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It’s Green for the property market

As we enter into the fifth month of 2011, are you wondering whether the market is going to gain traction and build upon some early positive signs? Positive key drivers are indicating that we are now in one of the most important selling periods of some time. What are the 8 key drivers that are making 2011 a strong year in property? Read on to get McGrath’s in depth Market Review for Autumn 2011.

This Property Pays You – Roma Qld Property of the Month
We’ve scoured the Australian investment property market and found it, an investment property that will pay you from day one.
Roma in South Western Queensland is a small town offering big opportunities with high rental yield and good capital growth potential.
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Now with a positively geared property to add to your portfolio you could build on your strategy to pay off your mortgage sooner. Roma offers the benefits of long term growth and high rental yields. A well connected town, the urban centre is also a regional hub boasting schools, retail and other essential community services. Roma also has a relatively low unemployment rate of around 3% with property occupancy rates below 1%
With a population around 7,000 people, Roma is also located in the Suarat Basin in the western Darling Downs area of Queensland approximately 480kms WNW from Brisbane. It is situated at the junction of the Warrego and Carnarvon highways and is the centre of a rich pastoral and wheat-growing district.
The local agriculture industry is worth approximately $620 million annually, 64.3% being generated from crops. 58.7% of businesses in the Maranoa are in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, which employs 32.7% of the region’s workforce.
But the industry mix is changing.  The “mining boom” is creating towns that are producing exceptional
rent and capital growth. The Queensland Resource Council estimates more than 18,000 new jobs will be created in coal seam, gas and LNG industries and another 23,000 in the minerals sector.
Since 1906 natural gas from the local area was used for lighting in Roma. The industry is now expanding exponentially, particularly with coal seam gas.
Origin Energy’s Spring Gully Coal Seam Gas Development is located about 80 km north of Roma and its projects include an 87 km gas pipeline to Roma’s neighbour town of Wallumbilla, Queensland to connect with the 434 km Roma-to-Brisbane gas pipeline hub there.
The Proposed Spring Gully Power Station is an $870 Million, 1000MW power station will provide electricity to South-East Queensland.
If you prefer positively geared property to balance out your portfolio, contact us quickly as there are a limited number of these properties available. In the fields below leave your name and phone number – this will be sent to our private server and we will be in contact.
Add Roma to your portfolio today.

This Property Pays You – Roma Qld Property of the Month

We’ve scoured the Australian investment property market and found it, an investment property that will pay you from day one.

Roma in South Western Queensland is a small town offering big opportunities with high rental yield and good capital growth potential.

The sub prime market in America caused all sorts of problems for the lending marker world wide, raising the cost of lending for lenders and of course increasing interest rates for the average borrower.
But the low doc market in Australia did not cause the same issues locally as the sub prime market did in the US. Why?
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In short the Australian Reserve Bank knew about the American sub prime market and long prior to banks being able to offer low doc loans was able to put a watch on the market and keep it under control.
“The term ‘Low Doc’ came about because borrowers need fewer documents to apply for a loan. Rather than provide payslips or tax returns, a borrower can simply state what their income is, a process called “self-verification”. Low-doc loans are primarily for self-employed people with limited records of their income.”
One of the controls over the low doc market has been the Australian Taxation Office. Unlike the IRS in America, the ATO has been watching the low doc market for people who understate the income on tax records for tax purposes and then ’self determine’ their income to be higher for the lender. With this stand over tactic the low doc market has not had the same free reign.
Back around 2005-7 when the low doc market was booming the Reserve Bank was more concerned about borrowers who used low-doc loans to overstate their income and get their hands on more money.
“In its biannual Financial Stability Review, early 2005, the Reserve put low-doc lending on its watch list, citing it then as a potential threat to the banking system.” This action perhaps protected many Australian property investors and home owners from the credit crunch that took hold from late 2008.
The rural / regional banks in Australia, perhaps desperate to increase their market share, were the major protagonists of low doc lending. Banks such as the Adelaide Bank was at one stage lending over 30% on low doc with Suncorp around 10% with the majors staying somewhat in single digits.
Today, in Australia, to be able to apply for a low doc loan you must be able to secure 20% of the equity yourself. Banks will no longer lend above this amount on a low doc loan giving the borrower and the lender a healthy buffer against loss. If you look on the Portfolios Property site you will see in each of our property deals we supply both low doc and full doc scenarios with lenders requiring 20% or more equity for low doc.
The lenders also manage the risk by requiring mortgagees to take out lenders insurance. Mortgage insurance protects the lender from default and can cost over $10,000 on an average loan.
The financial difficulty and bankruptcy clauses in the US has allowed them to become a nation of entrpreneurs, but has also made it too easy to default. The ‘get out’ clauses in Australia are much tougher than in the US. While lenders here went on a spending spree in similar proportions to America, the regulatory constraints of getting out of your debt in Australia is much tougher than overseas. In America lenders in many instances were simply walking away from the properties leaving the keys in the door and sometimes within months were back in another mortgage again.
Having a glut of properties worth nothing, with hge mortgages over them, and no one to buy them stung the American, and world financial system hard. This situation hasnt been and is unlikely to be repeated in Australia with tighter controls.
We recommend you review your loan types with Portfolios – low doc loans are still available and in the right conditions can be very profitable.
Contact Portfolios for more information.

