Australia Property

[greengiraffe]

Patience seals Sino deals

Matthew Cranston
456 words
7 Oct 2014
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2014. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.

Of the billions of dollars in Chinese funds pouring into Australian real estate, most vendors say one ingredient helps to ensure the money is converted into a deal – and that is patience.

In mid-2013 the Tianjin-based General Nice Group, which has a global annual revenue of $US8 billion ($9.2 billion), bought an A-grade building in North Sydney from Investa Commercial Property Fund.

However, for General Nice, which also happens to be one of the largest importers of coking coal in China, regulations on the flow of capital had created difficulties in the attempt to buy the 8171-square-metre tower.

"With complications in financial markets in China, the deal and the deposit were fading quickly," Investa's Michael Cook said.

The deal looked destined for the scrap heap. But Mr Cook, who met General Nice in China and understood the pressure the company faced, remained loyal to the buyer.

"You need unprecedented levels of patience," Mr Cook said. "If you have confidence in your buyer and your process, you also have to be confident in them to get their house in order, no matter how many twists and turns."Patience rewarded

Eventually, a deposit for the office tower was locked in, albeit at a fraction of the first figure which Investa has declined to detail. But Investa's patience was rewarded, the deal went ahead, and General Nice bought the office tower for more than $50 million.

CBRE's Rick Butler has dealt with Chinese investors since 1983 when he sold property in Sydney's Chinatown.

"The Asian cultures are all very different," he said. "The Chinese do business in a different way – they calculate in a different way.

"The patience factor is crucial, but in saying that some of them are like lightning and deals can go through very quickly."

Mr Butler advised Chinese-backed Bright Ruby, which has gone on to buy $260 million in office towers in Australia.Eye on passive income

While better known Chinese buyers, such as Greenland Group, have been focused on buying development sites, others such as the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Ping An have been looking to buy passive income assets such as office towers.

Both those investors made bids on QIC's 52 Martin Place, which was the largest office tower transaction in Sydney for five years.

Chinese groups have also taken to Australian farming assets where there have also been drawn-out campaigns.

Chinese group Orient Agriculture emerged as the buyer of a major Queensland cropping property for $30 million this week. The property had been on the market for more than a year and another Chinese buyer had been unable to secure funding.


Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited

Document AFNR000020141006eaa70003b

[greengiraffe]

Buyers face correction in hot property markets, QBE warns
THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 08, 2014 12:00AM

Michael Bennet

Reporter
Sydney
ONE of the nation’s largest mortgage insurers has cautioned that buyers may be setting themselves up for a property price “correction” in the hot Sydney and Melbourne markets, adding to growing concerns about the hit to the broader economy.

As the Reserve Bank yesterday held official interest rates at a record low, QBE’s annual housing outlook report signalled price growth would begin to slow from the second half of next year as the cash rate cycle turned.

While this financial year would see further gains, led by Brisbane (7.4 per cent) and Sydney (7.2 per cent), the report, ­researched by BIS Shrapnel, warned a “correction” could be lurking further down the track.

The concerns reinforce those of the RBA, which last month ­revealed that regulators were considering capping lending to investors due to fears the market was “unbalanced” and the economy was vulnerable to a sharp ­reversal in prices.

“The RBA’s assessment is that the risk from the current strength in housing markets is more likely to be to future household spending than to lenders’ balance sheets,” the Reserve Bank said.

QBE, which owns QBE Lenders Mortgage Insurance, warned that affordability in Sydney was headed towards early to mid-2000 levels, and 2008 and 2010 levels in Melbourne — both precipitated “price corrections”.

“There is the potential for a price correction to happen again, although any decline is likely to be in low single-digit percentage terms as has occurred previously. Nevertheless, in real terms, the decline would be larger,” the report said.

Housing affordability is being probed by a federal inquiry as first-home buyers are increasingly priced out of the market.

Sydney’s median house price is forecast to peak at $915,000 by June 2016, before a 3 per cent ­correction knocks it back to $885,000, according to QBE.

Melbourne is also in for a tougher time as standard variable mortgage rates rise to 6.8 per cent in the next three years, taking the median to $690,000 — a 4 per cent decline in real terms.

