Credit: Megan Herbert
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REAL ESTATE
As a parent of a child who has attended fruitless auction sales and paid for building inspections, my heart bled for the young couple who spent $500 for a building report on a place they “could not afford” (″This couple spent $500 trying to buy their dream home. They never stood a chance″, 17/8.
I am also concerned about the dishonesty of real estate representatives with underquoting. The “cure” I see is relatively simple. Anyone placing their house up for auction should be required to provide three separate building reports similar to those provided by a vendor of a used car.
Those three reports should be provided by building inspectors known to the agent and not the vendor. That would save the pain of potential buyers forking out and losing potential deposit money.
The price guide has been a furphy for a long time. My wife and I attended an auction many years ago where we were told by the agent “we would get it” at a price we found later was at least $40,000 lower than the reserve which that agent would have fully known.
When a “price guide” is given, it should also be mandatory that if someone offers the top reserve plus 5 per cent, that offer must be legally accepted. It may put an exaggerated price on a house but would give a buyer a fair guide and save the grief of auctions that many experience.
Auctions do not contribute to economic productivity.
At a federal level, any overseas “investor” buying property – and not a resident – should be subject to a 100 per cent, or close to it, capital gains tax. If they have no intention of contributing to Australia economically on a full-time basis, why should they profit? Real estate is not productive investment.
As for Australian investors and capital gains tax: For people who have been forced to relocate for work, two houses (one primary and one secondary residence) are fair enough.
Otherwise, they should be subject to a far heavier capital gains tax than they do at present on a subsequent house.
Trevor Gibbs, Ocean Grove
Vendor should provide building report
As The Age’s “Bidding Blind” investigation (17/8) shows, many house hunters are unnecessarily out of pocket in investigating a prospective property when the practice of underquoting renders that property out of reach.
While revealing the reserve price prior to auction would go some way to resolving the situation, I consider there is another way similar to the private sale of a vehicle for which the seller must obtain a roadworthy certificate: Why not make the property’s vendor responsible for providing an independent building inspection report?
Not only would this redress the balance between vendors and potential buyers and reduce buyer futility, but it would also improve housing sector productivity by significantly reducing the number of unnecessary building inspection reports.
Kevin Bailey, Croydon
Lock in price expectations
Significant disparity in the values between the real estate
agent’s ″quoted range″ and the vendor’s ″locked in″ reserve figure for properties will continue until these two decisions have
to be made concurrently and collaboratively.
Andrea Middling, Canterbury
Cooling on real estate agents
Why is there no cooling-off period with real estate agents? There needs to be, as with most other contracts, particularly given the size of the asset.
When selling, one agent was so rude the moment the contract was signed that I waited out the 90 days. I eventually sold very well with a responsible agent. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to hold off. This is a serious anomaly with contract law.
Katharine Anderson, Windsor
THE FORUM
Not affordable
Thank you, Daniella White for exposing the appalling failures of the Victorian government’s fast-track planning regime ‴Apartments for the rich’: Developments fast-tracked with no affordable housing,″ (17/8). In metropolitan Melbourne, multi-storey apartment blocks are being fast-tracked under the guise of providing affordable housing while actually allowing expensive apartments affordable only by the well-off.
In the Geelong suburb of Rippleside a similar story is unfolding. With 93 apartments and a marina built and a further four-storey apartment block approved, the site’s developer consortium applied for an increase to seven storeys with a further 84 apartments. This was rejected last July by the Geelong Council.
The developers have now gone to the DFP for fast-track approval of a seven-storey block of 83 apartments and a marina office on a waterfront site that already includes 96 apartments each valued at $2-$3 million and a marina.
It is clear that affordable housing is, at best, the Cinderella of the planning story unfolding, while the developers get the golden slipper. The Allan government must stop this rort.
Rosemary Kiss, Rippleside
Bendigo festival
Re “Not quite a full stop for writers festival”, (7/8). What good can come from placing restrictions on those engaged in literature? Writers’ festivals should consider it an opportunity to discuss delicate topics in an intelligent and thoughtful manner.
