Opinion | Our Bondi pad: A snapshot of generational betrayal as it sells for seven times what we paid
Twenty-seven years ago this week, I had to have my arm twisted to buy a home. Surely a one-bedroom flat in stinky old Bondi – without parking – couldn’t ever go higher than an extortionate $164,000. I wanted to wait until prices came down, but was manhandled into the purchase.
The intergenerational property divide is the deepest and meanest wedge in Australian society; as it deepens further, it is changing our country in ways that we are nowhere near reckoning with.Rebounding interest rates, which rose by 0.5 per cent this week with plenty more to come, will punish the young, and others outside the golden property circle, for a boom that they have not been part of. After getting few of the benefits, they will get all of the pain.
Second, tens of thousands of home owners use their redraw facility for consumption. Drawing down from the mortgage, or “eating the house”, is a luxury for those watching their house prices go up, aggravates the relative disadvantage of those not able to do so, and contributes to the inflation that will now punish everyone equally, whether they own a house or not. Nice work if you can get it.
Pollyanna creep entrenches intergenerational inequity even more when interest rates finally have to catch up. Only those who are living off their savings will benefit from rising rates … and guess what, that excludes the young too.Australians are ahead of their policymakers in knowing this – hence the derision for Scott Morrison’s “you’ve never had it so good” line on the economy.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Part-time pay, full-time super: How one company aims to close the gapEnergyAustralia is addressing the gender super gap by paying new parents who return to work part-time a full-time super benefit until their child turns five.
Read more »
Part-time pay, full-time super: How one company aims to close the gap“Knowing that I will also not be disadvantaged by returning to work part-time definitely makes me feel a lot more secure,” says Cassandra Beswick, whose son, Kendrick, was born in May.
Read more »
Coalminers say they’re in the dark about looming royalty hike in QueenslandTreasurer Cameron Dick says miners will pay more tax on each tonne of coal sold next financial year
Read more »
Twenty years on from Avril Lavigne’s Let Go, it’s time to agree that mall-punk is the best musicThe mall-punk era was beautiful, but we took it for granted.
Read more »
How would you separate these bowls? The question that grabbed the internetNew York-based artist Chi Nguyen, after many attempts to separate two bowls that had become stuck together, pleaded for help on social media. Who cares, right? Well, many, many people, apparently. Her post was retweeted 30,000 times in a day
Read more »
Twenty years on from Avril Lavigne’s Let Go, it’s time to agree that mall-punk is the best musicTwenty years on from Avril Lavigne’s Let Go, it’s time to agree that mall-punk is the best music | Robert Moran
Read more »