The preliminary capital city dwelling value index result for December was -0.2% (s.a.) following an upwardly revised +0.4% rise in dwelling values in November (was +0.1%). Revised regional house values for November increased from +0.3% to +0.5%. Sydney housing has been the nation’s best performer with dwelling values up 0.4% in December and by 0.7% over the quarter (s.a.).

In the generally seasonally weak month of December, the preliminary RP Data-Rismark Home Value Index result for capital city dwelling values was -0.2 per cent (s.a.). Low sales volumes in December mean that this number will likely see a more significant revision than normal.

The November result from the RP Data-Rismark index for dwellings in capital cities has revised up from +0.1 per cent (s.a.) to +0.4 per cent (s.a.) based on additional sales information. This marks the largest month-on-month improvement in Australian home values since May 2010.

The RP Data-Rismark ‘rest-of-state’ index, which covers Australia’s regional markets, has also revised up in November from +0.3 per cent to +0.5 per cent (s.a.). This is the most significant increase in regional house values since November 2010.

Over the December quarter, Australia’s capital city home values declined by -0.5 per cent (s.a.).

RP Data’s director of research Tim Lawless, said, “The December quarter was the year’s smallest quarterly decline. According to our index, capital city home values fell by -1.5 per cent (s.a.) in the March quarter, and by a further -0.8 per cent (s.a.) in each of the June and September quarters. This rate of decline had decelerated to -0.5% by the final quarter of 2011.”

In 2011, Australian capital city dwelling values experienced a capital loss of about three and a half per cent. Regional house values fared a little better, correcting by around three per cent. This compared to the 14-15 per cent decline in Australian shares. Adding in rents, the gross total return to Australian property investors was slightly less than one per cent over 2011.

Rismark’s managing director Ben Skilbeck said, “The month of December is characterised by a significant lull in activity and the preliminary index results have likely been influenced by some more volatile Melbourne and Perth estimates. We expect to get better clarity on the monthly movements as more information is reported.”

“Sydney currently has the largest volume of reported sales in December. In seasonally-adjusted terms, Sydney dwelling values rose by 0.4 per cent in the month of December. In the December quarter, Sydney dwelling values are up a total of 0.7 per cent (s.a.)” Mr Skilbeck said.

RP Data’s Tim Lawless observed that rental markets continued to strengthen in December.

“Weekly rents across the capital cities were up 1.0 per cent over the December quarter and are now 6.3 per cent higher than at the same time last year.”

“These higher rental rates combined with the slide in property values have improved investors’ yields. The average capital city dwelling is now offering a gross rental return of 4.6 per cent after a consistent trend upwards since mid-2010 when the typical capital city dwelling was yielding just 4.1 per cent. Darwin and Canberra are the highest yielding locations for property investors while Hobart, Brisbane, and Sydney provide gross yields that are better than average,” Mr Lawless said.

On the outlook for the year ahead, Rismark’s Ben Skilbeck commented, “We expect that the RBA’s interest rate cuts in the final two months of 2011 will lend further momentum to housing activity as transaction volumes pick up over February and March after the seasonally slow months of December and January. If financial market pricing for substantial additional RBA rate cuts proves accurate, we could see a stronger-than-expected bounce-back in housing conditions.”

“Housing affordability in Australia has experienced a striking improvement in recent times. While disposable household incomes on a per household basis rose by five per cent over the year to September 2011, Australian dwelling values have declined by 3.4 per cent since September 2010. As a result of the RBA’s rate cuts borrowers can now get fixed- and variable-rate home loans as low as 5.9 per cent and 6.14 per cent. Rismark’s research shows that disposable incomes per household have risen about 15 per cent further than Australian dwelling values since the end of 2003. This helps account for the decline in Rismark’s national dwelling price-to-income ratio, which is as low as its been since 2003” Mr Skilbeck said.

RP Data’s Tim Lawless added, “While global uncertainty and a stagnant local labour market could weigh on the consumer’s mindset, we are nevertheless observing improvements in monthly housing finance commitments. RP Data’s leading indicators on average selling times and vendor discounts are also starting to look healthier. There is no doubt that additional interest rate relief in 2012 would afford a very welcome cushion to the housing market.”

We’ve been so worried about plastic shopping bags, but what about the plastic we use to wrap our lunches?

As a Mum there are some things I am not imaginative enough to work out. What do you suggest as substitutes for freezer wrap to put meat or cakes etc in, and for lunch?

Like their shopping bag counterparts, plastic products such as freezer bags and cling film are not environment-friendly.

While technically it’s possible to recycle plastic bags, the reality is not simple.

Linda Edwards from the National Packaging Covenant explains: “No Australian plastic is biodegradable. Traditionally in Australia it’s been very difficult to recycle because of the sorting and collection system needed. Also there is a lack of plants able to reprocess it.”

Fortunately, there are alternative, environment-friendly options.

Substitutes such as 4MyEarth Wraps (www.4myearth.com.au) are a good choice for keeping sandwiches fresh. These reusable wraps are machine washable, and they not only wrap sandwiches but also act as a placemat to eat them off! The wraps come in sandwich and snack sizes.

A sandwich-sized hard plastic container would also do the trick.

When storing food in your fridge or freezer, consider investing in plastic containers rather than plastic bags – containers are endlessly reusable so you don’t need to discard the plastic every time you take something out of the freezer.

Multiple use freezer bags can be found in your local supermarket, although these have to be thrown out eventually.

Look out for biodegradable freezer bags that have recently come onto the market. They’re made of cornstarch, a renewable resource.

