounter when renting, and the problems of running affordable rentals. We will also discuss, what the government can do to help the renters pay their rent, and the property owners run a better service to the renting community, instead of blaming the landlords.
Anyhow, we believe that the government Social Security System, can help both the people that are renting and the property owners. They should give more rent assistance to people on low income that are renting, and they should abolish or modify the assets test on active rental properties, if they want the rental market stand on its own, so, to speak. For this reason, we are writing several articles, where we will talk about the rental problems and the Social Security System. 

                                    HOW WE BUILT AFFORDABLE HOUSES THE OLD WAY. 


There are many types of house that we can build. In this blog, we are explaining how we built the brick veneer house. The brick veneer house can be a bit cheaper than a solid brick house, so, it was/is easier to sell, that was one of the reasons they were popular in the seventy. 


Welcome to our article, Building a veneer house

Dear readers, before we write about how we built the brick veneer house in the seventies, we want to point out that today, the price of a house seems to be higher than then. We can say that a new house then, was five times the average annual earning of a working person, but today it can be eight to ten times the annual earning at a working person. So, it is not easy to buy a house. 

Having said that, let us go back to our article, we can say that this is the continuation of our article, “House brick base continues”, but it cannot be said that this is a DIY article for a beginner, since what we are describing here is more advanced. Anyhow, this is how we were building houses during the seventies here in Australia. We must say here, that most houses were built using plain common sense, of course, we are still building them today in the same way, and they will be built for a long time, in some part of the world, where blocks of land are subdivided to build standalone houses, but today even this way of building is becoming old fashion, especially if you are building in a city, where building anything is becoming very specialized, so, if you build anything that needs approval from the local authorities you need a builder an architect and an engineer, or at least you must be a good tradesman  and know how to read their plans, then you might be able to build a small house, by yourself.  

Anyhow, this article is for those people that want to know what sort of problems they may encounter, while building a brick-veneer house or even a solid cavity brick house, and how to avoid these building problems, in other words this article can help the owner-builder that wants to know a bit more, because he is going to build his own house. 

So, now that we have built this imaginary brick base in the previous article, House brick base continues, we have the option of using this same style of brick base in a few ways, because this base can be used to build a timber house on the top of it, or it can be used to build a brick veneer house as well, what this means is that we can build brick around the timber frame of the house, so that the house looks like a brick house, but in reality it is both, so, let us see what is the difference and if it affects anything.

Of course, we must start building the house knowing what it is going to be from the start, and this is the reason why we need a plan, you see, we need a plan because we need to know the measurement from the start, because anything we change, changes the measurement, but anyhow the ways of building it is almost the same, accept that the bricks take more space than if the house outside is finished with timber claddings, therefore, this affect the remaining floor space in the house, but apart from that there is no much difference in building the brick base.

Now, there are at least three types of houses being built these days, the timber house, the brick veneer house and the solid brick house. These types of houses can vary as it is possible to mix all these materials together in various amounts. But in this article, we want to write first about a brick veneer house that can be built on a similar brick base that we have completed in the hub, House brick base continues. So, let us describe, how this is done.  

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Building a brick veneer. 

As we have said, the difference in the construction of the base between a timber house and a brick veneer house is not that much, as it affects only the outside of the house and the floor space of the house, if the extra space needed for the bricks is not taken into account at the start. But how we proceed to build these two types of building on a similar brick base is this: If the outside of the house is going to be timber, the outside of the timber bears and the entire timber frame is placed right at the outside edge of the brickwork, but before we do that on top of the brick walls a galvanized ants capping will be fixed, then the timber bears and the house frame. But if it is going to be brick veneer then the reverse happens and the timber bears and frame is set back about 6 inches (150mm) this is to give space for the bricks and leave a cavity between the timber frame and the bricks, the ants capping goes inside or at least under the timber bears.         

