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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zardnaar" data-source="post: 8369735" data-attributes="member: 6716779">Are taxes calculated on the value of the property?  Contributing factor here is the local councils keep rates low and there's no capital gains tax. If you bought in the 90's for 100-200k and sell now for 1.5-2 million it's tax free. The rates paid to the local council do go up but successive councils have kept them as low as possible while racking up debt.  The government has put togather a 2.5 billion dollar bailout but is looking at merging things. So you have large sections with old villas on them built pre 1940's within walking distance of the CBD now worth millions of dollars. Population has increased 60%bsince 1980 or so but they haven't really built any new infrastructure since then either at least in terms of what's needed.  Ney result some areas have century+ old pipes which break a lot. One council got overruled by central government and they sidelined them with appointed officials to run the city (at huge expense the city pays for).  Of course the various councils like gumming up the works for development, virtually no one votes in local body elections (10% turnout iirc).  I had a friend who's father was tied in with the local business roundtables. Essentially they picked the major basically by going "well boys who wants to run this time". So basically deregulation in 80's combined with unsustainable population growth = big mess.  My younger D&D players basically said they're screwed and ones a medical student and doctors aren't exactly poor.  One person was asking for advice on where/how to buy with a 150k deposit. He needed 40% deposit and there's virtually no where you can buy at 350k. Of course if you have a spare 3 million dollars (or 30) you can visit in December, get residency in January and gain access to healthcare by March.</blockquote>

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