But if you can’t give up the cling wrap, remember that you probably don’t need to use very much – it only needs to cover the food, not mummy-wrap it!

Story source: www.yonderr.com.au

If you’re a parent, you likely have several giant bins filled to the brim with toys for your little ones. And with Christmas (ho ho ho!) over you’re likely to have gotten toys in all shapes and sizes.  And while I’m no bah humbug, the relative size of our children’s toy boxes has become incredibly large given their small stature, and the environmental problems are equally ill-proportioned:

• Mountains of trash: Of the 40 million toys thrown away annually, 13 million are put into the rubbish according to green living website www.ecolife.com.
• Difficult recycling: Because toys are made from many different materials – plastics, metal, glass, computer components, and more – they are incredibly difficult to recycle and in many cases are not accepted by recycling facilities.

Once Christmas is over, we try to keep the toys under control (as well as our carbon footprint) by having a post-Christmas clean-up and getting rid of toys that haven’t been used or the children have simply grown out of.

Donating used toys to a good cause can be one of the most effective ways to recycle toys. Not only does this prevent garbage from being sent to landfills, it provides a second life for your used toys, which means the materials will go on functioning for many months or years to come. The sky’s the limit when it comes to donating used toys – use your imagination to find a person or charity who could use your second hand toys:

• Children’s charities
• Children’s hospitals
• Churches
• Day cares
• Family members
• Friends
• Neighbours
• Playgroups
• Thrift shops like those through St Vincent de Paul or the Salvation Army

Not all toys can be donated to charities for various health and ethical reasons. To ensure that your toys have the best chance of being given away rather than trashed, consider these toy donation guidelines:

• Toys should be nontoxic
• Ensure that the toys are clean and are not missing parts
• Broken toys are unlikely to be accepted, especially if they pose a choking hazard
• Avoid toys with a religious theme unless you’re donating to a faith-based charity
• Toys that require batteries are not as suitable for donation as they will require the parents of the child to purchase batteries (which may be out of their budget)
• Toys made from things like fabric, cardboard, paper, and other absorbable materials are often rejected as they are difficult to clean and disinfect

In addition to donating used toys, there are many ways you can recycle toys so that they don’t end up in the landfill:

• Contribute to a toy library: Some communities have toy libraries that are like book libraries – you can check toys in and out so that your child is never bored with their personal stash. Each toy library is unique to the local community, so the best way to find one in your area is to do a search online for your city/town name + “toy library.”
• Sell or trade: Sometimes a toy is too valuable to simply give away, in which case you could try to sell it.
• Recycling centers: Some communities have set up recycling programs for large plastic toys and metals toys as well, though you will need to call ahead to determine your recycling centre’s toy recycling policy.
• Deconstruction: If your recycling centre will not take your toys as is, sometimes you can dismantle them yourself to recycle the various components, such as the paper, cardboard, metal, and plastic which can then be put with other recyclables of the same kind. Cardboard and paper components can also be composted.

If you have any good ideas for what can be done with second hand toys we’d love to hear from you.

Source:  www.ecolife.com

Read more on how to be green at www.yonderr.com.au

While swimming is a great form of exercise, the downside is that pools require vast amounts of water. Just to fill the average backyard pool takes 50,000 litres – and that’s roughly one third of the water used by an average person in a year.

Even more water is needed for regular top-ups. All up, a home with a pool uses 10 per cent more water than a home without a pool.

But surprisingly, water isn’t the only conservation concern – swimming pools are energy intensive too. According to the NSW Government, running a pool pump will increase your household energy use (and your carbon footprint) by 17 per cent and that’s not including energy needed for pool heating.

So does this mean we should fill in our swimming pools? Has the backyard pool become an extravagant luxury this planet can no longer afford? While we can argue back and forth on the pros and cons of a swimming pool there are a number of ways to cut down on pool energy and water use.

Slash water wastage

An uncovered pool can lose up to one-and-a-half times its total volume in one year through evaporation. In Sydney and Brisbane, rainfall can come close to replacing half the evaporation, assuming that it falls at the right time and in the right amounts so the pool doesn’t overflow. Yet in a dry city like Perth, rain compensates for only 10 per cent of the water lost.

There is one really simple way to save water – invest in a pool cover and reduce evaporation by up to 97 percent. For an outlay of $500 – $1,500 you can purchase a cover that will also prevent heat loss at night, thereby extending the swimming season and saving on heating costs.

As an added bonus, covers also keep leaves and dirt out of the pool and reduce the evaporation of the chemicals used to keep the pool clean.

The type of filter you use can also make a big difference to water efficiency. Sand filters can waste up to 15,000 litres of water each year because they require backwashing to clean the filter. Cartridge filters, on the other hand, can be cleaned with a quick rinse from the hose, saving water and reducing the amount of pool chemicals dumped into the sewer.

Finally, make sure you have no leaks – one drip per second adds up to 7,000 wasted litres a year.

Top up with rainwater

No matter how vigilant you are at preventing water loss, the pool will need an occasional top-up. A simple idea is to attach an inexpensive rainwater diverter to a downpipe to direct water into your pool. Some models on the market can also prevent the first flush of leaves entering your pool.

Just bear in mind that during a large downpour you may need to divert the flow back to the stormwater to ensure the pool doesn’t overflow. A better but more expensive solution is to install a rainwater tank so you can store water for when you need it.

Create a zero-emission pool

It’s an expensive exercise to operate your pool pump continuously – just running it for eight hours a day will cost about $650 per year and emit four tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

The solution is to purchase a solar pump that will cost nothing to run.