Now because we are building a brick veneer house, the carpenters have placed the house frame back to allow for the bricks to be laid outside, in this case the carpenter’s foreman should have instructed his carpenter team to try to work with the bricklayers and set the opening of doors and windows in such a way that helps the bricklayers. Now, let me explain here what are the problems that the bricklayer can encounter if both teams don’t work together. For example, there is a short wall that has a door opening in the centre, if the door opening is placed exactly in the centre, then the bricklayers might have to cut the bricks on both sides of the door to make them fit the length of the remaining wall beside the door opening, this not only will add extra work for the bricklayer, but it can be an eye sore, and therefore, these sort of things should be avoided, wherever they can be avoided. 

So, what can be done one may ask? Well, the door opening can be moved a bit to one side, so that at least one side works to the bricklayer advantage, and if he is lucky both sides can work with a full brick, therefore, no bricks need to be cut shorter to fit in the wall between the door and the corners? This same principle applies in other parts of the brick wall, when there are two openings, the carpenter should move the openings of the windows and door to help the bricklayers, when they can be moved.

The bricklayer working part. 

Now that we have explained what the variations for the carpenter are, when he sets up the timber frame for the brick veneer, we come to the bricklayer part and what he does when he works on a brick veneer house, because there are many other demanding things to do in between while he is laying bricks; these other things need to be done as well, if the house is going to be well built.   

Apart laying bricks as usual, the fist other job that the bricklayer may encounter is that he has to place lintels over the opening of doors and windows of the brick base, if they happen to be at that level and most time they are, these lintels for brickwork can be steel angles that span over the openings, they come in various size and they are used according to the span they have to bridge. So, when there are openings in the base, the bricklayer places this steel angle over the openings and then lays the bricks over them making sure that everything looks and is okay, he has also to lay some brick reinforcement in next course of bricks above the openings, or even all around the brick base, this reinforcement is in the form of a light galvanized mesh as we have explained in our previous articles.

But this is not all, because in some cases when it is specified he may have to nail the rat-proof wire (this is a wire mesh with holes too small for a rat to go through), so, the bricklayer first of all nails one side to the timber frame and the other side is laid in the joint of the bricks, thus a barrier is formed and no rat can enter into the cavity between the bricks and the timber frame. But that is not all, because there can be the need to lay a dampcourse, this again is like the rat-proof wire, one end is nailed to the timber frame and the other end is laid in the brick joints. 

At least this is how it was done when we were building brick veneer houses or apartments in the sixties and seventies; so, we had this problem there to solve while we were laying bricks, I guess that at this point of time one can even ask, but if the bricklayer has to do all these extra small jobs, how and when he is going to lay bricks? These jobs should really be done from somebody else and let the bricklayer do his job and lay his bricks. Having said that we have to agree that those small jobs should be done from a different person, but there is a problem there also; those jobs need to be done when the wall reaches a certain height, so, it is very hard to have somebody there that would do that job for us bricklayers. So, we were forced to do it ourselves whether at the end we were compensated or not. You see, this is one of the main reasons why when we work on a brick veneer the bricklayer lays a lot less bricks per day than he usually does on a normal wall, but there are more annoying things for the bricklayers to do, as we will write here under.

Other things that the bricklayer does. 

We have mentioned many things but there is more to say here, sometimes before we even start to lay bricks in the veneer part of the house, we bricklayers need to nail a special building paper, this paper is another layer of insulating material that is nailed on the outside of the timber studs that form the external timber frame; in reality it is the carpenters that should do this work, and if they are around, once we have built the scaffolding to lay our bricks, the carpenters are very likely to jump in and nail this insulation paper for us, but it is likely that the bricklayers have to do it themselves.

Other things that we need to do while laying bricks on the brick veneer, we need to nail to the timber studs brick veneer ties every three or four courses of bricks; These are L shaped brackets that attach the timber frame to the brick wall, we have to lay this wire reinforcement every so often, we have to nail the damp course under and above openings and other things that need to be done before we lay bricks.

