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Tuesday, 26 October 2021
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With articles on the pensions assets test read about 40,000 times, 3,500 survey responses and thousands of comments, there was a lot of great reader participation. A few comments added extra insights.
Stamp duty on buying a home is a major cost for most people, often delaying purchase. While replacing it with a land tax seems attractive, the reform picks favourites and not everyone will welcome the changes.
Only six months ago, the Reserve Bank was modelling the impact on banks if house prices fell 40%. It was called 'extreme by plausible'. Most economists expected a fall of at least 10%, yet here we are with record prices.
Australia relies heavily on insurance for recovery from disasters, but underinsurance due to underestimating expenses is common. Read this and check your policy as costs blow out in a crisis.
There are clear signs the Murray Inquiry plans to reintroduce a prohibition on borrowing by superannuation funds including SMSFs, and there is a strong case to protect the retirement savings of the unwary.
Recent developments in China’s credit and property markets could lead to a slowdown in the country’s economic growth. If this happens there would be significant implications for global investors.
Residential property for investment purposes can be valued like any other financial asset that produces a series of cash flow.
The RBA Governor says rising house prices are due to "the design of our taxation and social security systems". The OECD says "the prolonged boom in house prices has inflated the wealth of many pensioners without impacting their pension eligibility." What's your view?
We tend to forget that house prices often fall. Direct lending controls are more effective than rate rises because macroprudential limits affect the volume of money for housing leaving business rates untouched.
The survey drew a fantastic 2,000 responses with over 1,000 comments and polar opposite views on what is good policy. Do most people believe the home should be in the age pension asset test, and what do they say?
Any policy decision needs to recognise who is affected by a change. It pays to check the data on who pays taxes, who owns assets and who earns the income to ensure an equitable and efficient outcome.
It is hard to think of any area of widespread public concern where the same policies have been pursued for so long, in the face of such incontrovertible evidence that they have failed to achieve their objectives.