News Archive

07.03.2010
Trends lay the way for big imprint

Innovations in texture, larger dimensions and colour are turning tiles into functional pieces of art, writes Jenny Brown.

As with anything related to fashion, in the world of applied floor and wall surfaces (manufactured porcelain and ceramic tiles rather than stone), the trends are pulling in several directions at once.

The most overt trend is the sheer size of individual tiles. Tiles ar...

05.03.2010
Couples work twice as long for a house

AUSTRALIANS have to work almost three times harder to pay off the average family home than they did 50 years ago.

Figures compiled by CommSec for The Sunday Telegraph reveal homebuyers on the average income now have to work for 19,374 hours to buy the average Australian house with the average mortgage.

Based on an eight-hour day and a five-day working week, that equates to about 10 years ...

03.03.2010
What to consider when selling a vacant house

Most houses are sold before their owners move out, but what happens if you have to move away before your home is sold? Or if you have decided to sell your investment property but the tenants have already moved out?

Selling a vacant house is not as easy as it may seem at first glance. An empty house always looks and feels empty, so is harder for buyers to imagine themselves at home there.

...

03.03.2010
Teacher used TAFE funds to build $30,000 kennel

A CORRUPTION inquiry has heard a TAFE teacher who administered a state government public housing project allegedly used college funds to build a greyhound kennel worth more than $30,000.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating allegations Head Carpentry teacher Garrie Cooper, from Miller TAFE, west of Sydney, asked sub-contractors to submit invoices to TAFE for work do...

03.03.2010
More green lights for eco-friendly buildings

ECONOMIC uncertainty has not derailed Australia's $21 billion green building market: Queensland registered the largest number of projects last year while activity in NSW was worth the most.

Queensland had just under 60 green projects last year, while Victoria was second with 46, followed by NSW with 42. NSW green projects were valued at more than $6 billion, Queensland's were worth just unde...

27.02.2010
Rates to rise next week: survey

Australians should brace for an interest rate rise next week after more than two-thirds of economists surveyed by AAP said a hike was highly likely.

Eleven of the 16 economists surveyed forecast the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will increase the cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point after its board next meets on Tuesday in Sydney.

Five economists said the RBA would keep rates on...

26.02.2010
Power station developers dismiss renewable energy

TWO new fossil fuel power plants that will increase the state's greenhouse gas emissions by between 5 and 15 per cent will move a step closer to construction this week after developers claimed renewable energy cannot feed a growing hunger for electricity.

The carbon emissions from the power stations, which would be added to existing plants at Mount Piper near Lithgow and Bayswater in the Hun...

25.02.2010
Mortgage stress and property prices

Mortgage stress is rising and the media’s favourite property price bear, Professor Steve Keen is still predicting property prices to fall by 40% over the next 10 to 15 years. In the face of the 12% price rise experienced in 2009, according to Keen, the First Home Owner Boost has created a caste of “sacrificial lambs” that enabled Australia to largely avoid the GFC.

He refers to a recent stud...

25.02.2010
Green light for $6b Barangaroo contract

SYDNEYSIDERS will have a new place to live, shop and reside in 2014, with the NSW government authorising the $6 billion contract for commercial development of Barangaroo at East Darling Harbour.

The signing today follows Lend Lease's winning bid to build Barangaroo's southern commercial precinct, with construction set to start this year and the first stage targeted for completion in 2014.

...

24.02.2010
Scheme not paying the rent

The federal government is getting battered over claims of budget blow-outs for its Green Loans scheme and mismanagement of the subsidised home insulation program. Now it seems another federal program, the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS), is looking wobbly.

The $623 million scheme aims to increase dramatically the supply of rental homes nationwide by giving investors an $86,000 ta...