Once we finish building our veneer walls, most likely the last job is to lay these bricks for the windowsills. The windowsills take a lot of time and patience, usually we need to cut every brick in a special way and then lay them making sure that the joints are all even; in order to achieve that we use a gauge rod. Sometimes we are lucky and the same gauge rod that we have used to build the entire house works for some windowsills; if it does not, then we have to work it out how to make this windowsill, we can make smaller joints or larger joints, as long as the outcome looks acceptable.

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The cavity brick house. 

The difference between the brick veneer and the cavity brick house is this: the brick veneer house all the walls are made of timber, and the timber frame is just like the complete timber house with the exception that the outside is veneered with bricks, so that the building looks as if it is made of bricks, but in reality, the timber walls are the load bearing walls and they can stand on their own, if you cover them with something else other than bricks. But the cavity bricks is different, all the outside walls in the cavity bricks are made of bricks or blocks, at least the external walls are made of two brick-walls one beside the other with a cavity between them, these two external walls are tied together with cavity ties, in a way it is very much like the brick veneer where the timber external walls are tied together with ties to the veneer brick wall.

For the bricklayers the cavity brick house is easier to build because he can set everything to suite his face brick walls, so, this is an advantage for him. But in this case if there is no builder of foreman around the bricklayer needs to work out where the opening of doors and windows are and put them in place; this needs to be done because the door frames and the window frames need to be tied permanently to the brickwork while the work is in progress. So, we must admit that this is not for the beginners, as it takes a good tradesman to do that.

There are a lot of other things that need to be done, some of them are just like what we have described for the brick veneer, but one thing in particular is different here; because the brick walls are load bearing walls and whatever goes above them need to be tied the wall, the bricklayers has to make sure that there are ties that are able to tie down the roof of the house permanently; this could be achieved by steel rods that start from the concrete floor or from the foundations. In some cases where there are not enough steel rods from the concrete below, the bricklayer can add some special made brackets several courses of bricks below the top, this is also good, but not as good as the steel rods that start from the foundations.

I believe that I have covered the most important things in building this imaginary house, so I hope that this article can help someone that is building his own house. Anyhow, there are not enough photos to explain what we are talking about, so, you have to click on this link to see them, Building a veneer housethis is all in this article. 

See you, in our next article, DIY Retaining walls

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Sunday, September 17, 2023

Housing problems discussions.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, YOU ARE INVITED. In this blog, we will discuss rental problems that we may incounter when renting, and the problems of running affordable rentals. We will also discuss, what the government can do to help the renters pay their rent, and the property owners run a better service to the renting community. 
Anyhow, we believe that the government Social Security System, can help both the people that are renting and the property owners. They should give more rent assistance to peple on low income that are renting, and they should abollish or modify the assets test on active rental properties, if they want the rental market stand on its own, so, to speak. For this reason, we are writing several articles, where we will talk about the rental problems and the Social Security System. 



Yes today in Australia is hard to find a house or units for rent. It is hard to understand the reasons why this is happening, so, we are looking for the reasons why this is happening and writing these discussions to explain what we think is happening 

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Welcome to our article, housing problems discussion   

Dear readers, as I have said, I have been writing several articles about this rental crisis in Australia, and I have suggested a few things, but I do not know if what I am doing is helping, because there is no feedback, all I know is some people read them.  

Anyhow, I will continue to write more articles, at least I know I have done my best to help solve the situation, because it is only through people views and discussion that most problems are solved. In this article we will review what we have said and talk about what we see happening.

One of the things that is worrying me is that there are properties that end up in the wrong hands, one of which is foreign ownership. Look what I found in the net, (and I quote).

The daily mail 20 July 2023

How Chinese buyers are snapping up Australian properties at the rate of $6million a day.

