Sydney set to lose spot as Australia's largest city: study

Sydney may boast a sparkling harbour and Bondi Beach, but Australia's biggest city is set to be eclipsed in population terms by its southern rival Melbourne, according to a study published Tuesday.

The report by economic forecaster BIS Shrapnel says a lack of affordable housing in Sydney would see the city's annual population rise miss the state government's projection of 1.1 percent growth for 2015 to 2020.

"Melbourne, with its long-term population growth of 1.3 percent a year, will displace Sydney as Australia's largest city in 2037," said Aaron Gadiel, head of the property development group Urban Taskforce, which published the research.

The report found that in 2001, Sydney was home to 660,000 more residents than Melbourne but this had slipped to a difference of 500,000 by mid-2009.

"The gap between Sydney and Melbourne is already closing rapidly -- Sydney's lead has been reduced by 20 percent over the space of just eight years," Gadiel said. "Over the past decade, Melbourne has proved far more capable of accommodating extra people than Sydney."

The cities are already by far the most populated parts of the country, with some 4.4 million people living in Sydney and 3.9 million in Melbourne. The third most populated city is Brisbane with just 1.9 million people.

Gadiel said that before Sydney property prices skyrocketed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, its state, New South Wales, had maintained a steady 42 percent share of Australia's total immigration.

But he said this figure was now falling as house prices continue to soar and insufficient new housing stock becomes available -- with about 30 percent of foreign migrants settling in the harbour city.

He said without an adequate housing supply, New South Wales would be unable to support the economic growth needed for an increasing population. "What drives our economy is the activities of people. Housing people is at the fulcrum of it all," Gadiel told ABC Radio. " Not only does housing provide jobs itself, it also gives us the opportunity to house and attract people to our economy who can make a difference."

New South Wales state Premier Kristina Keneally brushed off the report. "Sydney is Australia's only global city and there is no credible evidence to demonstrate that is going to change," she said.

From StarProperty

Does this mean that buying a property in Melbourne now will attract higher appreciation over 20 years as compared to buying a property in Sydney? Possibly, but due research should be done before committing to any property anywhere. Again, just my 2 cents worth.

Formula 1 Circuit in Melbourne

Power Up Your Life With Positive Thinking

Boost Your Positive Thinking!

Always use positive words while thinking and talking. Use words such as, “I can”, “I am able”, “it is possible”, “it can be done”, etc. Say them over and over again until your mind accepts them and you believe what you are saying.

Before starting with any plan or action, visualize clearly in your mind its successful outcome.

Allow into your conscious mind only feelings of happiness, strength and success.

Try to ignore negative thoughts. Refuse to think them, and substitute them with constructive happy thoughts as often as they come.

Disregard any feelings of laziness or a desire to quit. If you persevere, you will transform the way your mind thinks.

Associate yourself with people who think positively.

Read at least one page of an inspiring book every day, or watch movies that inspire you to go further, reach higher or become a better person.

Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.

Read more on Positive Thinking.

Quotes on Positive Thinking by Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Thomas Edison and Michael Jordan.

Vegetarian Dining : Kechara Oasis

We have wanted to try out this Vegetarian Restaurant ever since we read a review on it in a magazine. Located in Jaya One, Petaling Jaya this place is not difficult to find. When we reach there, no problem with parking too. We were greeted by some tastefully done deco.

A very convenient location. Kechara Oasis entrance is right in front of a covered parking. I parked in front of the restaurant and the entrance door is just two steps away.

Although at the entrance the sign says "New Age Vegetarian Cuisine", when we looked at the menu it says Tibetan Vegetarian. Well, whatever it is let's hope the food is good.

Stainless steel chopsticks that is as light as feathers.

We did not order this... it's a complimentary starter. Beetroot soup... scary colour don't you think. Beetroot is really good. Just three baby beetroot equal one of the recommended five daily servings of fruit and vegetables. Do not panic when your urine turns pink after consuming beetroot. It will return to normal after once or twice. This was served hot.

"Banana leaf spicy fish", is the name of this dish. I feel it's not spicy enough. Taste is alright when served with white rice.

Fried Dumpling.. cheese and various vege inside. This is probably a new age cuisine. Taste is acceptable. At the background is "Camel meat with butter"... probably one of the Tibetan specialty. This dish is delicious and the texture is really like meat.

Dessert.. banana and red bean wrapped and topped with icing sugar. Weird taste. I do not like this. Out of the six pieces, we ate only one. Balance we "tapau". Someone has to eat it later.