Craig Tucker, Newport
Sharing ideas healthy
I find it unbelievable that the Bendigo Writers Festival would issue a code of conduct effectively shutting down any debate that may challenge any criticism of Israel.
Isn’t it healthy to share ideas and have difficult conversations, even if you may not agree? I would have thought that a writers’ festival would be the perfect venue for this.
Criticism of Israel should not be conflated with antisemitism. Shame on La Trobe University.
Jane Desailly, Brunswick
Goodbye to all that
To those literary giants who quit the Bendigo Writers Festival, I say good riddance: It is not your views on world politics that I sought to hear but that of your contribution to the world of literature.
Noel Mavric, Moonlight Flat
Unhelpful language
I am a former registered nurse and am concerned with the idea of so-called medical misogyny. I wonder if there is a degree of hysteria here. If a medical professional does not understand the workings of the female body they are inexcusably ignorant and incompetent, which does not necessarily mean they hate women. Rather, they don’t know how to do their job properly and this needs to be acknowledged and addressed.
While I have every sympathy for women who have had negative and harmful experiences at the hands of such practitioners, referring to anyone – male or female – as automatically misogynist in such circumstances may not only be incorrect, but also biased, inflammatory and unhelpful.
Christine Harris, Mordialloc
EV rider
Re “Yes, my EV makes me feel superior” (17/8). Writer Doug Hendrie’s high and mighty attitude towards fuel-guzzling roadsters could yet backfire on the uptake of EV ownership, given that many of Australia’s drivers subscribe to the false assertion that EVs are at greater risk of catching fires.
It’s an understandable worry as the mini fire extinguisher parcelled into my EV “safety pack” rang alarm bells on being couriered to me soon after the receipt of my smooth as silk to drive BYD. This protector angel now lives next to my garage EV charger, just in case.
On another note, fuel roadsters looking to fight back for their 50 cents per litre petrol excise will be savouring Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ proposal to impose EV road users’ charging.
Joseph Ting, Carina, Qld
EV price check
Thanks Doug Hendrie (17/8) for pointing out the bleeding obvious about why nearly everyone’s next car should be an EV.
I confess that I am still driving my pretty ancient Hyundai IC car, complete with a few dents, as it is a toss-up over which of us will die of old age first.
But it is a shock when you check the comparative prices of small cars: The cheapest petrol-powered models start at around $22,000 while the equivalent EV is in the mid $30,000 to $40,000 range.
Meanwhile, the most popular cars in China, like the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV, sell there for less than $7000 but are not even available here when they would certainly suit me – and be ideal for commuters who do not need a car to get them to Darwin at the drop of a hat. I do hope that the EV issue is on the agenda for the round-table gathering this week.
Peter McCarthy, Mentone
Complex solutions needed
Why is there not an EV users’ representative to sit on Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ road user charge committee? Whose long-held agenda is our treasurer attempting to satisfy?
Road damage is caused by the greater majority of fossil fuel-powered trucks and cars on the road, not the small percentage of electric vehicles.
New taxes are successful when they are lawful and kept low over a wide base, eg. a user-pays system such as GST. It also needs to be fair and reasonable.
The federal government’s reliance on fuel excise revenue is a major reason for its reluctance to embrace electric vehicles as a significant step towards limiting climate change.
China’s commitment to electric cars, electric bicycles, electric buses, trucks and trains has already made noticeable improvements to cleaning its cities and freed it from the hold fossil fuel corporations had. Australia needs to follow suit, let go of its fuel excises and subsidies to fuel corporations, and encourage the uptake of electric vehicles.
Complex problems require complex solutions. Some ingenuity and fresh thinking is necessary to avoid another flawed outcome. The definition of madness is doing things the same way and expecting a different result. We deserve better.
Adrian Leenaerts, North Warrandyte
Deal me out
Am I the only person in this country who finds the word ″deal″ extremely debatable in meaning? Remember when, if someone was described as “wheeling and dealing”, they were thought to be engaging in highly questionable activities.
