That is what we should be doing on this thread, looking at all those influences and assisting each other in seeking opportunities for financial betterment. Isn't that what Hotcopper is supposed to be about?
Let me say that we never have a time when we don't have competing influences, we need to assess the relative impact of those influences so we can better forecast future events.
I do think we will go further down the line of less persons per household. I think this because as boomers retire we see a corresponding rise in divorce rates and an increase in singe person households. We are also seeing less children per family than we saw 20 years ago.
The migrant intake although increasing is also selective. It is filling holes in the labour market and will tend towards skilled and economic (cashed up) migrants.
I tend to agree that fuel costs will have an impact but rather than focus on inner-city I would focus on public transport (train stations) as my means of filtering property choices.
Knowledge workers can work from home but what percentage of the population do they represent? Retail, manufacturing, mining, tourism personnel still (largely) need to be on site.
I tend to think that demand for smaller premises close to trains stations, parks and gardens and bodies of water raises your odds of outperforming other property investment in terms of ROI (please note I am not talking about median price rises but capital growth vs your input costs when I talk about out-performing).
Think in terms of a decade rather than a year, that is the key.