The sub prime market in America caused all sorts of problems for the lending marker world wide, raising the cost of lending for lenders and of course increasing interest rates for the average borrower. We examined this in our last article on the sub prime market.

But the low doc market in Australia did not cause the same issues locally as the sub prime market did in the US.

Why?

We are constantly being asked why we put so much of a focus on Queensland when there are great deals around the country in property investment.
Ar Portfolios we scour the entire Australian property investment market, and will be bringing some properties in other areas soon.
In this article we will show you why Queensland show great potential in property investment and why we have chosen to offer such a large proportion of our property selection here.
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Firstly you will you note that all Portfolios Property is measured against our strict property selection criteria. In selecting these properties only properties scoring more than 15 out of 20 even make our short list, with the majority of our offering being 18 or above. See our previous article on property selection.
When we show you Queensland’s benefits, perhaps you might ask yourself – when looking at your potential investment – whether the area you are investing in stacks up.
What About Queensland?
The real Gross Domestic Product growth in Queensland is the highest in the country. When placed on the international stage, GDP in Queensland even out performs global competitors like UK, USA and Japan. This is staggering for one state. Much of this is on the back of the resources sector but there is also heavy expenditure right across the state in infrastructure.
Following on from above, Queensland is home to the largest public infrastructure spending program in Australia’s history. You only have to take a drive through Brisbane to see the massive expenditure taking place, but outside of the metro areas ports, roads and rail are being constantly upgraded to meet the growing market.
Queensland is home to a growing young and entrepreneurial workforce fueled by numerous world-class educational institutions. In step with this is Australia’s fastest growing consumer market, being buoyed by the relatively young affluent population. Not to be outdone many parts of Queensland are experience growth in the retirement market with favourable climate and low cost of living.
In terms of trade and economy, Queensland has the 2nd highest number of international arrivals into Australia behind Sydney. The East Coast now known as Australia’s trade coast – connects Queensland to global markets (through many ports including Gladstone, Cairns) There are over 127,000 businesses and the number is growing daily.
Queensland has been ranked by KPMG as one of the world’s mos cost-competitive locations. With the fastest growing population in Australia – major domestic inward migration – as well as from outside Australia, it is unlikely property prices will stop growing in the near future.
So there you have it – we believe Queensland is a great market for property investors. We encourage you to consider your next investment in Queensland and as always are happy to discuss your unique requirements and investment strategy to help your investment property portfolio grow.

We are constantly being asked why we put so much of a focus on Queensland when there are great deals around the country in property investment.

At Portfolios we scour the entire Australian property investment market, and will be bringing other property opportunities from other states, but it is true, we have seen the most potential to date in Queensland.

In this article we will show you why Queensland show great potential in property investment and why we have chosen to offer such a large proportion of our property selection here.

Renovating an investment property for income gains, if done well, is one of the single most satisfying and financially rewarding things you could achieve in property investment.

In this second article we give you further insight into making property renovation a great opportunity for you.