Recent content by Graemsay

The biggest house in London, Russian billionaires, and property development... The New Yorker posted a story on it, which makes for interesting reading. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/01/house-of-secrets There are a few pictures of the property at Forbes...

If Sydney becomes unaffordable to people outside the upper decile of the income spectrum then who's going to do all the important, but not necessarily well paid, jobs? For example, teachers, police, fire fighters, nurses, and paramedics. And where will you find a barista to make your coffee...

The trouble I have with Elon Musk is the cult of personality that surrounds him. For example, he didn't become part of Tesla until several years after it was founded. If you want a different take on that company, then take a look at this article...

A negative interest rate means that the central bank charges for holding deposits. The intention is that it forces institutions to keep money in circulation rather than hoarding it. There's a piece over at Bloomberg explaining it...

The Register has a slightly more cynical take on the announcement. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/04/tesla_powerwall_the_game_change_flavoured_battery/ The real limit that they identify is the peak power output isn't going to run a house unless there are multiple units installed...

Twelve months might be a bit extreme, but the standard advice seems to be to have six months living expenses in cash.

I read a piece earlier that around $75,000 (US) was the point at which further income didn't increase happiness. So maybe $100,000 (AU) is enough. Do you need more than that? Enough to buy a Ferrari, a yacht, or an $18 million watch?

Also have a look at the work Piers Taylor does with Invisible Studio. http://www.invisiblestudio.org/ He's one of the presenters on "The House that ?100K Built". https://au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7/the-house-that-100k-built/ He avoids wet trades in favour of cheap, dry materials. So using...

How about considering a different shape for the extension? A very radical approach was taken by Andrew Marynard with the tower house, which was a collection of smaller buildings. You might not have space in your garden for this...

Macrobusiness have a piece up quoting research by LF Economics (Lindsay Davis and Philip Soos) on the cost of paying the principle of a loan exclusive of the interest costs. http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2015/04/oz-housing-affordability-measured/ The piece isn't that clear, but the point...

Ausprop, I don't think that your friend has to worry too much about Greece. Their total debt is ?315 billion, the EU has a GDP of ?13 trillion. Unless there are a lot of weird derivatives hitched to it, the loss could be absorbed if it was written off. Besides, the UK is insulated to some...

The most expensive words in the English language: "This time is different." :D Prices in Ireland dropped by over 50% during the GFC, and Japan has fallen by far more since its peak. Were Australia to take a hit like that then it'd likely be accompanied by a financial crisis, a run up in...

Inflation hit 0% in the UK recently. I don't know the situation in the US, but I think that the EU is in a state of mild deflation. OK, it's not Australia, but I wouldn't be surprised if the economy follows that trajectory. Typically the base rate is a couple of percentage points above...

My personal take is that Sydney is likely to keep ramping up for longer than any of us Doom and Gloomers expect. We've got low interest rates, unprecedented investor activity, and significant numbers of foreign buyers. So we could see a million dollar median this year. But there's scope for...

This graph was posted by Shadow to disprove any climate change. Err, what about the half degree rise between about 1980 and 2000? :D