Story by Stephen Johnson, Economics Reporter For Daily Mail Australia • Yesterday 1:49 pm

  • Chinese spend $2.4billion a year on Australian property 
  • Australia top choice for Chinese real estate buyers

Chinese buyers are snapping up real estate spending more than $6million a day, with Australia an even more popular market than Canada, the United Kingdom or the U.S.

New Treasury figures show the Chinese spent $2.4billion on Australian residential real estate in 2021-22, with investment surging in the following financial year. (Shortened article)

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On another article.

Chinese buyers return and cause tension at auctions across Australia as they outbid locals, says real estate expert. Here's why they are buying up homes down under

Story by Olivia Day For Daily Mail Australia.

  • Auctioneer said Chinese investors are back on property scene
  • He said local buyers felt 'resentment' towards Chinese buyers
  • Chinese buyers spending up to $8million on Aussie real estate 

A top auctioneer says Chinese buyers have returned to Australia's property market and are causing tension at auctions as they outbid locals.

And then.

One Nation Leader Pauline has raised concerns about the impact migration and foreign investors have on Australia, saying it’s hard for Australians to “buy their own home”. 

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Now let me tell you about my views on this foreign ownership. I believe that Australia does not need them, because what they do is drive the price of real estate up. They also do not seem to care if their rental properties are vacant. So, they are here because they have too much cash in their country, and they want to transfer it to Australia to keep it safe and avoid taxes. In this case it would be good if the Australian government taxes them, with a tax that applies to foreign ownership, at least they could recuperate some of the damage they are doing to the economy.

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Other things affecting rentals.

We have talked about the Chinese investors, that buy rental properties for their own benefit, but there are many other things that need to be assessed, like what is being done to fix the rental problem, and is it the right thing to do, so, let us see what is happening, and report what we find here. (And I quote)  

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Greens Senator Janet Rice says the government is only going to provide a “tiny drop in the bucket” by building only 30,000 homes in the next five years.

“We want to see an outcome,” Ms Rice told Sky News Australia.

“We’ve got 750,000 people on public and affordable housing waiting lists around the country.

“What the government’s proposing is only going to provide 30,000 houses over the next five years – tiny drop in the bucket of what’s required.” (End of quote)

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My reaction to that is. Okay Senator Janet Rice, we agree with you 100% that what they are going to build is not enough to solve the rental problem, but your party is making it harder even to do that, and with you scare tactics you are making it even worse, look at what else is happening. (And I quote)

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  • Aussie investors 'over it' as they bow out of the property market
  • Queensland sales of investor-owned property have ballooned

Property investors in one state are 'over it' as they bow out of the market in droves amid rising interest rates and higher land taxes.

Sales of Queensland investor-owned property increased to almost a third of all homes sold in June, according to PropTrack research. 

It comes as owners across Australia face skyrocketing property taxes and rental price cap speculation - adding pressure to their high mortgage repayments.

Sales of owner-investor properties in Queensland grew by eight per cent in just one month - up to 29.5 per cent of all house sales, higher than other state.  (End of quote).

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I must say that, after seeing what is happening in the rental market, as I have reported above, I believe that things are getting worse. And the Greens party is making it hard to fix, with their short sightedness, they want only to help the have not, even if they make the small investors become have not, with their unworkable policies.   

Anyhow, my view is that to solve this problem, all Australian sectors must try to work together, we do not need foreign ownership to control the Australian rental market, and the politicians must make sure that that does not happen.

So, it would be wiser to try to reconcile the differences and keep the rental market as it has been in the past, in   if it has worked for a very long time in the past, and it will continue to work in the future. Here I must add that, if the politicians want affordable rentals for the homeless at affordable cost, they must make sure that the landlords, can run their properties at an affordable cost, that guarantees some earning at the end, nobody can run properties at a loss. Therefore, they must not charge levies that the landlords find hard to pay. I hope I have explained myself clear enough.

I could say many other things, but I believe that this article is becoming too long for today readers, so, see you in our next article,  Australia rental problem review.  