Many pool owners like to extend the swimming season by heating their pool – but how do you avoid puffing more greenhouse gases into the air? The answer is to go solar.

If your roof is unsuitable, a heat pump is another greenhouse friendly option. Heat pumps work by absorbing heat from the air and transferring it to stored water – a bit like a reverse refrigerator. While they use electricity, the amount required is tiny. Traditionally used for household hot water they are now available to heat swimming pools. Since warm water evaporates faster than cold water it’s even more important to cover a heated pool – it will also reduce heat loss.

Also crucial for optimum operation is an easy-to-install solar controller that monitors and regulates water temperature.

Cut down on chemicals

Pools use rather a lot of nasty chemicals – of which chlorine is the most significant. The concentrated liquid form of chlorine, sodium hypochlorite (or bleach), is extremely corrosive and regarded as highly toxic by the US EPA. For these reasons it should be securely stored and kept out of reach of children. It is acutely toxic to aquatic organisms, which is another reason to avoid sand filters, which create high volumes of chlorinated backwash.

The need for chlorine can be minimised through your choice of water treatment system. UV and ozone systems cut down the amount of chlorine needed by 70 to 80 per cent, and ionisers also reduce the need for chlorine.

Salt chlorinators have the advantage that you don’t need to handle chlorine although you’ll still end up with sodium hypochlorite in the pool solution.

You can also reduce chlorine use by keeping your pool clean and preventing its evaporation with a pool cover. Avoid locating plants that drop their leaves close to the pool and ensure filters are cleaned regularly. To avoid chemicals altogether consider a natural swimming pool.

The upshot?

Pools may be an unparalleled summer luxury – let’s face it, there’s nothing quite like a midnight dip on a hot summer night – but they are certainly not the eco-friendliest addition you can make to your backyard.

If you are going to have a pool, there are ways to make yours the greenest in the neighbourhood. With rainwater and solar power, you can reduce your pool’s impact to near zero.

Of course, for those of us lucky enough to live near the sea, a river, lake or mountain stream, nature provides the greenest swimming pool of all.

Read more here.

Story source: www.yonderr.com.au

The Reserve Bank of Australia board has cut the official interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.25 per cent, giving mortgage holders and borrowers a pre-Christmas reprieve.

The RBA announced the rate cut at 2.30pm AEDT today following the board’s final meeting for the year.

It’s the second interest rate cut in as many months after the RBA lowered the cash rate on Melbourne Cup day in November.

In a statement issued with the announcement, RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said there had been "considerable turbulence" in financial markets and said financing conditions had become more difficult.

"This, together with precautionary behaviour by firms and households, means that the likelihood of a further material slowing in global growth has increased," Mr Stevens said in a statement accompanying the decision on Tuesday.

Economics analyst Ross Greenwood said Europe’s debt crisis would have been a significant factor in the RBA’s decision.

"The Reserve Bank indicated that it is still concerned about the European economic situation and the prospects of a global slowdown hurting Australia and its export markets," Greenwood told ninemsn.

While it’s good news for mortgage holders and borrowers, Greenwood cautioned consumers not to expect the banks to pass on the full interest rate.

Analysts were divided about whether the RBA would cut the rate today, with a survey of 14 economists conducted by AAP revealing seven tipping a cut, and seven predicting rates would stay on hold for another month.

Story source: www.ninemsn.com.au

We’re on a roll with environmentally-friendly work tips and here are five more great ideas if you have the ear of the boss.

1. Cleaning Products
Whether you’re using an independent cleaning person or the building management has staff in place, now is the time to switch cleaning products to greener versions to drastically reduce indoor air pollution and to avoid adding questionable chemical residue to our waterways. Obviously this is easier to do when you don’t have to go through building management. But even if you can get a building to change one product to green, you’ll really be making a difference.

2. Energy Initiatives
Change light bulbs to energy efficient ones and put up signs reminding staff to pull the plug at the end of the day on things like coffee makers and microwaves, and to turn their computers off at the power point. Standby on many computers equals energy guzzler.

3. Paper Products
Set up a digital file sharing system and make an initiative to print as little as possible. Paper should be 100 percent recycled, and either unbleached, or bleached without chlorine. When you do print, set up your printer to automatically print double-sided. Speaking of printing – refill ink cartridges rather than buying new and if that’s not possible there are plenty of places where you can take them for recycling.

Reuse anything that is printed on one side only as scrap paper, reducing the need for new notebooks in the office. New notebooks, toilet paper, paper towels, business cards and more can all be found in eco-friendlier versions. If you send out lots of mailings at work, choose eco packing materials. Reuse boxes, use shredded papers for packing material and look for padded envelopes containing recycled fibre.

Consider cancelling all your newspaper and magazine subscriptions and go online instead.

4. Stock Your Kitchen
Much of the waste that is created during the day in an office is takeout food containers, coffee cups and water bottles. If you have a kitchen, use it. Simple things can make a huge difference. Fill a cupboard with reusable mugs, plates, glasses, and utensils. Stick a bottle of eco dish soap by the sink. Put in an under the sink water filter. Plug a coffee maker into the wall. Take it a step further by filling it with Fair Trade/organic coffee and putting organic milk in the fridge. You don’t need plastic or wooden stirrers when you have spoons in the cupboard. Sugar and tea also come in Fair Trade/organic versions. Bulk sugar has less packaging than individually wrapped paper packets. Coffee filters, like all paper products, now come in unbleached versions. If you have a microwave, put a few microwave safe glass containers in the cupboard (it’s not a good idea to put plastic in the microwave). If you have a bottle of hand soap or sanitizer in the kitchen, make sure it doesn’t contain an antibacterial (like Triclosan).

