Housing Shortage

[spenaroo]

Problem isn't the landlords.

rarely are the landlords calling the agent, asking to jack up the price.

Its the agents, feeding them the information that they need to up it "in line with the market"

 

swap property management from a percentage fee, to a flat fee.... and watch as miraculously the rises stop - as its not providing a financial incentive for the agents looking after the leases.

 

All this talk about housing reform etc...

but not on taking a magnifying glass to realtors and the industry, and making changes there.

 

oh how they cried when there was talk of introducing anti-money laundering laws.

and needing to verify where the cash for cash purchases came from.

FFS - in the car/motorcycle dealership we had to by law declare any cash above 10K - but you can buy a house without any declarations.

Edited April 24 by spenaroo

[red750]

Banks are taking it into their own hands to determine what you can spend your money on. I read a story where a guy was prevented from taking $3000 from his account by his bank. He went to the Post Office to withdraw, and the PO did not have an arrangement with his bank. He drove 20 minutes to another town to withdraw it through a supermarket, but they didn't have sufficient cash on hand.

 

The banks claim they are protecting you from losing your money to scammers. For large withdrawals, you have to produce a invoice to prove that the sale is legitimate.

[red750]

A construction company has collapsed leaving behind millions of dollars worth of debt. 

 

Alurt Construction Services, which is based near Coffs Harbour on the NSW mid-north coast, went into liquidation last week.

 

Insolvency firm Shaw Gidley was appointed as liquidator Scott Newton estimating the debt to be as much as $2million. 

[facthunter]

Easy to happen when you quote a fixed price and materials go through the roof. 2 million is only 4 houses.  Nev

[red750]

A well known building company has gone bust after almost two decades in business, adding to a growing list of thousands of collapsed builders.

 

Stevens Construction, based on New South Wales' Central Coast, announced on Monday that it had gone into voluntary administration having faced 'unprecedented disruptions' during recent constructions.

 

In its 18 years of operation, the business has undertaken projects for companies including Woolworths, Dan Murphy's and the NSW Government.

[facthunter]

Governments are amongst the slowest Payers around..  Nev

[red750]

[red750]

Brisbane building company MSN Homes collapses leaving a trail of financial destruction and owing money to dozens of tradies

 

Tradies are owed thousands and creditors over a million dollars after yet another building company collapsed.

 

Brisbane-based MSN Homes was placed into administration last month, leaving a trail of financial destruction.

 

On its Instagram page, MSN Homes promotes itself as offering 'award winning design' and 'luxury life is our standard'.

 

ASIC documents show tradies are out of pocket by thousands of dollars, over $1.5million is owed to 27 other unsecured creditors and the company has a tax bill of $230,000, reported the Courier Mail.

 

Last month Businesses Reset on the Sunshine Coast was appointed as administrator for MSN Properties Pty Ltd — trading as MSN Homes.

[spacesailor]

It will keep happening  ! .

Untill the " unsecured creditors " are made ' Secured ' .

Then , when the bosses & CEO 's plus upper management .

Loose their assets the ' world ' will be changed .

spacesailor

[facthunter]

It's mainly caused by the escalation of the prices of materials on fixed price contracts. INFLATION and supply issues Nev

[spacesailor]

I have a grandson , starting out on that ' building ' career. 

Hopefully will not get too big . To pay huge salaries 

For upper  management . ( K I S S ) .

spacesailor

 

[old man emu]

You have to wonder about the morality of business owners who don't pay contractors and suppliers. And you notice that those sort of bad payers are never the ones who are out there doing the work. It's all wheeler-dealer stuff. The housing construction industry has had a culture from way back of companies not paying subbies. The companies don't seem to employ anyone other than office staff and salespersons.

[facthunter]

That's a fai4rly common view but whether is extends to ordinary houses I would question. With a lot of the High rise that turned out so bad in Sydney particularly the Trading NAME was only in existence till the completion of a particular project then Shut down and the same people started another to build other big projects leaving owners with near worthless Units in a crumbling big structure and no Capital to fix it even if possible..  Nev

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

whether is extends to ordinary houses I would question

Unfortunately, it's most common amongst the house building industry. The high rise construction you refer to is a relatively recent innovation in housing sine the dream of a house on a quarter acre block died long, long ago.

[spacesailor]

Today's ' new policy of ' evicting low density housing residents ' to build 'high density flats ' , seems a little harsh , after that " Home-owner " has worked the Old system,  only to find the new system has made them .

Part of the " homeless " , that this " new " system is trying to correct. 

spacesailor

[spenaroo]

Was watching a TikTok from a builder that brought up a really good point.

