# Interesting views about Property from the migrants' opinions



## joeman (Jan 14, 2010)

I have started working for a company similar to United Nations. It is a mixture of a large populations of 200 nationalities.

I was having lunch with 3 other nationalities and we talk about the properties in Australia. One was from Indian and she has been here for 2 years. Another one was from Turkey and he has been here for 1 year. Another guy is a China Mainland and he has studies here for 4 years and is on a bridging visa. I am from Singapore and have been here for 8 months.

All of us agreed that the property has skyrocket but the view to purchase a property is very different. The topic is only about the properties in Melbourne.


China (Zhao) view: 

I got a property in Box Hill. We got the property in 2008 when the immigration law was relax and we acted on it. China property is all time high and my dad made a lot of money. We are acted fast to get our property here before the law was tighten. 

Indian's Lady view (Suryi): 

You all must buy a land now !!! Just grab as the prices will skyrocket very fast again. I just got a 500sqm land in the Western Suburbs at Point Cook for $350,000 and I only put a 10% down payment. My husband is studying for his MBA in Melbourne Uni and he will finish by May 2011 and will get a job and therefore we can pay the $570,000 loan we are going to get for the land and house (which is 6 times their combine projection salary if the husband secure a job). She told me that one person will works and paid off the loan off the $4,500 a month while they live on another person income. 

Turkish guy (Net): 

Based on Muslim's religion, we don't wish to speculate about prices and anyway, the prices is beyond our means. I would love to stay in the North and North West where there is a larger population of Middle Eastern races but the prices are definitely more expensive than the Western Suburbs. At the moment, my wife and me are happy renting and we see no reason to get into property and work all my life to pay off this debt. 

Me (Singaporean): 

I feel that the property has skyrocketed way above the means of the average income people. Properties prices have doubled while average worker's pay has not doubled. While it is nice to own your very own land and house, I feel that it is more important to ask is if we want to have one income to pay off a loan at 8% interests and just live off another income. 3 years ago, a 500sqm land only cost $150,000. I think that this is madness for land prices to jump more than double less than 3 years. Well, the new Victorian government has made it priority to reduce the land prices by releasing more land and I hope that land prices could be more affordable. I agree with Net (Turkish Migrant) that renting for us help us with our cash flow but I hope one day I can own my land and house...so Suryi (Indian Migrant) when your double house is built, invite us for your house warming party. 

Interesting views from different migrants...a China Migrant with a silver spoon, an average income indian migrant with the mentality "to buy in order not to be left out", a Turkish migrant whose lifestyle is based on Muslim principal and a Singaporean who hope the Victorian government will do something about affordability housing...


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

Yes, different people will have different means and views/attitudes and for sure as for


> I feel that the property has skyrocketed way above the means of the average income people.


Property has always risen in Australia and whereas 500 sq. m might be $350,000 in Point Cook I'd hardly call that good buying but it is always going to be a supply/demand situation.
40 years ago you could have bought a 1000 sq.m block in eastern suburbs for $5000 - $10,000 and for investment a golden rule was always to buy a block in a developed subdivision, one preferably that already had quite a few nice houses and had additional releases of land occurring or planned for as development costs went up there was more than a good chance that the land prices would rise also and usually the earlier developed areas were closer to facilities.
More than doubling of price within a couple of years or so was the norm then too.
I know of people who are probably real estate millionaires now through buying up cheap inner city houses about 15-20 years back, having substantial loans to do so and then moving in quickly to do any repairs and renovations before renting them out and a $150,000 to $200,000 investment then is probably now worth in excess of a $1M

But there is also something in the Muslim approach of not speculating on property if you can live your life that way to the grave for at some stage if people have never been able to get their own property and have not otherwise had a successful investment plan, renting in retirement with limited income can have its difficulties.

Factored into property scenario is also what happened in the US and other countries and which Australia has been fortunate so far to avoid to any great extent but the GFC fallout may yet be far from over when you look how European countries continue to have difficulties, property prices way down and in the US, so many people have just abandoned homes as well as property prices having fallen greatly, the US and the western countries not yet really having addressed the basics underlying the whole saga.
Added to that we just this past weeks are seeing significant stress in Northern Africa and along with that already throughout much of Africa, with a spreading of the unrest to the ME and possibly beyond in Islamic countries and possible food shortages worse than they are already for many countries, perhaps our planet is in for a rocky road trip in coming years.
If demand for Australia's export of resources diminishes, Australia may also find that there are going to be many more people joining the unemployment queues and many more people already in hock to their eyeballs will have great financial difficulty.