The end of the mining investment boom and rising rates is also expected to hit Perth’s values, QBE LMI declining 2 per cent to $525,000 by mid-2017. But in real terms, adjusted for inflation, the fall in Perth is a hefty 10 per cent.

“Most interestingly this year is that the report has forecast a dampening of growth before prices begin to stagnate as early as next year,” said QBE LMI chief Jenny Boddington.

[greengiraffe]

Bill Bridges warns it’s time for caution in property market
THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 09, 2014 12:00AM

Greg Brown

Property Reporter
Sydney
Bill Bridges
Property veteran Bill Bridges. ‘It’s been too easy to borrow from the banks and they’ll make a rod for their own back’. Source: News Corp Australia
BILL Bridges has been selling Sydney’s top homes for 56 years so he’s not about to fall for any ­starry-eyed talk about an improvement in the ultra-high end of the ­market.

Despite selling more than $80 million worth of mansions last year, Bridges says the market is very uncertain.

“I think it is time to show great caution,” Bridges says.

While many in the industry claim that the prestige homes market is on the road to recovery since taking a hit from the global financial crisis, Bridges argues the increased interest is because banks are lending too easily rather than an improvement in the ­global economy.

Bridges says he supports stronger stress tests for borrowers, which was flagged as a potential lever by the Reserve Bank last month.

“Household debt has risen by about 30 per cent in the last couple of years and there’s a lot of people having problems paying their (mortgage).

“It’s been too easy to borrow from the banks and they’ll make a rod for their own back.” Despite this, Bridges is striving to break his own Australian record for the highest-priced home sale, with a local buyer prepared to pay $60m for a mansion in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Bridges would not be drawn on which property it is, and says the vendor has yet to be persuaded to sell.

Bridges has sold a number of the country’s most expensive homes including the Vaucluse mansion at 25 Coolong Road, which was snapped up by a ­Chinese buyer in 2012 for $45m.

He has sold four homes to the Packer family, four on behalf of businessman Chris Corrigan and two homes on behalf of the author and philanthropist Ashley Dawson-Damer.

He was friendly with the late Kerry Packer and another gaming identity, the late Harry Barrett, and knows all too well the legendary bets they made with each other.

After winning a wager with Packer, Bridges says Barrett splurged by buying the Potts Point mansion “Altona” in the early 2000s. But he didn’t stay there for long.

“He won $12m off Kerry Packer and then three months later Kerry won $14m back from him and he had to sell the place, and I sold it again,” Bridges says.

Bridges’ career has been anything but planned. In 1958, he quit an apprenticeship as a jockey and picked up work as a cleaner.

“I had a problem with being a jockey: I loved riding, but I loved my food better and the two didn’t combine,” Bridges says.

While he was cleaning a post office in Balmain, a local realtor and property owner Max Van ­Lubeck approached him on the street and hired him to clean his nearby house, which was for sale.

Before leaving Bridges to spruce up the place, Lubeck asked him to show any house hunters around and to collect the details of interested buyers.

Bridges did one better: he convinced someone to buy it.

“(Lubeck) said: will you clean some of my other houses? So I did and the same thing happened.”

Sensing a natural-born salesman, Lubeck hired Bridges to become an agent at his real estate agency, Woodrow. Bridges sold 32 homes in his first six weeks.

Bridges was rough around the edges and admits it was a gamble for Lubeck to hire him. “I didn’t know what to do. I went to Cabramatta Public (school) and I was an uneducated stablehand.

“I was an unusual real estate agent because in those days there weren’t too many of us. They all wore grey flannel suits and hats and, of course, I had to put a tie on and I’d never (done) that.

After more than a decade honing his skills in the cheaper houses in Paddington and Balmain, Bridges graduated to the mansions market in the 70s, selling a home at Rosemont Avenue in Sydney’s affluent Woollahra to Sir Raymond and Lady Margot Burrell.

He says that the $2.7m sale price was an Australian record at the time. He then worked for himself for many years before joining Ballard Property three years ago.

“You’ve got to categorise your buyers, I can look at a place in five minutes and know who will buy it. It’s a matter of reading people.”

Bridges says there are three ­aspects to a good agent: high energy, a good memory, and a feel for the value of real estate.

“If there’s one thing I pride myself on, I know what places are worth to buy and I know what ­places are worth to sell,” he says.