5. Try carbon offsetting your business

Whether you’re a unique boutique, a mobile business or a large company – or something in between, you’re impacting the environment and if you want to do more about carbon emissions and the boss thinks it’s a good idea, try offsetting.  Carbon offsetting is a way for businesses (and individuals) to invest in projects that prevent or reduce greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the atmosphere. 

Check out the various options and pricing at Yonderr.com.au

If you have any other tips to help create greener workplaces we would love to hear from you – drop us a line today.

For more information on this article, click here.

Story source: www.yonderr.com.au

What do you do if you are young and thinking about investing in property?

A 19-year-old I know has plans to save up to buy his first property, and mentioned that he’s not too sure where to start. Should he do a property course, he wondered? And how do you know where is a good place to buy? Let alone what you should pay.

He’s thinking not of giddily purchasing his first property to live in, but of buying an investment property and slowly, over his lifetime, purchasing some others.

What do you do if you are young and thinking about investing in property?

A 19-year-old I know has plans to save up to buy his first property, and mentioned that he’s not too sure where to start. Should he do a property course, he wondered? And how do you know where is a good place to buy? Let alone what you should pay.

He’s thinking not of giddily purchasing his first property to live in, but of buying an investment property and slowly, over his lifetime, purchasing some others.

We’ve been hearing for a little while now how this is a trend among 20-somethings, and those into their 30s. Buy a place as an investment, often a cheaper unit in a less desirable area, and then tap into the tax advantages of negative gearing (by keeping your outgoings on the property higher than the rent coming in) and either rent yourself in an area you want to live, or stay at home with the baby boomer parents where the board is minimal and the washing comes for free.

So for Jake, and any other young people wondering which way to go, here’s a few tips. And I’m sure readers will offer up plenty more in the comments space below.

1. Ask yourself, should I be investing in property at all, and what do I expect to get from it?

If it’s a road to quick riches you want, then this is not the path to take. Yes, we have seen some huge run-ups in prices over the years, and it’s true that property prices, like the economy, tend to run in cycles, so we will obviously see increases in years to come, even despite the current negativity enveloping much of the globe.

Because property buyers are human, and love to follow a trend, and for some bizarre reason feel more comfortable buying when prices are running hot, there is no doubt there will be price rises once again in the future.

There are a whole bunch of other factors pointing to future price increases too – in some cities the lack of building will keep the supply lower than it should be, the population continues to grow meaning so does demand, and in Australia at least, we remain a wealthy country still experiencing household income growth.

However, don’t bet everything on this happening and by how much prices will go up – instead expect to see, over a longer period of time, steady increases with plenty of troughs along the way as the economic cycle rises and falls.

And now, here’s the cue for all the readers who argue the market is about to tank and that now is not the time to buy property. And with Europe perched on a precipice and the US still in an uncertain state, you do have to question whether the bottom of the market has been reached yet despite the pretty strong fundamentals underpinning the Australian economy at the moment.

However, if you are a young person just starting to save for your first property, you have a bit of time to sit back and watch the market while you save anyway, so don’t fret too much at this juncture.

2. Educate yourself

The mere mention of "property course" sends shivers down my spine. Often it’s run by property spruikers taking hundreds or thousands of dollars off gullible people who are then, at best, fed information they could find themselves by reading widely, or at worst, the poor souls are flogged the company’s own products or services, all with the shiny promise of sky-high returns.

There has never been an easier time to learn the whys and wherefores yourself. The internet has opened up a world of information, and young people wanting to learn a bit more about property should be heading there (to reputable sources) as well as to the property lift outs in newspapers, and better quality magazines.

Want prices? Find them on websites like Domain.com.au or Australian Property Monitors (both owned by Fairfax Media). Want to find the best loan? Check out a loan websites such as ratecity.com.au. And need to know where the market is headed? Read plenty of stories and opinion pieces and rather than taking just one as gospel, glean the general themes from what all have to say.

If there’s a few property terms you don’t understand – such as negative gearing – look them up and get your head around what they mean. That won’t unlock a magical key to property investment for you and land a bag of gold at your feet, but it will stop spruikers taking advantage of your youth and naivety.

3. Take a balanced approach

Property holds a certain glimmer for some young people – perhaps under the encouragement of their parents who prefer a bricks-and-mortar approach. And also because everyone has lived in a house or a unit, but not everyone has held shares or gold or even superannuation.

But if you are young and have the advantage of having your head screwed on the right way and are already thinking about investing, you should be looking at all investment classes impartially. Sure, consider property, but look at it as part of building a balanced portfolio.

Even at 18, 19, you’re not too young to start putting a few extra dollars into super, keeping some of your money in cash in the highest-paying account you can find, and also thinking about a small parcel of blue chip shares to start you off, all while saving to buy your first property. Education, it must be said, can also be considered an investment class in the fact that you are boosting your own potential earning capacity.

And when I say dollars, I really do mean just a few dollars. Even small amounts each week from a meagre income are better than nothing.

This is a smart approach because it lets you spread your risk, and not put everything into the one basket. Sure, this mean it will take you a little longer to save for the first property, but time is on your side if you are young, and to use a cliché, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

4. Save as much as you can before buying

If you plan on being a landlord, you will need to have some extra cash available to cover the loan in between tenants, and also to pay for any repairs to the property. If you are buying into an apartment block or townhouse, you may need also extra money to pay for special levies such as building repairs not covered by the sinking fund (the general fund amassed by the body corporate from strata levies).

