Startling new findings released today in the Industry Super Australia’s submission to the Tax Review shows single women will be left the worst off — about 63 per cent will fall $15,000 a year below what is needed to comfortably retire.

ISA’s chief executive officer David Whitely said Australians were faced with the reality of having to work longer or retire with less, and face tight financial circumstances once they enter retirement.

The most recent national figures released for the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia’s retirement standard show a couple looking to achieve a comfortable retirement need about $58,000 a year, and singles need a $43,000

These figures are for today, with inflation and you’re retiring in 20 years double these figures.

Eg a 40 year old today with $200,000 in super on 100k per year will accumulate about 1 million in superannuation by 65. In today’s dollars that’s about $490k…. How long is that going to last??

House prices are still effectively doubling every decade in Australia’s major centres for owners prepared to hold for the long term.

A News Corp Australia analysis of price data going back 36 years shows that the major centres have shown strong and all have increased at least 1100 per cent since 1980.

The REI figures show that anybody who bought and held 20 years ago has doubled their money several times over.

Sydney and Melbourne, now enjoying the latest price booms, are the biggest price long term improvers, up more than 1400 and 1600 percent respectively.

Other capitals haven’t quite doubled in the last 10 years though have trebled in the last 20 years.

I have closely watched many cycles over the last few decades and every city goes through their growth cycle at different times.

That’s why it is rarely a bad time to buy property  for long term if you research and understand the cycles and choose the right location.

MORE homeowners have shelved plans to move house, instead choosing to conduct major renovations on their homes, new data shows. The trend was expected to drive a $1 billion surge in renovation work nationally this year, according to the latest Housing Industry Association Renovations Roundup report. Brisbane to outperform Melbourne Loan stress warning for banks HIA senior economist Shane Garrett said the large pool of owner home equity was driving renovations. It accounted for about 35 per cent of total residential construction last year, with renovations expected to rise 2.5 per cent this year to $31.23 billion nationally. “The recovery in renovations activity is being supported by the environment of remarkably low interest rates and very strong dwelling price growth in key markets,” Mr Garrett said. “In this context, many homeowners have decided to shelve plans to move house and instead conduct major renovations work on their existing homes. The large pool of available home equity has made this possible.” Mr Garrett said with new home building expected to decline in some areas, the ­importance of renovation ­activity would only increase. “The revival in renovations activity will provide a welcome offset to the more challenging situation emerging on the new home building side.” Reality television stars Luke and Cody Cook of House Rules fame, who were in Brisbane yesterday to launch Ribs & Burgers Woolloongabba, won the judges’ acclaim for renovation work on the show.

“We always thought about practicality and then added design later,” Luke told The Courier-Mail. Asked about plans to buy more property, Luke said: “I love my house, I’m not going anywhere.” His twin brother Cody said that after all the renovation work, they had no plans to look at more property as yet. “We want to just enjoy the house we’re in for now,” he said. Originally published as Homeowner equity driving renos

It’s sadly typical of real estate investment that the most popular places for buyers are also the worst places to buy.

Investors are piling en masse into a series of off the plan unit markets that will be the ruination of many people’s wealth dreams. The top five locations in terms of sales volumes are all places that property buyers must avoid.

It’s a commentary on two issues, which are among the core problems for property investors. One is that most investors fail to conduct genuine research before making decisions that involve hundreds of thousands of dollars. The second is that far too many of them think that reading media reports constitute research.

Most of what you read or hear about real estate in mainstream media is misinformation. Most of what you read or hear is press release material (i.e. someone’s propaganda) regurgitated as credible information. There is no journalistic oversight on the material that is published, in most cases.

Among the most dangerous material is “research” which presents lists of, for example, the 10 best places to buy for high rental yields, or the 10 top buyers’ markets in the land, or the locations with the biggest growth in median prices in the past quarter.

These lists are presented by incompetent journalists with the inference that these are the places investors should be buying. It amounts almost to criminal negligence. Those lists of the places with the highest yields or the ones described as the best buyers’ markets in the land comprise places where markets are in serious decline. Many of these markets are basket cases.

Earlier this week we saw a list of the most popular locations for buyers in Australia. These are the suburbs with the highest numbers of sales. The treatment given to this press release material from a publicity-hungry research business inferred that these were all great places to buy. If everyone’s piling into these places, then so should you. The inference is that the herd mentality is a viable method of making investment decisions.

Eight of the top 10 locations on the list were all locations that investors must avoid, if they are to escape a financial disaster. Those eight locations were apartments markets with heavy marketing of off-the-plan high-rise units in locations that already have, or will soon have, serious oversupplies.

The No.1 location in the list was the Melbourne CBD. Most of the 1,500 buyers who have purchased apartments there in the past 12 months will live to regret their decisions. Also on the Top 10 list were neighbouring unit market suburbs, Southbank and South Yarra. This is oversupply central for Australian real estate – a place where unit towers are being built not for local consumption but to be flogged at inflated prices to offshore investors. It won’t end well.

Four of the top 10 places were occupied by unit markets on the Gold Coast, with Surfers Paradise No.2 on the national list. You have to wonder how many people have to lose money in this fools’ paradise before investors get the message to steer clear.

The Gold Coast has just spent five years absorbing the previous surplus of high-rise units, with property values falling in virtually every suburb in Gold Coast City. The median price for Surfers Paradise is still lower today than it was five years ago, but in the past 12 months another 1,255 buyers dived headlong into this investors’ graveyard, even as developers are working hard on creating the next massive over-supply.

The Brisbane CBD, which is working hard to outdo its Melbourne’s counterpart as oversupply central, is No.3 on the list.

The latest research shows that only 10% of sales in the Brisbane inner-city unit market are to owner-occupiers. Investors are buying 90% of the stock and the great majority of them are distant investors – people from interstate and overseas. Many will wish they had left their money in the bank.

Vacancies in Brisbane’s inner-city suburbs range from 4% or 6.5% – and that’s before all the new supply now under construction hits the rental market. BIS Shrapnel research shows that a record number of new apartments will be completed this year, but more will be finished next year and even more the year after. These numbers are a red flag for sensible buyers.

Brisbane, like Melbourne and the Gold Coast, is building far too many apartments because they’re not being created for local consumption – they’re being conceived for sale to unsuspecting foreign buyers.

The developers will be happy because they will sell all their apartments and make lots of money, but the broader market and the people who own properties there will suffer, as high vacancies cause rents to fall, with values to follow.

If you’re an investor driven by the herd mentality or the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) syndrome, then you will dive into these markets. And when you lose money, you will thoroughly deserve it.