[greengiraffe]

‘Don’t blame foreigners for soaring prices’, says Steven Ciobo
THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 09, 2014 12:00AM

Greg Brown

Property Reporter
Sydney
Action from the Tally Room at Brisbane Covention Centre for the Qld 2012 State Elections. Steve Ciobo all smiles at the resu...
Steven Ciobo says rising property prices are being driven by ‘supply-side constraints’. Source: News Limited
FEDERAL Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer Steven Ciobo has hit out at critics who claim that foreign investment is pushing up the price of real estate, saying planning controls and a lack of housing are to blame for price surges.

With the government next month to field recommendations from the parliamentary inquiry into foreign investment in real ­estate, Mr Ciobo said foreign ­buyers were only a small part of the market.

He added that the activity of major foreign developers, such as Chinese behemoths Greenland Holding Group and Country Garden, would help ease Australia’s housing shortage.

“To blame the escalation in Australian house prices on foreign investors is a complete and utter mistake because that is not what is driving the increase in price. It is being driven by supply-side constraints,” Mr Ciobo said.

“It is largely driven by poor planning policy implementation by some state governments, and also in the main by local councils. NSW is one of the poorest examples with an inadequate supply of housing. “Without foreign investment we would have even less supply-side movement than what we have currently.”

Foreign real estate buyers and developers have been the subject of much debate as prices in Sydney and Melbourne have surged in the 12 months to September, by 14.3 per cent and 8.1 per cent ­respectively, according to RP Data.

The head of the real estate inquiry, Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer, was last week critical of the Foreign Investment Review Board for not undertaking a single prosecution of foreigners buying existing homes. Mr Ciobo said he had spoken to FIRB about the claims.

“(But) I want to keep it in proportion. Obviously, laws exist and laws should be respected and they should be upheld, but I’m also not going to lose my head about the proportion of the market this affects, which is very, very small.”

Bullish Asian-based developers have come under fire, with prominent local developers Lang Walker and David Devine claiming in recent months that overseas groups were overpaying for sites.

Mr Ciobo said: “We need to mature beyond the calls of some who think that the only people who should be building in Australia should be Australians because it just does not reflect a world where capital is global.”

On solving Australia’s housing shortage, Mr Ciobo said releasing more land was only part of the solution. “A much bigger problem is density. It’s not like you suddenly release all these greenfield sites and the problem is solved because in the inner parts of Sydney it’s not about land release. It’s about infill development, it’s about density, it’s about site utilisation, it’s about height limits.”

[greengiraffe]

Rental growth stalls as investors buy up big

Rebecca Thistleton
479 words
9 Oct 2014
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2014. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.

Asking rents have stalled in the cap­ital cities after a spike in investment property purchases pushed up ­supply in the housing rental market.

In cities where home and apartment prices have risen, the slowdown in rental growth has led to yield depression in the past year.

Rental growth for houses was flat in most cities in the September quarter and fell in some areas for units, research from Domain Group showed. Year-on-year rents tended to be flat.

Property lending for investors has been at a record high. Broker firm AFG said investors made up almost half the new loans processed in NSW last month and more than 30 per cent in the other states. Foreign investment has also boosted the number of homes available to rent.

The rental market has become more affordable for tenants in ­Canberra and Perth as landlord returns fall. Asking rents were down 6 per cent in Perth to $395 for units and $450 for houses. In Canberra, rents have fallen to $380 a week for units and $450 for homes.

Yields for homes have dropped more than 6 per cent in both cities compared with the 2013 September quarter. Unit yields have also dropped more than 6 per cent year-on-year to 4.52 per cent.

In Melbourne, where apartment supply has continued to grow, yields remained steady at 4.55 per cent for units and fell 3.6 per cent for houses to 4.12 per cent. Melbourne's median asking rent for a home is $380 a week and $370 a week for units.

Despite a slowdown in Darwin property, the rental market is still tight and the median asking rent for a home is $660 a week – the highest in the country, followed by Sydney at $510. Sydney has been the ­country's strongest-performing residential property market for the past year.

Investment lending and construction has surged but rents have held steady as demand is still strong. Yields, however, have compressed because of the consistent rise in ­property values. In the past year, year-on-year yields for Sydney houses fell 6.9 per cent to 4.1 per cent but were steady in the past quarter.