Deco outside the Kechara Oasis.

As a meat lover, this is not a place for me. For vegetarian looking for a change in taste, this new age cuisine and Tibetan vegetarian restaurant may be worth a try. Click here for more information on Kechara Oasis.

Get the right mortgage

Buying a property takes time and energy. First is the searching, viewing, comparing and then deciding. After a decision is made on which property to buy, you need to make another decision on which mortgage loan to take. This may be challenging especially for first timer. Here is an article that will give you a better understanding of mortgage loan before you sign those papers.

When you have located the right property and paid the necessary deposit, you need to hunt for the right mortgage loan. Before you visit every bank in the city, it is advisable to sit and think about your loan requirements. Ask yourself these questions.

• How long do you want to borrow?

• What is the margin of financing you want?

• What is the amount of monthly instalment you can afford?

Choosing the right mortgage loan is not just about choosing the loan with the lowest interest.

Key mortgage considerations for a property investor

An investor does not want to have a long lock-in period as he or she will flip (sell) the property within a short duration of time, when the time is right.

Although it is difficult to find zero-entry-cost package deals these days, a property investor can opt for the loan legal fees to be included into the loan amount. This is known as Finance Entry Cost (FEC).

Advice for first-time home-buyers

• Loan tenure

If your income is not enough to support a housing loan application, do not despair. This is where you, the borrower, can apply for longer loan tenure to lower the monthly instalments. A professional or graduate can stretch the loan tenure between age 65 and 70 years old. When your income improves, you can make extra pre-payments to reduce the loan’s principal amount. It is important to find out if there is any penalty for extra pre-payments.

Another alternative is to apply the loan under a joint name. The bank will assess the income from all borrowers in the loan application.

• Properties under construction

For properties under construction, some banks allow you to pay the interest only without having to serve the principal amount. Once the property is completed, only then do you start paying the regular monthly instalments. The money saved during the construction period could be used for other things such as paying your existing rental. It may not be much for some, but a Ringgit saved is a Ringgit gained.

• Flexi-loans

Some loan package deals come with a cheque book. This type of loan is also known as flexi-loan, where you can withdraw the excess money for emergencies or other use. While it may seem handy, you need to assess whether this is really required. For some flexi-loan borrowers, the cheque book is never used and/or the funds are never withdrawn. Not all flexi-loans are free as some impose a one-time set-up fee and a monthly maintenance fee. The amount will vary from bank to bank.

There are two types of flexi-loan. One is semi-flexi while the other is fully-flexi. The main difference between these two is that semi-flexi loan requires an advance three-day notice for withdrawals, while a full flexi loan does not require any advanced notice.

In conclusion, every loan package deal is different, with its own set of pros and cons. Due to the recent rise in BLR (Base Lending Rate), some banks have already revised their loan package deals. Choose wisely, or get a mortgage agent to assist you.

This article is contributed by Peter Loke, a professional mortgage agent.

From StarProperty

Lifetime Commitment

I am doing more Backlinks

There is so much work to do with blogging. Not only posting what you have to say, you have to manage the blog layout, tweak the settings, socialize and do a bit of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) work... all these to make your blog survive in the brutal internet world. Or it will die a natural death when no one visits or reads it. As I am growing my blog, here is my experience with SEO so far:-

With reference to my previous post, I have joined Xomba and YouSayToo to improve my Google search position. This may have helped me achieve Google PageRank 1 recently. So, I am doing more backlinks to my blog. Hopefully it will boost my ranking further in the eyes of Google and ultimately bring more traffic. Recently I have signed up with:

Shetoldme

Snipsly

RedGage

Shetoldme and Snipsly are similar to Xomba. You need to submit a summary of your post as bookmark.

RedGage is simpler where you create a Title and just link your blog address to it. YouSayToo is even better as every post you make will automatically be posted in YouSayToo (downside, only provide link back to your blog's main page).

Plus point. All of the above offer Revenue sharing. The sharing percentage differs. All except RedGage, revenue is through Adsense. The more clicks the more money. RedGage pays based on pageviews of content submitted. The more views the more money.

After signing up with these, it's time to submit the links. Tedious work but I think it's worth every minute of it when you see traffic coming and money trickling in.

Submit Links like this!