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Sunday, August 20, 2023

Housing problems causes in Australia.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, YOU ARE INVITED. In this blog, we will discuss rental problems that we may incounter when renting, and the problems of running affordable rentals. We will also discuss, what the government can do to help the renters pay their rent, and the property owners run a better service to the renting community. 
Anyhow, we believe that the government Social Security System, can help both the people that are renting and the property owners. They should give more rent assistance to peple on low income that are renting, and they should abollish or modify the assets test on active rental properties, if they want the rental market stand on its own, so, to speak. For this reason, we are writing several articles, where we will talk about the rental problems and the Social Security System. 
 


This house is an old house for rent in Brisbane, TO CONTINUE
This is a typical block of units in Brisbane, these units are self-contained, so, they can be owners occupied of for rent. In cases like this, there is a body corporate and another levy, that the owner of each unit has to pay, four time a year.

Housing Problems causes in Australia.

Housing problems causes in Australia.   

Welcome to our article (141) Housing problems causes in Australia.

Dear readers, as I have said before, I want to inform you that I have followed the rental market for a long time, and I have written several articles about it, pointing out what I think can help to solve the rental problem. I have done that, hoping that someone in power takes notes of what I am saying, and does something about it, but so far nothing has happened. Anyhow, I believe that the main problem is that the Australian Social Security System must be equal for everyone, but it discriminates against the small investors away, to fix it they can start by abolishing the ASSETS TEST that keeps off the small investors that could have a property for rent. Anyhow, I will continue to write more rental articles, hoping that something positive happens, so, let me go on writing.  

So, let me make a short list of the most important things that in my view need to be done, to fix the rental problems that exist today. Now what I am going to say next is not what the people in power want to hear, because I believe that they are the people that have caused it, because of their greed, they are charging very high levies, and then hide behind the landlords, saying that it is the landlord greed that is causing this rental shortage, but it is not, because most of the landlords of affordable rental properties, are family people that have one or two properties for rent, the rich people keep away from rental properties, they cannot be involved, because they are hard to run, and cause too many problems, so, for them it is a waste of time.

Anyhow to make this brief I must say, I have found two things that hurt the rental market most. The first one is the land tax, that sometimes is so high that it is not worth to have rental properties, the second one is the ASSETS TEST, that in some cases can be even worse than the land tax, because it cuts off the small property owners to receive the government pension, and it also stops the disabled, the jobseekers and others to receive help from the government. So, hereunder I am going to describe step by step, how the ASSETS TEST affects the property owners in a negative way.

The land tax and the assets test problem.

Now to explain how the land tax and the assets test affects the small investors in a negative way, I am going to write an example. To make it easier to understand, the example that I am writing will be exaggerated a bit, so that it is easier to understand the message I want to convey. So, let me start to write this imaginary situation.

Mr and Mrs Lee have worked hard all their lives, they saved as much as they could, and have invested their saving, on two houses, and both the houses are on two large blocks of residential land, and the land value is over one million dollars each. They may be able to avoid the land tax for the house they live in, but they must pay the land tax on the rental property that could be around $6000.00 each year, just because they owned that house and land on the 30th of June.

Now Mr and Mrs Lee are retiring, so, they would like to apply for the Age Pension from the government, because they do not have much money, since they have spent most of their money on these two properties. but it is very unlikely that they will qualify, because of the assets test. So, let us try to work out if they can receive any pension from the government. But they cannot because they have over one million assets. So, the assets test cuts them off, because the maximum they can have for part pension is $986,500. So, they cannot have any pension, and they must live with what rent income is left, after paying all expenses, which is not enough.

Now let us work out how much money is left from their rental property.

They are renting the house at $600.00 per week, which in a year is about $31,200. Now from this money they must pay all the rental property expenses. So, let us see how much they expenses can be.