 

Regulation has killed the ability to build inexpensive homes.

every new build now has to meet disability requirements and a 5 star energy efficiency.

so the 70's style entry level build of a 2 bedroom weatherboard house that used to be the cheap entry level property, able to be built quickly is no longer possible.

and the houses that are being built cant be done with inexperienced and untrained labor.

his example is the hidden box gutters instead of eaves gutters.

Edited June 10 by spenaroo

[gareth lacey]

And most of these"builders" and i use the term loosely were not home grown aussies,seems they mostly had names that were middle eastern sounding and they do not have tje same building standards,also private certifiers that have the same background makes it easy to be manipulated, the people who now own these blocks cannot live in them (sydney) the state governments dont care they are reaping more taxes oops sorry levies,rates, in my area there were up till 2 or three years ago mostly acreage 5,10 acres now it is wall to wall cheaply built houses 400m blocks,cars parked on narrow roads no room on the block for them coming your way soon slum suburbs

[Marty_d]

12 minutes ago, spenaroo said:

Was watching a TikTok from a builder that brought up a really good point.

 

Regulation has killed the ability to build inexpensive homes.

every new build now has to meet disability requirements and a 5 star energy efficiency.

so the 70's style entry level build of a 2 bedroom weatherboard house that used to be the cheap entry level property, able to be built quickly and cheaply is no longer possible.

and the houses that are being built cant be done with inexperienced and untrained labor.

his example is the hidden box gutters instead of eaves gutters.

That's true, but it's not the reason for building companies to go out of business.

 

They've already factored in the increased costs and pass those on.  The things they can't control are material shortages (leading to higher costs) and delivery delays of the materials.

 

I would also argue that a well designed house can still meet disability and energy efficiency requirements without being heaps more expensive than one that doesn't.  It's down to the quality of the design and the skill of the builder.  Simple things like appropriate overhangs and shading from northern sun, size / placement / type of windows, passive solar and good R value insulation will make homes a lot more efficient than the 1970's shacks.

 

I'd also argue that these things make a home far more livable - ie not freezing in winter and boiling in summer, as well as not having huge energy bills to heat and cool - than the entry level 2br weatherboards!  (I used to live in a weatherboard built in 1890.)

 

 

Edited June 10 by Marty_d

[facthunter]

Ticky Takky little boxes all in a row. That goes back 50 years... I've lived in Bungalows, back yard garages lined with newspaper and in peoples Laundries. WE have some of the largest houses in the world with at least 2 car Garages.  My first house was minimum size No garage we sat on boxes and had Tie dyed Hessian curtains no aircond and no formed gutter out the front. for the water to run away. 

  Anyhow, 3 of my kids work in the Building Industry, so I have a bit of an idea what goes on. The oldest one is 58. .   Nev

[willedoo]

I don't know what the latest news is on the National Construction Code changes, but when it was being set up a couple of years ago, NSW, SA, and WA were opting out of the disability clauses in the new code. The energy efficiency in building produces some new sights that take a bit of getting used to. New subdivisions up here all have white roofs. Pelican Waters near Caloundra is growing toward the highway, and from the highway as far as the eye can see, there is a mass of thousands of white roofs with no other colour present. I don't know whether the white roofs are NCC mandated or developer covenants to achieve the energy rating.

[facthunter]

Dark buildings are crazy in a hot climate,  Nev

[willedoo]

My niece has a next door neighbour with a big architecturally designed house with the roof and all the walls made up of black colourbond. It must require a lot of insulation. If the power went off in summer you could cook on the roof.

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, gareth lacey said:

in my area there were up till 2 or three years ago mostly acreage 5,10 acres now it is wall to wall cheaply built houses 400m blocks,cars parked on narrow roads no room on the block for them. Coming your way soon - slum suburbs

When people ask me why I moved to where I am now from Sydney, I avoid the real reason by saying, "Habitat destruction". What Garth descrices is exactly what has happened in the shire of Camden in southwest Sydney, explosively since 2010.
 

[facthunter]

Using the services of an  architect almost ensures you will have problems with the construction in places where the  support structure is not thought through. The desire to be "different" overwhelms common sense.    Nev

[spenaroo]

IF we are going to be serious about getting out of the crisis, and actually building the homes needed,

then a standard set design, mostly prefabbed and assembled by minimally skilled workers would be the way to go.

 

no need to go wall to wall like the developers, unless doing townhouses. (whats old is new again)

have planned neighborhoods on new land releases from the government. not relying on private investment but government built.

like the old housing trust - but sold to the public - must be owner occupied as a qualifying condition of purchase.

 

why not learn from what has actually worked the past, great building schemes from the post war boom.