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New Data-Matching Technology to Scrutinise Property Sales

property salesATO’s newest weapon against tax evasion – data-matching technology. 10.4 million taxpayers will face scrutiny regarding their residential and commercial property sales with the Australian Tax Office. ATO is more than eager to implement their high-tech data gathering computer systems worth $800 million.

Larry Schlesinger from Property Observer highlights the things that this new data-matching technology can do to ensure that taxpayers are paying their taxes correctly. With the help of this new technology, ATO can gather large amount of data and “slice-and-dice” that data to get the information they need.

Last year, the technology was used to help ATO analyse 649 million transactions according to the Australian Financial Review. ATO’s implementation plan for this new technology is for 7 years. Surely, more and more transactions will be scrutinised over that period of time.

Read the whole article here to know more about how powerful this new technology is.

What do you think of this new technology?

Australia’s Property Market Update

property market updateProperty Market Update February 2013

The Australian Bureau of Statistics finally released the housing finance data for the month of February. Tim Lawless, head of RP Data research team, highlights the important parts of the newly release housing finance data. Lawless mentions the significant increase in the number of owner occupier commitments.

Although the 2% monthly increase was significant, there’s only a 1.5% increase yearly. This increase, according to Lawless, was caused by a 6.8% increase in new loan commitments compared to the -8.1% decrease in refinance commitment.

There’s only a 5.3% increase in the value of owner occupier finance commitments year-on-year in comparison with the 15.4% rise of investment loan commitments. This new property market update indicates that there are more investors who demand for housing finance than owner occupiers.

You can read the whole article here.

Smoking in the House Reduces Home Value

If you are a smoker, chances are you might end up significantly reducing the value of your property. I was glancing through a survey report by Pfizer Canada which revealed that smoking inside residential premises can shrink the resale price of homes by up to 29%. Pfizer Canada is a pharmaceutical organization whose products encourage users to quit smoking. The survey commenced on 31st January and concluded on 6th February.

Astonishing facts from the study:

  • As many as 401 participants in the survey who were real estate agents acknowledged that it is tougher to sell house whose inhabitants were smokers.
  • Home owners lose up to $107,000 on a residence located in Ontario, where the average resale value of homes is presently $369,000(!)
  • About 56% of the participants agreed that majority of buyers would dislike homes which have been previously occupied by smokers. Similarly, about 26% of the respondents asserted that most buyers would vehemently oppose purchasing homes belonging to smokers!
  • Nearly half of the participants said that smoking inside homes adversely impacts resale valuation of properties.
  • According to other respondents, smokers stain walls and carpets of homes, besides leaving a foul stench.

I am not sure if the impact of smoking on your home value is quite as drastic as this study makes it. Pharmaceuticals are well known to have a way with numbers and statistics. Nonetheless there now is (yet another) reason to quit smoking.

Addressing infrastructure issues is key to Sydney’s future development

The key to Sydney’s future development lies in dealing with infrastructure issues

Sydney has to achieve growth and expansion for the sake of future generations writes Martin Bregezzo in a new article for the Property Observer. There have been several promises as how easy and affordable it is to build half a million new homes. But the reality is very different. The current average of 17,290 dwellings being constructed annually over the past 5 years is nowhere enough when the actual figures should be somewhere near 25,000 dwellings per year.

Government and Public departments must put in accumulative efforts in building the foundations of proper infrastructures to enable Sydney’s future growth.

  • Making approval processes move faster.
  • Bringing a common point in order to handle local affordability for various sections of the market.
  • Reducing LGAs.
  • Complete removal of developer and transaction tariffs.
  • High density clustered around transport nodes is an integral element of successful urban development.
  • In order to achieve human right to shelter for the future generations, re-evaluation of community participation in providing approvals is important.
  • Government role must be strengthened and corrected in view of the current land acquisition process.

Planning in the interest of the people is the only option in Sydney’s future development. The infrastructure must be available for the people and communities (including those living in marginal borders of Sydney) and it needs to be planned for and addressed now.

Read the full article here.

Money and Behavior in the Business World

money and behaviorBrian Tracy, one of the world’s renowned speaker and personal development coach, tackles in his recent blog post the influence of money to human behavior in the business world. Tracy, having dealt with a lot of people, concludes that people view money as their ticket to freedom. By freedom they mean having enough money to stop worrying about safety, security, respect, love, and fulfillment. Accumulating wealth is considered as the direct route to having a good life.

The search for money usually go hand in hand with the search for power. Accumulation of money can be easily done if one has power. Power to control people to do things you want them to regardless of their own beliefs. Power to control resources as well as money to accumulate more. Power can be attained by producing results in the business world. When you increase a company’s assets by bringing in money, your authority and power increases along with your role in the business.

Tracy points out that it is crucial to carry yourself appropriately in order to be taken seriously in the finance world.

You can read the whole article here.

Although people know that money isn’t everything, they understand that achieving their financial goals is an essential part of living in our modern world.  Money can’t buy everything and it is not an end in itself. But money sure is great for the things that money can buy, and we can all get it – if we know the rules of the game and learn to play it well.

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