Sydney Morning Herald (July 6)
“Property prices could fall by more than initially feared as the Reserve Bank ratchets up official interest rates to fight surging inflation…. Property watchers were already forecasting price falls of between 15 and 20 per cent in Sydney and Melbourne.” It now looks increasingly likely the price declines will be even steeper.
Tags: 15–20%, Falls, Forecasting, Interest rates, Melbourne, Price, Property prices, Ratchets up, Reserve Bank, Steeper, Surging inflation, Sydney
Bloomberg (May 29)
The Asia-Pacific region “has gone from leader to laggard.” Until recently, APAC fared remarkably well at averting the worst of the pandemic. Now, in contrast, as “New York and London reopen, Singapore and Taipei are in semi-lockdown. Melbourne joined them this week. On May 24, the U.S. State Department added Japan to its ‘Level 4: Do Not Travel’ advisory list.” The “failure to get shots into arms fast enough has in some cases triggered swift and unexpected reversals of fortune that carry significant economic implications.”
Tags: APAC, Economic implications, Japan, Laggard, Leader, Lockdown, London, Melbourne, New York, Pandemic, Reopen, Reversals, Singapore, Taipei, U.S.
Sydney Morning Herald (July 13)
“The Grenfell tower fire in London has opened the eyes of the world to the dangers of building with materials that do not conform to safety standards.” But this comes three years after Australia’s “own wake-up call…when fire ripped through Melbourne’s Lacrosse building.” Since then “all the solutions to the problem have been presented by expert bodies to the Senate inquiry,” yet not enough has been done. An “audit of apartment buildings undertaken by the Victorian Building Authority has shown that half contained non-compliant materials.” It is “time for governments to advance from talking and thinking to actually doing something.”
Tags: Dangers, Experts, Fire, Grenfell, Lacrosse building, London, Melbourne, Non-compliant materials, Safety standards