"Although, we've seen a pause in rental growth over the September quarter, demand will continue to put upward pressure on rents in ­Sydney," Domain Group senior economist Andrew Wilson said .

Sydney agents have reported ongoing demand from investors for new stock. Greencliff Realty, which is marketing properties in Chip­pendale's Central Park development, said investors made up about 50 per cent of all buyers to date in the $2 billion project.

Three stages of the Frasers and Sekisui Hours joint venture have been sold and only 15 of the 1428 apartments released were yet to sell.


Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited

Document AFNR000020141008eaa900048

[greengiraffe]

House prices feel international heat

Larry Schlesinger
452 words
9 Oct 2014
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2014. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.

Foreign investment has become an even greater driving force behind rising house prices in Sydney and Melbourne over the past six months, the October Australian Property Institute Property Directions Survey shows.

In Sydney, 96 per cent of survey respondents said foreign investment was a significant to very significant driver for increased demand for residential property and for rising house prices. This was up from 88 per cent in May.

It was a similar trend in Melbourne – 95 per cent of respondents rated foreign investment in housing as significant or very significant, compared with 72 per cent six months ago.

The results are based on the views of valuers, funds managers, property analysts and property financiers.

They will add fuel to the current debate on the impact of foreign investment on residential property, which is the subject of a parliamentary inquiry, chaired by Liberal MP Kelly O'Dwyer.

The results will also be noted by a Senate inquiry into housing affordability, chaired by Labor senator Sam Dastyari. Both inquiries will deliver their reports at the end of November.

Foreign investment also became a greater factor in housing demand and price growth in Brisbane, (more than two-thirds of respondents compared with 52 per cent six months ago), but was more muted in Perth at 55 per cent with no previous point of comparison.

Figures compiled by RP Data show Sydney home values are up 14.3 per cent over the past 12 months with Melbourne values up 8.1 per cent, Brisbane up 6.4 per cent and Perth up 3.2 per cent.Negative gearing

The API survey forecast Sydney and Melbourne's residential markets would reach their peaks and enter a downturn in two years, with Brisbane's property market having a longer growth cycle.

Negative gearing was also rated by API survey respondents as a growing factors behind rising demand for investor housing and for price growth in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Recently, Saul Eslake, chief economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, called on the Abbott government to consider ending negative gearing for new ­investors to help reduce the amounts being borrowed.

The survey also included the outlook for commercial, industrial and retail property. Respondents said Sydney was furthest along the upswing in the office market, with Melbourne having commenced its upswing and Brisbane at the bottom of the cycle.

However, respondents were uncertain of much effective rental growth over the next 12 months in any of these office markets.

In industrial property, Sydney and Melbourne industrial markets have entered an upswing, with Brisbane lagging. However, in retail property, Brisbane is furthest along the upswing compared with its east coast rivals.


Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited

Document AFNR000020141008eaa900036

[greengiraffe]

Asians turn to house-and-land deals

Larry Schlesinger
417 words
9 Oct 2014
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2014. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.

A growing proportion of Asian ­investors are buying house and land packages, rather than units, as concerns grow about a potential oversupply of CBD and inner city apartments in markets such as Melbourne.

Property services group Ausin, which sells new housing on behalf of listed developers Stockland, Mirvac and Lend Lease plus others, expects to sell 500 house and land packages to Chinese investors in 2014.

This would represent a third of the 1500 new dwellings Ausin forecasts it will sell this year, up from about one in 10 in 2013. Next year, it hopes to sell 1000 house and land packages. "There are 12,000 apartments being built in the centre of Melbourne and they all look the same," Ausin director Joseph Zaja told The Austra­lian Financial Review. "We're en­couraging them [our buyers] to consider alternatives and diversify their port­folios.

For $450,000, you can buy a four-bedroom house on a 400-square metre block close to schools and shops.

These rent for between $380 and $420 a week, a gross return of between 4.4 per cent and 4.8 per cent," he said.

In its latest Financial Stability Review, released last month, the Reserve Bank warned of an oversupply of small apartments in the Melbourne CBD and noted the participation of ­foreign investors in this market. "The risk of localised oversupply seems higher in Melbourne where there has been greater geographic concentration of building activity," the RBA said.