So the smart thing to do is to save a good amount of money before purchasing so you’re not taking an uncomfortable risk.

5. Research where to buy

The old adage is buy as close to the city as you can and look for properties that don’t have huge outgoings due to lifts and fancy add-ons such as gyms and pools, but do have the advantage of being near good infrastructure.

Closeness to the city can be good but I would also focus on the infrastructure side of things, and whether or not the suburb has the potential to develop over time.

Buying near rail (heavy or light) infrastructure is always a good bet as the infrastructure will stay there for a long time, and as populations continue to grow and further congest areas, the infrastructure will become even more important.

Do carefully think before buying in areas with inherent negatives, such as heavy flight paths or a lot of noise. Also very busy roads can be a problem – it can be smarter to buy just off them.

Keep your tenant in mind – what type of person would like to rent this and do those people generally live in this area?

Do try to buy something that would be easy to sell again in a hurry if you needed to, should your circumstances change. If a property you are buying has sat on the market for months and months, be sure to find out why and be realistic about encountering the same selling problems if you should buy it.

For that same reason it is good to try to buy something that is around the median price for a suburb, as it should have a larger pool of potential buyers.

6. Keep some cash aside after buying

When you buy the property, don’t sink all your money into the loan if you can help it, keep a good chunk in a flexible high-interest earning account (not a term deposit, as you may need to access it at short notice).

Use this as your maintenance fund, and to top up the property loan if you need to (and for many properties, in the early years at least, the rent won’t cover the mortgage, council rates, strata and water supply charges, so you need to be in a position to pay for the gap yourself).

The cash you keep, though, must strictly be for investment and as a reserve for maintenance and loan top-ups, not for holidays or random spending, as you always need a buffer so you aren’t forced to sell at the worst possible time.

7. After you buy, keep saving

Direct any spare cash to your savings account, not your investment loan. Or if you decide to buy a property to live in, use the cash to pay down your own home loan as fast as you can, rather than the investment loan.

By doing this, you make negative gearing work for you because, by keeping the loan against the property larger, you are paying the highest amount of interest you can, while earning interest off your other money you are keeping in cash.

Or in the case of living in your own property you do want to pay that off as soon as possible to get rid of non-tax-deductible debt.

While I’m advocating not dumping all of your extra cash into your investment loan, it is prudent to pay the property off over time to gradually reduce your liabilities, rather than remain solely focussed on negative gearing.

For that reason, interest-only loans on investment properties may not be wise in the longer term, as you are basically betting on price increases to cover you. Yes, price hikes will probably happen over the longer period but you don’t want to bank your entire savings on them.

8. Get your hands dirty

If you buy a property that needs to be fixed up, and you have time on your side, get in and do it. Many things such as pulling up carpets and painting can be achieved with little experience – you just need to have a go.

You might be surprised at just how much painting kitchen cupboards, tired tiles and old baths can rejuvenate a property.

Do be aware of any dangers that lurk in the property though, such as asbestos, and treat them appropriately. And do call in trades for jobs that are beyond you, such as electrics, plumbing and larger tiling jobs.

9. Be a good landlord

Be prepared to spend on maintenance over time and keep your property up to scratch. You’ll attract better tenants, and your property will also hold its value better. Rundown rentals look shabby and often don’t command a good price come sales time.

10. Take your time before buying again

If you have your sights set on owning more than one property, don’t be in too much of a rush. Keep your investing balanced, putting some funds into other classes such as cash, shares and super.

And when you have built enough equity you can then consider buying a second property. Balance your risk though and don’t get yourself in over your head. You want the power to hold each property for as long as you see fit, rather than be forced to sell should disaster strike.

Story by Carolyn Boyd, a property journalist and keen follower of Australia’s housing market.

Source: www.domain.com.au

Last week we talked about being green on the cheap, and this week we thought we would focus on the work place.  Here are 5 ways to give your office a green tinge – and some might even save the boss some money.  Here goes:

1. Bring your lunch
Pack your lunch in reusable containers. As well as contributing less to the already overwhelmed landfills, you will save money and your health. Don’t forget to pack a bottle (reusable of course!) of water, real utensils, and a cloth napkin. If you prefer to eat take out, try bringing reusable containers with you for your over-the-counter soup, salad or whatever.

2. Get involved
If your boss isn’t interested in making overall changes, you can still bring in a green cleaner for your desk, or put a bottle of eco dish detergent in the kitchen. Bring your own plate/cup/mug/bowl/utensils and store them in a desk drawer. People will notice and it might start a (good) trend. Find an electronic waste recycling place and help facilitate the office to take old stuff there. Put signs on office and bathroom doors reminding people to recycle and to shit down their computer at the end of the day.

3. Wash more, dry clean less
What are you wearing? Perc (perchloroethylene) the main chemical in dry cleaning solvent is a classified hazardous chemical and has been linked to cancer in lab animals. You know the smell. The chemical gets trapped in the plastic bags. Then we put those trapped items in our closets, close the door, and sleep next to the closet with the windows shut all night long. Bad idea. If you have perc-cleaned clothes you need to remove the plastic and air your clothes for several hours to let the chemicals evaporate. Better alternatives to conventional dry cleaning include sponge cleaning or hand washing. This works, even for wool. Speaking of wool, avoid mothballs. The vapours are carcinogenic and if a child swallows one, it could kill them. Use things like lavender, cedar, and temperature (stick sweaters in your freezer) for moths.

4. Transportation
How do you get to work in the morning? Public transportation is preferable to driving. Carpooling is a good option where public transport is unavailable. Walking or biking are obviously the best options, as is telecommuting (you’ll save money on petrol, too).