We are talking about the futures (or non-futures) of millions and millions of innocent people, all dependent on someone whose eyes light up at the prospect of developing the Mediterranean coast of Palestine. What happened to words like agreement, treaty, diplomacy and most of all, humanity?
Marie Rogers, Kew
All in the game
Australian football was once enough in itself – the joy, the passion, the spectacle of the top two teams fighting for the ultimate prize on grand final day. It was a celebration of our game, our culture, and our sense of fairness and equality.
Now, it seems the game is no longer the centrepiece. We are asked to applaud imported celebrities, concerts and hype that drown out what makes footy truly ours.
In trying to emulate American spectacle, we risk losing the very spirit that built Australian rules football – a game where the crowd once stood shoulder to shoulder, where no one was bigger than the game itself.
I write this in memory of my father and grandfather, whose lifelong devotion to football shaped our family’s love of the game. They passed that passion to me and my siblings, and I believe they – and many like them – would be saddened to see the heart of the game overshadowed by commercial showmanship.
It is time to put the game itself back at the centre of the celebration.
Angela Hartin, Berwick
Grand final shame
I am not a rap fan or an economist but I do confess to a sense of shame at the AFL’s choice of grand final entertainment.
In an apparent pursuit of ″Super Bowl Lite″, we have descended into the darkest depths of trans-Pacific cultural cringe. The ″world-class act″ that we are welcoming has a past history of stated attitudes and actions that directly oppose the inclusive, non-violent and anti-misogynist AFL policies.
The likes of Paul Kelly and Jessica Mauboy must be bemused.
Terry Harrison, Mount Waverley
Good grief
I’m happy we have some family entertainment booked for this year’s grand final. If it’s who I believe it to be, Snoopy dog, I hope Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang also appear.
Darren Grindrod, Glenroy
Bandicoot survival
Great to read about the recovery of the eastern barred bandicoot on French and Phillip islands (″How island living saved bandicoots from the brink″, 16/8).
Early credit must go to the Hamilton Field Naturalists, the Hamilton Institute of Rural Learning and the Hamilton City Council for creating a fenced ″island″ free from cats and foxes at the Hamilton Community Parklands.
The recovery program was informed by the work to save the charismatic black-footed ferret in the US.
Since those early efforts in the 1980s, several species have become extinct and many more have been added to the endangered list.
Let’s be inspired by the survival of the bandicoot and listen to the Invasive Species Council when it calls for more funds.
The fire ant and the shot-hole borer are our most recent invaders.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
AND ANOTHER THING
Bombe Alaska
Oh Donald, there goes your Nobel prize, unless of course you could suggest some sort of tariff concession in return.
John Bye, Elwood
Trump and Putin ... no resolution. Now, who couldn’t see that coming?
Marie Nash, Balwyn
Oh Donald, Donald. Vladimir has done you like a doggy’s dinner, once again.
Dawn Richards, Huntingdale
Putin’s Ukraine strategy, ‘Praise Trump and pass the ammunition’, seems to be working.
Nick Eckstein, Kangaroo Ground
After his failed meeting with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump looked and acted like someone who is being extorted ... or blackmailed. The downcast expression, the unwillingness to talk. But, what in the world could Putin possibly have on Donald Trump?
Peter Neuhold, Elsternwick
Body language is a wonderful thing. The handshake can tell so much. It amuses me that Putin’s hand is always on top of Trump’s whenever they handshake; the dominant position.
David Raymond, Doncaster East
Donald Trump said he would stop the Ukraine war in one day. Well Don, we’re still waiting. The result of the Alaskan meeting was clearly a win for Putin. Trump’s much boasted negotiating skills failed to score any points for Ukraine.
Len Cox, Forest Hill
The Trump-Putin meeting reminds me of the organ grinder’s monkey. It is pretty obvious who was the organ grinder and who was the monkey.
Ross Hudson, Mt Martha
Furthermore
I guess La Trobe University policy makers prefer no speech rather than free speech.
John Rome, Mt Lawley, WA
I must have missed the memo on the AFL’s latest rule change – rugby passes allowed in the goal square – in the Crows v Magpies game Saturday night.
Nick Jensen, Canterbury
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