The RBA also said "new developments may appeal to a relatively ­narrow segment of tenant or owner demand, [that] some new developments involve smaller-sized apartments targeted at international students, which could be harder to sell in the secondary market than more traditional-sized apartments.

"This could place downward ­pressure on apartment prices if ­student demand weakens or if there are other shocks that reduce foreign investors' appetite for these apartments." BIS Shrapnel warned of a "sub-prime" apartment market developing in Melbourne.

"If we keep building apartments in the same location, of the same type, for too much longer, we are going to see a case of sub-prime building," said BIS Shrapnel associate director Kim ­Hawtrey.

Mr Zaja said there would be a short-term oversupply of apartments in ­Melbourne until the market caught up, but it would eventually sort itself out. He also questioned the viability of some proposed offshore developments. Some he said, would not get up.


Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited

Document AFNR000020141008eaa90006g

[specuvestor]

If what Mr Ciobo believe in what he say (barring any political side agenda) then the solution is very simple: invite foreign developers in with open arms while banning foreigners from buying Aussie properties. It shouldn't be much impact to the property market since their involvement is very very small

(Similar to those arguing QE has no impact so tapering and rising interest rates shouldn't be a big deal)

Singapore was less draconian than my suggestion but used ABSD and higher LTV to achieve similar objective. Like i said i am not politician so I can afford to be politically incorrect but aim primarily to talk sense

If GG is BTC, or so he claim then Mr Ciobo is TSC. I would recommend Khaw Boon Wan to him. His policies of restricting first timer application for a year if they reject allocated flat; and allowing bank loan valuation only after option signed is ingenious IMHO. Changes the incentive system without costing tax payers a single cent.

Clearly Khaw knows, and as Munger alluded many times, it's about incentive system. Change the incentive structure and the demand/ supply changes. It's not just about simple microecons SS/DD curve. Higher priced items can sell more simply because salesperson is incentives to sell it more than the lower priced.

‘Don’t blame foreigners for soaring prices’, says Steven Ciobo
THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 09, 2014 12:00AM

Greg Brown

Property Reporter
Sydney
Action from the Tally Room at Brisbane Covention Centre for the Qld 2012 State Elections. Steve Ciobo all smiles at the resu...
Steven Ciobo says rising property prices are being driven by ‘supply-side constraints’. Source: News Limited
FEDERAL Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer Steven Ciobo has hit out at critics who claim that foreign investment is pushing up the price of real estate, saying planning controls and a lack of housing are to blame for price surges.

With the government next month to field recommendations from the parliamentary inquiry into foreign investment in real ­estate, Mr Ciobo said foreign ­buyers were only a small part of the market.

He added that the activity of major foreign developers, such as Chinese behemoths Greenland Holding Group and Country Garden, would help ease Australia’s housing shortage.

“To blame the escalation in Australian house prices on foreign investors is a complete and utter mistake because that is not what is driving the increase in price. It is being driven by supply-side constraints,” Mr Ciobo said.

“It is largely driven by poor planning policy implementation by some state governments, and also in the main by local councils. NSW is one of the poorest examples with an inadequate supply of housing. “Without foreign investment we would have even less supply-side movement than what we have currently.”

Foreign real estate buyers and developers have been the subject of much debate as prices in Sydney and Melbourne have surged in the 12 months to September, by 14.3 per cent and 8.1 per cent ­respectively, according to RP Data.

The head of the real estate inquiry, Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer, was last week critical of the Foreign Investment Review Board for not undertaking a single prosecution of foreigners buying existing homes. Mr Ciobo said he had spoken to FIRB about the claims.

“(But) I want to keep it in proportion. Obviously, laws exist and laws should be respected and they should be upheld, but I’m also not going to lose my head about the proportion of the market this affects, which is very, very small.”

Bullish Asian-based developers have come under fire, with prominent local developers Lang Walker and David Devine claiming in recent months that overseas groups were overpaying for sites.

Mr Ciobo said: “We need to mature beyond the calls of some who think that the only people who should be building in Australia should be Australians because it just does not reflect a world where capital is global.”

