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As a Canadian who now lives in Australia, I'm astounded by the levers the Australian gov't will pull in order to keep the housing market "booming". In my 10 ye

As a Canadian who now lives in Australia, I'm astounded by the levers the Australian gov't will pull in order to keep the housing market "booming". In my 10 years here I've seen them split them make it difficult for foreigners to buy existing houses, but easy to buy off-plan https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-03/Stronger-rules-for-foreign-investors-owning-Australian-housing.pdf https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-03/Stronger... I've seen them restrict the amount of money retirement plans can use to invest in equities, promoting the use of more funds going to real estate (this was my understanding of the changes) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superannuation_in_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superannuation_in_Australia And now including your housing as part of your superannuation, which I wasn't aware of. Every time I think they've run out of levers to pull, they find another one. When I arrived here in 2011, I thought real estate was cheap compared to rents, that equation has completely flipped.

nl 5y ago
> I've seen them restrict the amount of money retirement plans can use to invest in equities, promoting the use of more funds going to real estate (this was my understanding of the changes) I don't believe this is the case and haven't seen any coverage indicating a change like this. > And now including your housing as part of your superannuation, which I wasn't aware of. No, it's the opposite. You can withdraw part of any voluntary contributions to buy your first house. See https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-13/budget-superannuation-changes-benefit-workers-women-retirees/100135376 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-13/budget-superannuation...
nickcox 5y ago
> When I arrived here in 2011, I thought real estate was cheap compared to rents, that equation has completely flipped. As long as it's possible to negatively gear unrelated income while building up a property portfolio it makes sense that people will be happy to lose money on rents in order to take advantage of capital gains discounts down the track.

nl 5y ago

> I've seen them restrict the amount of money retirement plans can use to invest in equities, promoting the use of more funds going to real estate (this was my understanding of the changes) I don't believe this is the case and haven't seen any coverage indicating a change like this. > And now including your housing as part of your superannuation, which I wasn't aware of. No, it's the opposite. You can withdraw part of any voluntary contributions to buy your first house. See https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-13/budget-superannuation-changes-benefit-workers-women-retirees/100135376 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-13/budget-superannuation...

nickcox 5y ago

> When I arrived here in 2011, I thought real estate was cheap compared to rents, that equation has completely flipped. As long as it's possible to negatively gear unrelated income while building up a property portfolio it makes sense that people will be happy to lose money on rents in order to take advantage of capital gains discounts down the track.