Young Neighbourhood - Google Pagerank 1

I was informed by a fellow blogger that Google has updated the Pagerank recently. I think the exact date is on 3rd April 2010. Everyone seemed so excited except me. This is because I know my blog is new and won’t be ranked until after 6 months (at least).

As I was checking the new Pagerank of my friends’ blogs, I said to myself.. “Why not check for your own blog? Just type the URL.. won’t take even 10 seconds. No harm.” So I typed in my blog address. To my surprise, my blog has already been ranked by Google. Woohoo! It’s now on Pagerank 1. Well, I know 1 is not exactly a great number for Pagerank but it's a start. Also, I can't help it but to display that ranking at the bottom right of my blog. Hahaha. Just sharing my happiness :)

MANY, MANY THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Australia Central Bank: Home prices ‘quite high’

A point to note before jumping into the property bandwagon in Australia. Apply caution.

Glenn Stevens … ‘I think it is a mistake to assume that a riskless easy guaranteed way to prosperity is just to be leveraged up into property.’ — Bloomberg

SYDNEY: Australia’s central bank governor Glenn Stevens said house prices are “getting quite high” and signalled that interest rates may need to be increased further to contain inflation.

Speaking in his first television interview since taking the helm at the Reserve Bank of Australia in September 2006, Stevens told Channel Seven it was important for borrowing costs to be returned to “normal” levels. The interview was recorded in Sydney on March 22.

“It’s not wise to leave interest rates right down at rock bottom any longer than you need,” Stevens said. “It would not be doing people any favours to have a prolonged period of very low rates and then hammer them unexpectedly.”

Stevens this month increased borrowing costs for the fourth time in five meetings, in part to contain house prices. The central bank will keep its overnight cash rate target unchanged at 4% in its next policy announcement on April 6 before increasing the key rate on May 4, according to a Bloomberg News survey of 22 economists.

“I think it is a mistake to assume that a riskless easy guaranteed way to prosperity is just to be leveraged up into property,” Stevens said. “It isn’t going to be that easy.” Australian house prices surged 11.8% in the year through January, according to a Feb 26 report by realestate monitoring company RP Data- Rismark. The country’s property market is “very buoyant,” central bank assistant governor Philip Lowe said on March 25.

“These prices are getting quite high,” Stevens said yesterday. “I’ve got kids that within not too many years are going to want somewhere of their own to live and you wonder how is that going to be afforded.” A gauge of housing affordability published last month by the Housing Industry Association (HIA) slumped 18.4% last quarter, amid rising population growth, borrowing costs and dwelling prices. The HIA predicts around 152,000 dwelling commencements this year, fewer than the 190,000 required by higher population growth.

Sales of newly built dwellings fell 5.2% in February from January, the Canberra-based HIA said in a report emailed to Bloomberg News yesterday. Sales rose 9.5% in January from the previous month.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who must hold an election within the next 13 months, announced yesterday A$50mil in spending as part of the government’s A$512mil Housing Affordability Fund. The spending “will help unlock housing supply,” he said.

“There are not enough new houses being built to accommodate a rapidly growing population, and this is putting upward pressure on prices and rents,” said Brian Redican, a senior economist at Macquarie Group Ltd in Sydney.

“This leaves policymakers with the Catch-22 of having to balance the risks of warding off rising house prices with increasing interest rates, while at the same time trying not to discourage stronger residential construction.”

Traders are betting there is a 52% chance of a quarter-point rate increase when the central bank next meets on April 6, according to Bloomberg calculations based on interbank futures on the Sydney Futures Exchange at 10.32am.

The Australian dollar traded at 90.51 US cents as of 10.52am in Sydney from 90.58 US cents late in Tokyo on the previous trading day. To stoke demand for property at the height of the global financial crisis following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc in the United States, Australia’s government tripled grants in late 2008 to first-time buyers of newly built dwellings to A$21,000. Those payments were cut to their original level of A$7,000 on Jan 1.

The central bank is monitoring whether the government’s decision to relax rules on foreigners who buy local property is stoking a surge in house prices, Stevens told a finance industry conference in Sydney on March 26.

The “question of the role of foreign purchases is an important one and it’s one we’re giving some attention to,” Stevens said at the time.

“Hard facts” about the trend were difficult to find, he added. Stevens said on March 2 that Australia’s economy would probably expand at or close to trend this year amid increased investment on new mines and resources projects such as the Chevron Corp-led Gorgon natural gas venture in Western Australia. - Bloomberg.

From StarProperty