5. Open Windows
Studies show indoor air to be worse than outdoor air. Ventilation is key, especially if you’re sitting near a photocopier. And put a plant on your desk – some are known to act as air filters (aloe vera/ficus for formaldehyde; spider plant for carbon monoxide, and several others).

To read the full story, click here

Story source: www.yonderr.com.au

Smart design may challenge our love of huge houses.

Australians should be embarrassed about their obsession with size, according to Melbourne architect and campaigner for sustainable urban design Stuart Harrison.

It’s not how big a home is that’s important; it’s what you can do with it, he says.

Harrison, who co-hosts 3RRR’s The Architects, has written a coffee-table book of innovative housing designs. Forty-Six Square Metres of Land Doesn’t Normally Become a House showcases the work of Australian and New Zealand architects who have created spacious homes in extremely small areas.

Examples include a five-storey house in Sydney with a garage that has a small bathroom to allow conversion to a study or tenancy; a bedroom and bathroom; living room; kitchen-dining room; and sitting room or study opening to a roof garden overlooking the city.

To put the size of the property in context, the house, now home to a couple, was built on land formerly used as a car park for three vehicles.

Similarly, a young architect has transformed a 150-square-metre strip of land backing onto a South Melbourne lane into two two-bedroom homes over three levels. The possibilities of the ground level alone include car parking, granny flat, study or office space.

The utility, flexibility and beauty of the 45 featured homes is all the more impressive given Australian houses hold the dubious honour of being the largest in the world, with the average new dwelling being 253 square metres. Most new houses are well over that, with more than 400 square metres being common.

”In the real estate world there’s a concentration on big houses, big being better,” Harrison says. ”This [book] is really about saying that compact housing can be sexy, that it can be attractive to live in.”

Harrison is arguing for a cultural shift in the way Australians value property. ”Housing is normally sold based on two or three variables: number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms and number of car parking spots.”

None of those variables take into account the quality of the design, or of the space the house occupies. While Harrison is a proponent of smaller houses, he also believes a related problem is that apartments are often too small, inside and out.

”When you have smaller housing types, outdoor space becomes more important but contemporary apartments usually have only a one-metre-deep balcony. That’s effectively useless for anything other than maybe standing outside and smoking or putting an airconditioner [there].”

This lack of usable outdoor space can force people to set their sights on a house rather than an apartment. ”Whereas if we had better apartment types, that would be addressed,” Harrison says.

This misuse of space has added to the paradox of the average Australian home growing in size at the same time as the number of people living in it has decreased, along with the land size. ”So we have more interior space but less exterior space, less garden and all those things that make housing good.”

The average home size should be reduced by 20 per cent, with the cost saving then spent on good design, including the return of outdoor space and better use of light and orientation, he says.

Most of the homes showcased in the book are flexible with spaces that can be easily modified to suit different uses at different times of the day or life stages, such as garages that can be home offices or granny flats.

Living spaces are often connected to the outside to make them seem bigger and there is innovative use of light and shade.

Canny design creates possibilities for increasing housing density in spaces that would otherwise be seen as unusable.

Harrison says compact infill developments make it possible for more people to live closer to their workplaces and amenities, increasing quality of life and reducing urban sprawl and energy costs.

”More compact housing that’s located near stuff you might need, both your workplace and places of recreation, will help you get to places with less energy and then the housing itself, if it’s smaller, will take less energy to build and, of course, need less energy to heat, cool and maintain.”

Harrison is confident this shift will happen, with the financial and social cost of buying and maintaining large homes on the urban fringe being a key driver for people to value smaller and more flexible housing design.

He predicts fashion could be another factor: ”There might be a move away from larger housing in the future as it becomes slightly embarrassing to have a 400-square-metre house rather than something that’s seen as being a good design.”

Story by Kate Robertson www.domain.com.au

Consider these tips when looking for property in a depressed market.

Purchasing an investment property when the market is down can be extremely profitable.

But you still have to make sure you’re getting a good deal in a buyers’ market – and wise investors won’t be so blinded by the chance of a ”bargain” that they ignore their long-term strategy – which all means it isn’t as simple as it might look.

In a sellers’ market almost any price a vendor puts on a property results in a sale and such buoyant conditions tend to hide ”over-enthusiastic” prices.

In a depressed market, it’s much easier to buy real estate at more realistic prices because there’s more supply than demand.

Real estate isn’t a uniform market, though. There are many sub-markets that perform differently.

Good properties in certain areas can still sell within 24 hours of being listed, whatever the prevailing conditions, so it’s vital you get up to speed with the buying tactics used by seasoned investors.

Target fail-safe properties

The best properties to buy are those that will always be in demand. For many investors, this means acquiring property that’s close to the city centre. For others it means opting for houses or units priced at near the median price for their areas, which are sought-after by owner-occupiers and investors.

Areas that perform well over time and properties that have a high land content are often your best options.

With units, the golden rule is to go for an apartment in a popular location with restaurants and transport nearby. It should be in a well-constructed building with a high land-to-unit ratio.

Distressed sellers

Many vendors have been hit hard by changes in their circumstances. While mortgagee sales are a clear sign of the economic slowdown, you also need to be on the lookout for other signs of vendor distress.

The number of couples seeking divorces tends to rise in times of financial hardship. Other vendors give up on home ownership and go back to renting. You don’t always discover these factors the first time you talk to an agent. But if you prod him or her and ask the right questions, you’ll obtain information that may help you secure a good property at a great price.