In Mr. and Mrs Lee case  

 Land tax $6000.00    

Council Rates charges $3000.00   

Urban Utilities $1800.00

Insurance $1500.00

Maintenance $1000.00 or more

Real estate charges to rent property. Over $2000.00

Now let us add them up. 6000+3000+1800+1500+1000+2000=$15,300.

So, the expenses are nearly 50% of the rent.

And Mr and Mrs Lee, only earn about one per cent of the value of rental property net.

If they did not have this house for rent, they would have received the full pension, which today is:

  •  Couple (each): $802.00 per fortnight (approximately $20,852 per year)
  • Couple (combined): $1,604.00 per fortnight (approximately $41,704 per year)

From the imaginary example of Mr Lee property, we can say that this is one of the reasons why there are not enough rental properties in Australia, but there is more to talk about, one of which is the foreign ownership, see below.

 

What other problems we have in rentals.

Then there is the problem of foreign ownership. See what I found on the internet.

New Treasury figures show the Chinese spent $2.4billion on Australian residential real estate in 2021-22, with investment surging in the following financial year. (Shortened article)

But we will talk about that in our next article.

So, if the government want the rental market to be self-sufficient, they must abolish the assets test on affordable rental properties, owned by Australians and permanent residents of Australia, or they can set the assets test at minus one dollar per thousand instead of minus three dollars per thousand a fortnight. So that some people may still want to own a rental property, because the way it is now, people are losing money, if they own a rental property and are on a government pension.  

There are more issues that influence the rental market to talk about, but this article is becoming too long, So, see you in our next article, where we are going to talk about the foreign ownership and Australian politics.

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Housing problems discussions

 Housing Problems Discussions

Welcome to our article (142)   


Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Housing problems in Australia, two.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, YOU ARE INVITED. In this blog, we will discuss rental problems that we may incounter when renting, and the problems of running affordable rentals. We will also discuss, what the government can do to help the renters pay their rent, and the property owners run a better service to the renting community. 
Anyhow, we believe that the government Social Security System, can help both the people that are renting and the property owners. They should give more rent assistance to peple on low income that are renting, and they should abollish or modify the assets test on active rental properties, if they want the rental market stand on its own, so, to speak. For this reason, we are writing several articles, where we will talk about the rental problems and the Social Security System. 

In Australia you can rent a house that you can afford. 



In Australia there are many types of housing for rent, but today there seems to be a shortage, so, it is not easy to find a house for rent. I believe that the reason of the shortage is there, because there is something wrong with the present government laws and the levies that they charge the landlords, and other anomalies, and this is what we are talking about here. 

Housing rental problems in Australia, two. 

Welcome to our article Australia Housing Problems, Two.

Dear readers, as I have said before, I want to inform you that I have followed the rental market for a long time, and I have written several articles about it, pointing out what I think can help to solve the problem. I have done that, hoping that someone in power takes notes of what I am saying, and does something about it, but so far nothing has happened. Anyhow, I believe that the main problem is that the Australian Social Security System must be equal for everyone, but it discriminates against the small investors away, to fix it they can start by abolishing the ASSETS TEST that keeps off the small investors that could have a property for rent. Anyhow, I will continue to write more rental articles, hoping that something positive happens, so, let me go on writing.   

Today I want to point out that one of the reasons why rents are high, it is because any type of housing costs a lot to build, therefore, when they are new, they cost a lot. But what about the older houses. Here I must say that existing houses and units cost a lot more than they should, perhaps the real estate agents are trying too hard to push the price up, and one day the prices may come down, or they may stop going up for a few years. So, those buyers that want to buy at all costs, better beware, because this can be coming sooner than you think.  

Anyhow, there are not enough houses being bult, and I wonder why they cannot be built and sold any cheaper. In the past whenever there was a shortage and the price of housing went up, they soon built more houses, and the price would return to normal. But today this is not happening, some people say that there are not enough tradesmen to build new houses, and not enough young people that want to be tradies and work on buildings. Anyhow, this is only one of the reasons, because there are many other reasons, why there are not enough rental properties on the market.

