The Block is rigged so that the competitors seem to always make money. Did you know in the last season that the producers set the reserves over $1.3 mill below what they initially paid for the apartments. Add in the cost of all the renovations and to claim that the winners all made hundreds of thousands of dollars is a farce. But I guess the average TV viewer in Oz is just not that bright.
Now if they did it in Perth next year - we may not even get any bids. In fact I wonder if they will do another season. It will be interesting to see if they give it another go in 2016.
Perth Housing Correction Just The Beginning of the Crash
Perth property market 'feels just like a recession'
The high vacancy rate in Perth has been attributed to large reductions in office requirements by the under-pressure mining sector and affiliated businesses.
Agents are offering large incentives to fill office vacancies in Perth.
Perth is awash with vacant offices, while its stagnant housing market "feels just like a recession", property experts have warned.
Property Council of Australia executive director Joe Lenzo said the inner-city office vacancy rate was now about 16 per cent and would be about 20 per cent by year's end.
"Right now it's a tenant's market, no question about it," Mr Lenzo said.
"It's not going to get any better any time soon."
The high vacancy rate has been attributed to large reductions in office requirements by the under-pressure mining sector and affiliated businesses such as engineering and human resources companies.
EXCEPTIONAL INCENTIVES
Agents are offering exceptional incentives to get tenants into vacant city offices.
Private education company Navitas recently moved its main offices from Mount Pleasant, south of the city, onto the main financial strip on St Georges Terrace.
Navitas chief executive Rod Jones said the rent was comparable to what the company was paying at the much older offices.
"Everything you see around you was done for free – a $5 million fit-out," Mr Jones said.
Residential rents are also falling. Perth residential vacancy rates have risen to 4.9 per cent, according to the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA), just three years after an emerging rental crisis occurred in Perth where vacancy rates dipped below 0.7 per cent.
BUYER'S MARKET
The number of houses, units and blocks of land for sale in metropolitan Perth has now surpassed 14,000.
Most property experts believe equilibrium is achieved in Perth's residential market when there are about 12,000 properties on the market, which means it has swiftly transitioned from a seller's market to a buyer's market in less than a year.
Craig Kelson, of Kelson Real Estate in Carlisle, south of Perth, said many sellers were pricing their $500,000 to $600,000 homes about 5 per cent too high.
"You have to price a home spot on or people won't even turn up to the home open," Mr Kelson said.
"It feels just like a recession."
MOST PAIN
Given there has been a spate of building activity that has only recently subsided, some of the most pain is being felt among those who subdivided properties and are trying to now offload several identical homes into a subdued market.
Western Australia is about to enter its third consecutive year of shrinking state final demand, which measures consumption and investment but not exports. The resource-rich state's strong level of exports means it is not in recession, even if parts of the market have recession characteristics.
Bankwest chief economist Alan Langford said the loss of high-paid jobs in the state was affecting spending.
"We have been hit by the loss of the high-wage jobs that go with the construction phase of mining projects," Mr Langford said.
"You are seeing that in reduced household consumption."
Perth's median house price is about $550,000, according to REIWA, which is the same price it has hovered at for about the past 18 months. This compares with the rapid price increases being experienced in Sydney and Melbourne.
