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A person I know has a house or two in town that are unoccupied. Why? Because of the costs of repairing the damage that tenants cause. That is probably one of the reasons for the numbers of vacant houses.

Since I bought my new Samsung phone for under $250 when new iphones cost $1,000+ (some costing over $2000), I often don't carry it with me, it's a bit big and heavy compared to my old iphone. I rarely get calls, and when I do it's usually my daughter wanting me to pick up something at the shops. However, yesterday I went to a funeral, and forgot to put it on "Do not disturb." Wouldn't you know, halfway through the eulogy, the bloody thing goes off loud enough to almost waken the dead. I pulled it out of my pocket and the caller ID on the lock screen said "Possible Fraud". I shut it off as quick as I could.

We had two rentals. I sold one after five years because we were losing money on it despite it being a nice house with good tenants paying a fair rent, mainly because there was no capital gain over those years. We probably lost $50k overall. I still have the other one, a small A-frame where the increase in block value has been the main driver of capital gain as the house is so small. It has been rented out over the last 20 years to a handful of tenants - all young singles or couples in their early twenties who were great. On the other hand a rental next to my son’s place was utterly trashed by the tenants before the owners managed to get rid of them. Our daughter now rents the A-frame because she like so many others has been priced out of the market and can’t afford to buy. She gets it for what it costs me to keep the property because I don’t want to make money from our kids and hopefully that will help her to save and buy her own place one day. We are very fortunate to have this property now, but I have mixed feelings about properties as investments in general unless you’re pretty hard nosed about pushing rents and cutting costs.

Keating spent years talking up the sale of the CBA, it was his baby, all the way. The champagne glasses are still clinking in the boardrooms of the private banks over their "coup" in getting rid of the CBA - the only bastion still in place to stop private banks from making excessive profits. I have seen an article about how much this banking greed cost all everyday Australians.

ok, I googled whether the sale of the last 50% was legislated and it was legislated in 1995 under the Commonwealth Bank Sale Act. Short answer, it was already legally locked in before Howard took over in March 1996.. Blaming Howard for it is a bit of a stretch don't you think. If Howard wanted to save it, it would have been near impossible to draft legislation, pass it through parliament and enact it all in twelve short weeks.

Ask the question specifically and you will get the answer I got. I also recall Howard recommending it.. The Last 50% is significant in terms of losing control. It would NOT have been Popular with Laborites. I'm NO admirer of Hawke at all. Nev

Nev can you provide some links that clarify whether Howard took that decision on his own bat or whether it was already locked in by Keating. Reason I ask is that most references I can find say that the sale occurred shortly after Keating's defeat (about 3 months after) when Howard was in office but is attributed to Keating. Labor had planned and set up the sale of the third tranche and it would have sold if Keating had won the 1996 election. Here's a question: was the sale of the third tranche already legislated when Howard took office. It's a bit hard to find accurate information on it.

Owning a rental house is not the simple business it once was. For instance, There is a whole industry of Real Estate agents managing the rental, taking usually 7% of the rent. They promise to 'protect the value of the property', and protect the interests of the tenant. I have not heard any glowing reports of value for money. There is a notable lack of general care by tenants on the assumption that the landlord is getting rich from the rent, so the wear and rear is worse than that of an owner occupier. Also, many young renters simply have no idea how to look after a property. Remember, a house is not rentable until it is brought up to a set standard, but the overheads continue to cost the landlord until it is once again rented out. Nowadays there are extra costs for regular testing of safety switches and fire alarms (every 6 months?). There are no cheap rentals nowadays for the poor. For instance, when I first married, we rented a tumble down house with an outside toilet, with no light. It was rough (non tenantable in modern rules), but we went out and bought paint and spruced it up. Later we moved to better places, but it was common to run a paint roller over the walls to make it look a bit cleaner than it was when we moved in. Modern tenants wouldn't dream of this. The result is a shortage of cheap rentals. I had two rentals, one made nil capital gains for seven years, the other made a capital gain. Meanwhile, they just broke even, whilst being a constant pain in the arrs. My experience is that about one tenant in ten was good. Sure, the developers and big players seem to get rich from it, but not the smalltime investors.

Like everything these days. Publish a story about a horror renter and it puts the wind up a landlord. Vetting of potential tenants is a pretty terrifying process for a tenant needing a home.

There are many good tenants needing homes. I don't see that as a reason to leave a house unoccupied.

It annoys me when people write I lead the cow rather than I led the cow when it is past tense.

Sorry Nev, your memory is faulty today. It was Paul Keating who sold off the Commonwealth Bank - largely to the other big Australian private banks. QUOTE: The Commonwealth Bank was privatised in stages under the Labor government of Prime Minister Paul Keating. The sell-off process occurred in three tranches: 1991: The Keating government floated the initial 30% of the bank's shares to the public. 1993: The government sold another tranche, reducing its stake to just over 50%. 1996: The remaining government shareholding was fully sold off to investors, completing the privatisation.

Howard is Pretty Much solely responsible for encouraging Money into houses as the Best Investment. He also sold the People's Bank to the People. "Honest" John Has a Lot to answer for. Nev

When I sold my 44-acre property, I had to pay CGT on everything over 5 acres. I was, however, able to deduct the expenses of owning and maintaining this property. I am not expressing an opinion for or against CGT on the family home, but I imagine, like my house on more than 5 acres, deductions would be allowed.

Private homes are paid for by already taxed Money and NOTHING deductible. To retrospectively change the rules would not be taxing. it would be Confiscation of an asset by deception as a lot of it's VALUE is because of Inflation, with No deductions for ANYTHING Interest rates, council rates, repairs. insurance along the way. How unfair would that Be? . Over long periods of time the dwelling becomes valueless and only the Land makes it worth anything, Many Houses just get pushed over. An empty lot would be worth More. It costs Money to demolish and tidy up.. When you rent, you know exactly what it will cost you. If the neighbours are from Hell you can Just Move without Paying crazy amounts of Money . If you are the kind of Person that Moves a lot, Owning a House is the One thing you Might consider NOT doing. They can tie you down and absorb all your spare cash.. Most are Now on tiny Blocks where there is Nothing but the House and car garage. You can't fit between the walls of your Place and next door. Ticky Tacky little boxes all in a row.. How depressing. Nev

The last census showed approx 1 million homes unoccupied on census night. That shows a lack of homes is not the issue but house hoarding. A clear case of a broken and unethical taxation regime.

Investors buy homes, then keep them empty so they don't have any hassles caused by tenants, nor any decrease in house condition because of tenant wear and tear. There are thousands of empty houses in Australia, all owned by investors who are gloating on the capital increase in value of those homes. Better than money in the bank and all the outgoings are a good old tax deduction. Something has to change, or there will be a revolution - and Labor know it. The other parties think they can keep handing out benefits on a plate to housing investors. And what about the family home being exempt from any taxing at all? Buy a multi-million dollar house, spend more millions making it twice the size (and three times the selling value), stay in it for a year or two, call it your home - sell up and make millions tax-free. There should be a value limit on the family home, and the time living in it needs to be extended. There are dozens of houses around where I live that have all been extended to 7 or 8 bedrooms and 2 stories, and they hold 2-4 people - and the owners are sitting on multi-million dollar capital gains, totally free of virtually any kind of tax. That stinks.