Avoid speculation

It’s crazy to buy a property at below market value if it’s in an area where prices are set to fall. Some property advisers believe this is not a good time to speculate or to rely on the ripple effect to drive up capital growth in suburbs bordering proven growth areas.

Speculators do best when markets are running hot. With the number of properties for sale rising in many areas, your opportunity to make good money by targeting properties in established suburbs is higher. Why take the risk on an unproven area?

Look for multiple listings

Listing a property with several agents shows a keen vendor. Because no single agent has an exclusive deal, you may be able to buy directly from the vendor. This can eliminate $30,000 or more in agents’ selling fees from the sale. You need to tread carefully and take legal advice, however.

Many of these vendors usually want an agent to handle the final sale. Even so, the fact their property is listed by several agents means they want to sell and fast.

Go fast, go slow

A buyers’ market means buyers are more in control than sellers. It’s easier to negotiate a delayed settlement on a purchase but don’t forget that speed is also a useful bargaining tool. In a slow market, cash is king. A vendor may take considerably less for a quick settlement compared with another higher offer on delayed terms.

If you’ve found a property you want and have gone through your normal planning and checking processes, a cash unconditional offer and a quick settlement can significantly reduce the price you pay.

Story by Chris Tolhurst www.domain.com.au

With the Reserve Bank serving up a rate cut, it’s a smart move to keep your repayments at the same level. Many lenders don’t automatically reduce your repayments when rates fall.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that you’re not getting a cut in interest rates – just that your weekly or fortnightly (or monthly, but don’t pay monthly, it will cost you more in the long run, as explained below) repayments stay the same.

That’s smart because automatically you’re paying an extra $45-$60 (or whatever it equates to on your mortgage) a month, which will see you get out of the debt-jail sooner.

And with house prices stagnant or falling, the one smart way to make money out of your property is pay it off more quickly and reduce the overall cost of acquiring it.

It has, of course, always been the best way to do things. Ask any pre-baby boomer and they will tell you that.

But in the heady debt-fuelled days of recent past it seemed too easy that you could buy a place, sit it out, burn up the redraw facility on the loan on cars, clothes and overseas holidays, and still double your money in a decade. However, after such big run-ups in house prices, everything has softened and we’re not likely to see similar increases in home prices anytime soon.

Not that a slowing housing market is necessarily bad – despite the general pall it throws over things. Investors may want those days to return but most people can see that steady prices are a lot healthier.

Houses, after all, are primarily for living in. There are other money-making vehicles out there that don’t put the cost of basic shelter out of the average person’s reach.

And the slowing housing market also – in part – took the pressure off the Reserve Bank to keep hiking rates after last year’s Melbourne Cup.

When it comes to the cost of acquiring a home, you can do it the expensive way – borrowing the money (as most of us have to do), or the really, really expensive way (borrowing money and taking forever to pay it off).

The Figures

Let’s assume you’re paying 7 per cent on your mortgage now and you’ve borrowed $500,000 to buy your place. Pay it off monthly over 25 years and you’ll fork out a total of about $1,060,147.

Add another $60 a month to your repayments and you’ll be up for a total over the life of the loan of $1,031,230, saving $28,918.

Pay down an extra $200 a month, or about $50 a week, and suddenly you’re up for a six-figure total instead of a seven, of about $975,321. You’ll also save an impressive $84,842. And you’ll walk away from the shackles of that mortgage more than three years earlier.

Of course your mortgage might not be $500,000, so to find out how it works in your situation check out some of the online calculators such as this. It’s worth bookmarking the site and going back to it every time you need a bit of motivation to pay down the mortgage faster.

And another trick – now well known by many – is to pay fortnightly and not monthly. You’ll end up thousands of dollars ahead by taking advantage of the fact there’s 12 months in the year, but 26 fortnights, meaning you make one fortnight’s repayment more per year than you would if you were paying monthly.

Story by Carolyn Boyd www.domain.com.au

Australia’s biggest home lenders cut mortgage rates soon after the central bank reduced the cash rate for the first time since April 2009.

Westpac took just 15 minutes to pass on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 0.25 percentage point rate cut in full on Tuesday. It will lower its standard variable home loan rate (SVR) to 7.61 per cent from November 14.

Westpac is the nation’s second biggest mortgage lender by market share,

Bank of Queensland (BOQ), and Commonwealth Bank (CBA), Australia’s biggest home lender, followed suit, cutting their SVR to 7.61 per cent and 7.56 per cent respectively.

BOQ’s rate cut will take effect on November 11, and CBA’s on November 4.

ANZ Banking Group and National Australia Bank (NAB) said their interest rates were under review.

The cuts by the bigger Sydney-headquartered lenders come almost two years after Westpac ignited public outrage by lifting its SVR by 45 basis points after the RBA’s rate hike of 25 basis points.

Last November CBA did the same, with its rivals passing on rate rises of between 35 and 43 basis points, helping to prompt a Senate inquiry into competition within the banking sector.

NAB has consistently tried to undercut its rivals to win market share, and last Thursday posted a record annual cash profit of $5.5 billion on strong growth in home lending and deposits.

Westpac retail and business banking group executive Rob Coombe said economic weakness in Europe was having a negative effect on Australian business and consumer confidence.

"A reduction in interest rates will provide a timely boost to sentiment and generate a positive flow-on effect for the broader Australian economy," he said in a statement.

The rate cut will reduce repayments on an average $250,000 mortgage by about $41 per month, he said.

BOQ managing director Stuart Grimshaw announced the rate cut on his first day with the bank as its new boss, saying that with Christmas approaching it was the right thing to do.

