ralph-e
I live far, far from Australia so I would not be able to comment much on the outback. However, even in your own article, the statisticians/beancounters seem to disagree as to what the exact numbers are.
I was in Australia last year around this time, Sidney and the Gold Coast in Queensland...
I discovered that the growth and eventual creation of the consumer in Southeast Asia (primarily China) WILL create additional demand for Australian RE. Apparently they have some sort of idiotic law when it comes to invest in real estate (some rstrictions when the source is foreign)... that does not help them. I do not remember the details it has to do with existing residences (not new ones)... the point is this... For now, it is defiitively not a positive, however...
Once they remove such restriction (and I believe they will) a new FOUNTAIN of buyers will flood the Aussie market - a totally beautiful country, which unfortunately is plagued with extreme socialistic laws and insane speeding laws as well... one that in six months I would be out of a driving license... (On the other hand they have incredible pubs where everyone sings his/her heart out after the first beer is served -quite fun to watch), and of course, tremendously friendly people...
Australia is already reaping the benefit of the progress from Southeast Asia... I played golf with a guy from South Korea (beat the shit out of me -his handicap was something like 2) who was there for graduate studies and explained that many families are now considering Australia as their target to send their kids to college. I also found a tremendous diversity in their population (particularly in the gold coast... Malaysian, Vietnamese, Koreans, Thai, Eastern Indians. You name it they were there....
All this tells me that whatever slow down they are experiencing is temporary... as once the implementation of the Asian growth is firmly in place, Australia will benefit tremendously...
For one... instead of the 15 hour trip from L.A. to Sydney (and even more to Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Seoul, etc etc....) they only have to travel about half of that on average.... Do not forget that Australia, although still has some imperialist tendencies, they will NOT initiate some sort of insane attack against some country at random simply because their Supremo in chief is a religious zealot in pursuit of a modern era crusade...
All of the above fares well for Australia, as it is my belief that their current extreme socialistic laws will change for the better, i.e. more favorable for business... so in short I view your report on Australia an effort to clean out some excess and indeed a buying opportunity, particularly for the beach front stuff along the Gold Coast...
Btw... The Barrier Reef is one immensely beautiful place.
As for here in the US...
Read this...
Message 20367822
That's all I have to say about that.... -g |
