From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Mon Sep 18 2006 - 17:55:19 EDT
Prediction of squeeze ahead on rental front Tuesday September 19, 2006 By Anne Gibson, New Zealand Herald Rising interest rates could force landlords to sell their properties, creating a shortage of accommodation which would push up rents, according to Tony Brasier, president of the Real Estate Institute of Australia. Brasier, visiting Auckland yesterday for the New Zealand Real Estate Institute's national conference, said conditions between the two countries were similar. He was concerned about New Zealand's rental housing supply, saying investors had few incentives to buy more properties due to further threats of interest rate rises. In Australia, rising interest rates have forced debt-burdened landlords to sell. Those rental properties were being removed from the sector because in many cases, owner-occupiers were buying, creating a shortage of rental homes. This has sparked rising demand which in turn has triggered rent rises. Rents rose 24 per cent in Perth in the year to June, 23.5 per cent in Hobart and 18 per cent in Brisbane. Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard last week signalled the possibility of further interest rate rises and Brasier said this could tip the balance of the rental market in New Zealand. Even if Bollard does not raise rates again, the interest rates paid by some investors might rise as their fixed-rate mortgages expire and they have to take on new mortgages at higher rates. "If New Zealand's rental sector follows Australia's pattern, then interest-rate increases mean investors don't have confidence to buy places, which leads to a shortage of rental accommodation," Brasier said. Complete article: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/8/story.cfm?c_id=8&objectid=10401898 In 1872, F. Engels wrote rather radically: "As long as the capitalist mode of production continues to exist, it is folly to hope for an isolated solution of the housing question or of any other social question affecting the fate of the workers. The solution lies in the abolition of the capitalist mode of production and the appropriation of all the means of life and labor by the working class itself." - F. Engels, "The Housing Question" http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/housing-question/ch02.htm Well, meantime you still have to live somewhere... J.
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