CBA has 27.8 per cent of Australia’s home loan market.

Westpac has a 26.4 per cent share, while NAB has 15.6 per cent, ANZ 14.3 per cent, Suncorp 2.8 per cent, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank 2.6 per cent and BOQ 2.2 per cent according to figures from the banking regulator.

Westpac will report its annual result on Wednesday followed by ANZ’s profit result on Thursday.

Story source: www.ninemsn.com.au

Homeowners have been granted a long awaited reprieve, with the Reserve Bank opting to drop interest rates by 25 basis points.

The cut continues what is becoming a tradition, with the Reserve Bank changing the cash rate on Melbourne Cup Day for the sixth year in a row.

It is also the first time in a year that rates have shifted in either direction, with last year’s race tarnished by a surprise 25 basis point bump.

The Reserve Bank’s decision comes after the TD Securities-Melbourne Institute data revealed inflationary pressure was at a 19-month low.

The Institute’s inflation gauge showed a 0.1 percent rise in headline and trimmed mean measures, prompted largely by a massive drop in fruit and vegetable prices.

The rise keeps inflation at a 19-month low of 2.6 percent, well within the Reserve Bank’s target band.

The Reserve Bank last cut interest rates in April 2009. Following a steady climb in 2010, interest rates have stayed on hold since last November.

The last time the Reserve Bank stayed put on Melbourne Cup day was in 2005, midway through the cash rate’s year-long stint at 5.5 percent.

Story source: www.ninemsn.com.au

Fixed term mortgages hit 3.5 year high in October

Basic variable rates were the most popular with new home loan borrowers only 11 months ago, but today they have been far surpassed by ongoing discount rates and fixed rates, according to loan approval data from Mortgage Choice, Australia’s largest independently-owned mortgage broker.

At that time, the no-frills product type accounted for 34% of the broker’s new approvals. Today, this sits at less than 16%, the second lowest point since Mortgage Choice began recording such data in January 2003.

Fixed rates are now more in demand than they have been in well over three years, and although the popularity of ongoing discount rates dropped for the first time in October they remain by far the most popular home loan with new borrowers, accounting for more than 43% of approvals.

Company spokesperson Kristy Sheppard said, “When comparing our October loan approval data to that extracted one year ago, it’s remarkably obvious how much the industry has changed in reacting to subdued housing finance demand and a relatively positive interest rate outlook.”

“Then, basic variable rate was the loan of choice at just over 34% of approvals. Standard variable rate followed with just under 34%, then ongoing discount rate at 17% and fixed rate at 11%.

“That situation has now flipped. New borrowers’ appetite for fixed rate loans is at a three and a half year high of 20% of approvals and ongoing discount rate loans account for 43% of approvals.

“In an environment of rising living costs and economic uncertainty it is unsurprising borrowers are taking advantage of the relatively low fixed rates and attractive variable rate discounts offered by lenders hungry for business.”

The popularity of standard variable, line of credit and introductory rate home loans all fell in October, to 15%, 4% and 1% of approvals respectively. Basic variable demand rose slightly to 16%.

Note: Mortgage Choice currently writes one in 25 new home loans in Australia, equating to approx. $10 billion in approvals per year, hence it provides a clear insight into borrower preferences. The 19 year old mortgage broker has a loan book of over $42 billion.

It can sometimes feel like making earth-friendly choices means spending more money.  Well, the good news is that being green doesn’t have to break the bank. With a little creative thinking, it’s easy to ditch the high prices of trendy eco products and go green at no cost.

Here are the first five of our top 10 ways to go green on the cheap.

1. Head outside
With the warmer months here (in the southern hemisphere anyway), now is the time to get outside and visit your local park or beach to throw a ball, have a picnic, run, jump, swim or simply commune with nature – and it doesn’t cost a cent. Enjoy!

2.  Read online
Rather than buying newspapers and magazines and then having to worry about recycling, try reading online.  It’s easy and simple and most newspapers and magazines have excellent free content.  You might even find that you expand your reading material by checking out the local press in the US, Europe or China. It’s not called the world wide web for nothing!

3. Reuse your packaging
Food packaging can contain plastics and other materials that are very difficult to recycle.  Ditch the cost of freezer bags (and your use of raw materials) by using old food packaging instead. Bags used to package frozen vegetables, fish and meats are equipped with lining that effectively blocks freezer-burn – and they’ll keep frozen foods just as fresh the second time around. The plastic bags inside cereal boxes are also great for freezing foods, as they also have a moisture-blocker to preserve freshness.

Some of these bags already have a re-sealable closure for easy reuse. But bags that aren’t re-sealable can be just as useful for storing your leftovers. Make sure to wash all your packaging well before reusing it.

4. Choose a vege-based meal
We’re not saying that eating meat is bad. But the livestock industry does carry a pretty heavy environmental footprint, causing many earth-lovers to opt for a vegan or vegetarian diet. If you’re not ready for a full commitment, try serving a vegetarian or vegan meal to your family once a week.

5. Participate in a cleanup
If you want to help keep your neighborhood beautiful but don’t have tons of cash, try donating some of your free time instead by participating in a local cleanup. Spending an afternoon at a cleanup gives you a sense of fulfillment, keeps your town clean and helps you meet other eco-minded people in your area.

Visit your local park’s or council’s web site to find an upcoming park, river or beach cleanup near you. If you’re having trouble, a web search with the word “cleanup” and your town’s name should point you in the right direction.

Stay tuned for our next five green tips that won’t break the bank.

For more information on this, please click here

Story source: www.yonderr.com.au