Theresa Worrell: Weekend reads – Must read articles from the last week

There are more interesting articles, commentaries and analyst reports on the Web every week than anyone could read in a month.

Each Saturday morning I like to share some of the ones I’ve read during the week.

The weekend will be over before you know it, so enjoy some weekend reading…and please forward to your friends by clicking the social link buttons.

How Melbourne turned into an apartment epicentre in just 20 years

A lot has changed about our lifestyle over the last 20 years; mobile phones have become a way of life, google has replaced almost all sources of knowledge, and if you live in Melbourne – apartments are all the rage – but why?

An article on Domian.com.au looks at the Melbourne’ apartment market transformation to understand the reason behind the boom.

Little more than 20 years ago, Melbourne’s apartment market was virtually non-existent.

The Great Australian Dream of a three-bedder with a backyard was alive and well.

The Rialto was the city’s tallest skyscraper and it was home to offices, certainly not apartments.

So how did Melbourne become an epicentre of vertical living?

It kicked off in 1994 when residents moved into the eight-storey Karl Fender designed Melbourne Terrace – a virtual low-rise by today’s standards.

On the corner of Franklin and Queen streets near the Queen Victoria Market, the 25 metre-high building signalled the start of what marketing departments now call “sky living”.

The St Kilda Road precinct took up the trend with the swanky Melburnian, at 23 storeys, in 2001 and the prestigious 42-level Royal Domain Tower in 2005.

Powered by international buyers, ambitious architects and a shift in the way we look at what makes a house a home, Melbourne embraced apartment living.

It is quite literally a city on the up.

A godfather of CBD residential development, Max Moar recalls the warnings he was given while developing the former police headquarters on the corner of Russell and Latrobe streets.

“The general consensus was it was oversupplied and the city would never work with so many apartments and so on,” he says.

“What makes the great cities of the world great is the fact that people live in it. Melbourne on the weekends used to be dead, unless you went to a show or a movie there was nothing else in Melbourne. No shops open, nothing.

“Now the city is full of residential development and people live in the city, the city has come alive.”

Daniel Novakovik, 38, and partner Monica Zhang, 35, will soon move into the penthouse at The Evermore – a 24-level tower on Dorcas Street, Southbank.

It will become the eighth apartment they own and certainly the most opulent.

“Essentially it’s a house in the sky,” Daniel says.

Read the full article here

Always have an ‘exit’ + A guaranteed path to wealth + Beware of ‘invisible issues’

Another great Real Estate Talk show produced by Kevin Turner.

Michael Yardney discusses what Donald Trump can teach you some lessons about success, about life, business and property.

Cate Bakos discusses some ‘invisible’ property investment issues

Michael Sloan looks at the formula to successful property investing

Warren Gibson talks about the concept of ‘fractional financing’.

Andrew Wilson shares his mid-term 2017 property report card

If you don’t already subscribe to this excellent weekly internet based radio show do so now by clicking here.

Data deluge!

When it comes to lending – what’s really going on?

This Blog by Pete Wargen t shows the statistics behind the results.

Lending composition changes

A veritable heap of data out this week, so let’s have a look at a couple of releases that relate to the housing market, in a very brief 60-second blog post.

Firstly, APRA’s quarterly residential figures showed that interest-only loans have pulled back, but at more than 36 per cent of new residential loans they will still need to fall some way over the months ahead in order to get down to the 30 per cent supervisory cap.

Plenty more work for lenders to do here to fall into line.

High loan to value ratio (LVR) lending, meanwhile, has fallen to the lowest level on record, with loans of above 90 per cent LVR down to just 7.7 per cent of new loans, having peaked at 21.3 per cent in December 2008.

‘Low-doc’ loans, non-standard loans, and mortgages outside serviceability are now also tracking at historic lows of just 2.2 per cent of the market, despite a recent marked uptick in the writing of low-docs.

This all means that life has become very much tougher for first homebuyers, while home owners with equity have often been able to refinance 20 per cent deposits and buy more property in their stead.

Read the full article here

Buy vs. rent – finance expert weighs in on how you should decide

To buy or to rent – that is the question!

So what is the right answer?

Finance experts give their view in this article from Business Insider.

market property puzzle sell

Jean Chatzky is a personal finance expert, Senior Editor at The Balance, and coauthor of the book “Age Proof.”

Here Chatzky shares things to keep in mind when choosing to rent or buy a home.

When should you buy a home and when should you rent?

You should buy when you’re planning on being somewhere for at least a good few years and when you’ve looked at the cost calculus and it makes sense for you to put money into a home.

It’s not just the mortgage payment.

You’ve got to remember that.

There are other costs to homeownership that come along for the ride.

There’s maintenance which can eat up 1 to 2% a year.

There’s taxes.

There’s insurance.

There’s lawn care if you’ve got a lawn.

There’s snow removal if you’ve got a driveway.

There are things that you may not be counting on.

The flipside of that is that if you look at appreciation in most markets, home prices are expected to continue to appreciate at a little bit above the rate of inflation so that’s good.

It doesn’t make it a killer investment but it makes it a supplemental way to save.

If you expect that you’re going to be some place for a long time and you want to build up a supplemental savings account, paying off a mortgage is a really, really good way to do that.

To have a lump sum that then you can take and invest in another property, when you decide that you’re going to move.

Read the full article here

11 signs you will be a millionaire

Are you destined for richness?

According to an article on cnbc.com there’s 11 signs to help predict if you are on your way to wealth.

Do you invest consistently? Have a part-time job? Are you persistent? Decisive?

If so, you could be on track to become a millionaire.

Of course, everyone’s situation is different, but if these routines, habits and personality traits describe you, you’re doing something right.

Here are 11 signs you could be on your way to striking it rich.

You have multiple streams of income

As author Thomas C. Corley found in his five-year study of self-made millionaires, the rich “do not rely on one singular source of income,” he writes in “Change Your Habits, Change Your Life.”

“Sixty-five percent had at least three streams of income that they created prior to making their first million dollars,” Corley says, such as real-estate rentals, a side hustle or a part-time job.

You save to invest

“Investing money is how you will get super rich,” says self-made millionaire Grant Cardone.

“The only reason to save money is to one day invest money.”

You surround yourself with high-achieving people

“You are only as successful as those you frequently associate with,” Corley says.

You’re decisive

After studying over 500 millionaires, journalist and author Napoleon Hill found that they’re decisive.

You’re open-minded

“The person with a ‘closed’ mind on any subject seldom gets ahead,” writes Hill.

You have specific goals for your money.

If you know exactly what you want, you’re one step closer to achieving whatever it is you’re aiming for.

You’re persistent

“Most of us are good ‘starters’ but poor ‘finishers’ of everything we begin,” Hill writes.

You talk about ideas, not things

“Millionaires are creative,” says Keith Cameron Smith.

You prefer books

The rich “would rather be educated than entertained,” Siebold writes in “How Rich People Think.”

You’re comfortable taking calculated risks

While the middle class lives in fear of risking too much, millionaires know when to go for it, says Smith.

You think big

If you set your expectations exceptionally high and are up for any challenge, you’re on the right track.