On solving Australia’s housing shortage, Mr Ciobo said releasing more land was only part of the solution. “A much bigger problem is density. It’s not like you suddenly release all these greenfield sites and the problem is solved because in the inner parts of Sydney it’s not about land release. It’s about infill development, it’s about density, it’s about site utilisation, it’s about height limits.”

[greengiraffe]

Who is Khaw... he is just solving problems created by MBT. I no longer trust those who try to con my votes to stay in office - famous quotes by the movie Godfather 1970s.

Just do what you deem fit so long as its morally correct. Modern day politicians cannot be trusted like the old guards that has seen blood, violence and nation building.

GG

If what Mr Ciobo believe in what he say (barring any political side agenda) then the solution is very simple: invite foreign developers in with open arms while banning foreigners from buying Aussie properties. It shouldn't be much impact to the property market since their involvement is very very small

(Similar to those arguing QE has no impact so tapering and rising interest rates shouldn't be a big deal)

Singapore was less draconian than my suggestion but used ABSD and higher LTV to achieve similar objective. Like i said i am not politician so I can afford to be politically incorrect but aim primarily to talk sense

If GG is BTC, or so he claim then Mr Ciobo is TSC. I would recommend Khaw Boon Wan to him. His policies of restricting first timer application for a year if they reject allocated flat; and allowing bank loan valuation only after option signed is ingenious IMHO. Changes the incentive system without costing tax payers a single cent.

Clearly Khaw knows, and as Munger alluded many times, it's about incentive system. Change the incentive structure and the demand/ supply changes. It's not just about simple microecons SS/DD curve. Higher priced items can sell more simply because salesperson is incentives to sell it more than the lower priced.

‘Don’t blame foreigners for soaring prices’, says Steven Ciobo
THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 09, 2014 12:00AM

Greg Brown

Property Reporter
Sydney
Action from the Tally Room at Brisbane Covention Centre for the Qld 2012 State Elections. Steve Ciobo all smiles at the resu...
Steven Ciobo says rising property prices are being driven by ‘supply-side constraints’. Source: News Limited
FEDERAL Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer Steven Ciobo has hit out at critics who claim that foreign investment is pushing up the price of real estate, saying planning controls and a lack of housing are to blame for price surges.

With the government next month to field recommendations from the parliamentary inquiry into foreign investment in real ­estate, Mr Ciobo said foreign ­buyers were only a small part of the market.

He added that the activity of major foreign developers, such as Chinese behemoths Greenland Holding Group and Country Garden, would help ease Australia’s housing shortage.

“To blame the escalation in Australian house prices on foreign investors is a complete and utter mistake because that is not what is driving the increase in price. It is being driven by supply-side constraints,” Mr Ciobo said.

“It is largely driven by poor planning policy implementation by some state governments, and also in the main by local councils. NSW is one of the poorest examples with an inadequate supply of housing. “Without foreign investment we would have even less supply-side movement than what we have currently.”

Foreign real estate buyers and developers have been the subject of much debate as prices in Sydney and Melbourne have surged in the 12 months to September, by 14.3 per cent and 8.1 per cent ­respectively, according to RP Data.

The head of the real estate inquiry, Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer, was last week critical of the Foreign Investment Review Board for not undertaking a single prosecution of foreigners buying existing homes. Mr Ciobo said he had spoken to FIRB about the claims.

“(But) I want to keep it in proportion. Obviously, laws exist and laws should be respected and they should be upheld, but I’m also not going to lose my head about the proportion of the market this affects, which is very, very small.”

Bullish Asian-based developers have come under fire, with prominent local developers Lang Walker and David Devine claiming in recent months that overseas groups were overpaying for sites.

Mr Ciobo said: “We need to mature beyond the calls of some who think that the only people who should be building in Australia should be Australians because it just does not reflect a world where capital is global.”

On solving Australia’s housing shortage, Mr Ciobo said releasing more land was only part of the solution. “A much bigger problem is density. It’s not like you suddenly release all these greenfield sites and the problem is solved because in the inner parts of Sydney it’s not about land release. It’s about infill development, it’s about density, it’s about site utilisation, it’s about height limits.”

[specuvestor]

Ya he solves problems... that's good enough for me

3 types of people: those who create problems, those who do nothing (and often talk alot), and those solve problems