I believe that the reason why there are not enough properties, it is because the mum and dads, that are the greatest number of small investors, have been placed in a disadvantaged position and losing money, and at the same time they are being discriminated, as if it is their fault. When it is the fault of the government authorities that charge high levies, on affordable rental properties. Anyhow, once these small investors realize that they are overcharged and discriminated, they will stop investing in rental properties, and they might even sell them, because they are losing money. And this is another reason why there are not enough rental properties.

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Which charges and by-laws affect the rental market most.  

So, let us talk about which charges and by laws affect the rental market most in a negative way; and that is the reason why, it is not easy to fix, unless these laws are modified. I believe that there are at least two things that must be changed, for the rental market to be able to go back to normal, and this must be done soon. One is the assets test, and the other thing that hurts most is the land tax, that give the landlords nothing at all, but charge lots of money, just because you own a property, most of these properties are rental properties, therefore, the owners must charge more rent to pay for the lant tax.

Anyhow, we are continuing to study the Australian rental situation, but it is becoming clear that the rental market cannot go back to normal, because of these laws that charge lots of money, and put pressure on the landlords, who cannot do anything except charge more rent to pay for those levies.

So, this rental problem cannot be solved, unless the present governments change these negative laws, and makes the rental market cheaper to run, and it needs also to change or abolish the ASSETS TEST on affordable rental properties. So that those people that are on the rental market, like the pensioners, the disabled people, the jobseekers, and other people that during their lives need government help. When they apply for help, they cannot have it, because the assets test disqualifies them, even when they cannot earn money, from their rental properties. So, they may be forced to sell, and another rental property disappears from the rental market.

Now, I know that you start hating me, because you think that it is not possible that people that own properties need government help, but they do. You see the small investors, that have only a property for rent and no other income or funds, they need the government pension to survive, and this can be a real problem, because of the assets test, that discriminates against the property owners.  

Anyhow, to understand what I am saying, you must imagine what is really happening in the rental market, because there is not enough money left, after the owner pays the levies on that property, and they may earn only one or two per cent of the value of the property, and most of them may decide to sell the property. So, we can say that this is the reasons, why today there are less properties for rent.

You see, the ASSETS TEST, is set in a way that pretends that the owners can earn about 8% of the property value, when in most case they earn only 2% of the property value. So, if they want more rental properties on the market, the government must abolish the ASSETS TEST on affordable rental properties.

Here I know that most of you are not convinced about this, so, I need to write a few examples, and step by step explain how I have reached this conclusion, but this blog is becoming too long. So, I will write another blog or two if necessary to explain what I am saying. Meanwhile remember that the government Social Security System must be equal for everybody, but it is not equal. And it creates problems that must be fixed to run smoothly. See you in our next article, Housing Problems causes in Australia.

To see more click on this link,  Australia Housing Problems, Two.

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Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Housing problems in Australia, one.

WELCOME TO BRISBANE AFFORDABLE RENTALS, YOU ARE INVITED. In this blog, we will discuss rental problems that we may incounter when renting, and the problems of running affordable rentals. We will also discuss, what the government can do to help the renters pay their rent, and the property owners run a better service to the renting community. 
Anyhow, we believe that the government Social Security System, can help both the people that are renting and the property owners. They should give more rent assistance to peple on low income that are renting, and they should abollish or modify the assets test on active rental properties, if they want the rental market stand on its own, so, to speak. For this reason, we are writing several articles, where we will talk about the rental problems and the Social Security System. 


In Australia you can rent any house that is on the market for rent. 


Today, to attract the attntion of the readers, we are using this photo above. Now this property is not for rent, and perhaps it will never be for rent. We do not know who owns it, but very likely is a rich owner that lives in it. But there is nothing wrong to look at it, and wish you can have something like this one day. We hope you see what we mean. 
 