Australian real estate average price to average earnings is already far in excess of what it has been in the US and so any topple here has the potential to be of an even greater catastrophe.

On thing I would suggest to many migrants is that they somewhat abandon the concept of how they may have lived in other countries, usually a much higher population density and living in crowded cities and broaden their horizons and consider first what employment opportunities there may be in regional areas so they can move away from the Capital cities and more popular coastal towns, there being many smaller rural and coastal towns that offer so much more in quality of life.
Less pollution. less crowds, fresher air, less lost time in transport, less money spent on fuel and you'll likely find that rentals are far cheaper and not only will your own real estate be much more affordable, there will be lower rates too and so generally you'll have more time to enjoy life, perhaps eventually even a house on 4000 sq.m or 20, 000 sq.m of land where you can have your own bit of forest, perhaps a dam with some fish in it and even be growing your own fruit and vegetables and maybe even a couple of calves growing into well sized steaks sources.

You could also be doing something not only for yourself but reducing city crush and helping decentralisation too, all good for Australia.
Just make sure any rural property you buy is not going to be in a valley awaiting a flood and bushfires you can do something about re house design and clearance from trees etc.
For $350,000 you do not have to go too far away from capital cities to find a reasonable house and land.


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## joeman (Jan 14, 2010)

Wanderer said:


> Factored into property scenario is also what happened in the US and other countries and which Australia has been fortunate so far to avoid to any great extent but the GFC fallout may yet be far from over when you look how European countries continue to have difficulties, property prices way down and in the US, so many people have just abandoned homes as well as property prices having fallen greatly, the US and the western countries not yet really having addressed the basics underlying the whole saga.
> Added to that we just this past weeks are seeing significant stress in Northern Africa and along with that already throughout much of Africa, with a spreading of the unrest to the ME and possibly beyond in Islamic countries and possible food shortages worse than they are already for many countries, perhaps our planet is in for a rocky road trip in coming years.
> If demand for Australia's export of resources diminishes, Australia may also find that there are going to be many more people joining the unemployment queues and many more people already in hock to their eyeballs will have great financial difficulty.
> 
> Australian real estate average price to average earnings is already far in excess of what it has been in the US and so any topple here has the potential to be of an even greater catastrophe.


Yes I agree on this statement and would like to add that he political crisis in the Tunisia, Egypt and perhaps elsewhere in the Middle-East might create the catalyst for the correction. Initially, the worries about Egypt was that shipping through the Suez canal could be disrupted because of the turmoil. The worries worsen with the scenario painted that if the turmoil spreads to the countries in the Persian Gulf, then oil supplies from the Persian Gulf might be disrupted. It would be another oil crisis similar to 1974 and it kind of concidental that during the same period in the 1970s, Queensland was hit by the biggest flood.

I am not sure if Australia can stomach for another crisis with the current flood in Queensland, our PM has to borrow money and use levy tax to raise money. It is basically telling us they have no more money and spend up all the years of wealth we have accumulated. If another crisis comes along, it is another challenge.

I think I will then stick with Net (Turkish) way of thinking at the moment until we see how things goes in the coming months. The market will be always be there for us when we are ready to go in at a appropriate time.


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## Dexter (May 5, 2010)

We are facing a correction for sure. Although I am pretty sure it will not be as big as some would like. Interest rates are quite high again and have already stopped prices from rising (at least for the time being). Bear in mind that Sydney was going down on prices from 2004 till 2008 when large interest rates cuts took place. 

The Turkish guy is not exactly right. He might buy a unit instead of renting and keep paying it off. It will not take all his life to repay a $350k unit but let's say 10 - 12 years. Once he has paid it off, he might wanna sell it and buy house instead. All of a sudden it will turn out that it is affordable thanks to the money he got from his unit sale. Apparently price of both unit and house will grow by the time he is ready for that transaction. Spending money on renting is nothing else but throwing them away.


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