Welcome to our article, Housing Problems in Australia, Article One.

Dear readers, I want to inform you that I have followed the rental market for a long time, and I have written several articles about it, pointing out what I think needs improvement. I have done that, hoping that someone in power takes notes of what I am saying, and does something about it, but so far nothing has happened. Anyhow, I will continue to write more article, hoping that something positive happens, so, let me go on writing. 

Today in Australia, there are less properties for rent, and this is causing problems to people that are renting. So, we want to look at the reasons why this shortage is happening, because in the past, rental properties somehow found their own balance, and this problem was less acute, so to speak.  

Now, if we want to know why this is happening, the best way is to do it, is to look at what is changed and how the whole country is supposed to be run, and then, when we find the reason that has caused the rental shortage, we can suggest what could be done to fix it.

I suppose that if you have had something to do in renting a property, you can already guess, what the reasons of this rental shortage are. But here we need to look at those reasons closely, to make sure that what we are saying is correct.

So, let us look at how the Australian economy is run. Australia is a free democratic country, and the economy is run freely from all individuals. Now what happens in a free economy, is that all individuals are free to do what they want, but at the same time they are competing with other individuals that do the same thing, so, the price becomes set from the supply and demand market, and those individuals that are competing to sell the product they produce.

Of course, whatever business you are in and whatever you sell, you need to make some money to be in business, if there is not enough money the business you are running cannot survive, and you are forced to close whatever you are doing. I am saying this because, this is what happens in a capitalist economy. And this is good because the economy finds its own ways how to set the price and survive. But there are times, when things do not run the way they are supposed to run, and this will create problems, like the problem we are having now with rental properties, so, let us look at what is happening, because there is always a way how to improve the situation.  

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Now let us look at rental properties.

Having said that Australia uses a capitalist system to run the economy, now let us look at what is happening in the rental market, and why today there are not enough properties for rent.

Now what I am saying hereunder is the way that I remember. I remember this well because I have followed the rental market during my life, so, I remember that rents have always gone up, just like everything else. This was until the year 2010 or so, and since the year 2010 rents have not gone up as much as everything else, so, today rents need to go up, to reach the level where investors think that they can run a rental business without losing money. But the people that are renting do not see this need, and they think that they are paying too much rent already. Perhaps thy are used to cheap rentals, and now the rents are going up, so, they are complaining about it, and they say that they cannot afford to pay the rent. So, this rental problem is becoming a huge problem, and nobody seems to have a lasting solution.

Today, some political parties want to freeze the rent, others want to put a ceiling how much the rent can be increased, the present government want to build lots of affordable rental run from the government, and many other things. The only thing they are not talking about, is why there are not enough affordable rental properties on the market. So, let me explain what the reasons are.

I start believing that the reason for this rental shortage, can be attributed to the failure of the past governments for not making balanced laws for rental properties, and charging the present property owners high levies, without thinking the consequences. 

You see, properties owners can be said that they are running a service for the community, and if you run a service, you must make some money, otherwise you are forced to close. Here we can say that this is what has been happening, and for this reason, today there are not enough rental properties on the market. We can add here that a democratic capitalist country, will always find ways how to supply what needs to be supplied, unless there are laws that stops them earning enough money to run their business.   

Here I must say, that if the government in charge want to solve the rental problems, they must make better laws that aim to help to property owners to balance their housing business better. If they do that, then in a few years there will be enough housing on the market, and the problem is solved.

I suppose that I need to explain this better, but I believe that this article is becoming too long, so, to explain my point of view I will write more articles. But before I sign off, I want to say what I have noted. So I say, that to start improving the rental situation, the government of the day, could start abolishing the ASSETS TEST on affordable rental properties, because the assets test scares off most small investors, that could otherwise have a property for rent. 

To see more click on this link, Housing Problems in Australia, Article One. 

See you next time.  

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