BUILDING LAWS PUSH UP PRICES

NEWLY elected councils on Queensland´s Gold and Sunshine coasts have foreshadowed tough restrictions on developers, prompting warnings that already high property prices will rise.

UK Property Market Gets Creative

HOW do you sell in a housing slump? With economic forecasts making homebuyers increasingly reluctant to dip into the UK property market, house builders are working overtime to woo them back, says Sheila Prophet in The Telegraph.

MELBOURNE PROPERTY PRICES FALL

MELBOURNE´S median house price has fallen two per cent in the first two months of 2008, as rising interest rates and sharemarket woes slow property market growth.

HOUSE PRICES MAY STILL RISE

HOUSE prices are expected to rise by as much as 40 per cent across the country during the next five years, according to economic forecaster BIS Shrapnel.

STOCKBROKER COLLAPSE

FALLOUT from the first collapse of an Australian stockbroker in a decade will hang over financial markets today, as the banks behind Opes Prime order the sale of more shares in an effort to recover $1 billion in loans to the failed business.

BANKS FORCED TO WAIVE LOANS

ONE of Australia´s biggest banks has admitted giving unaffordable personal loans to Sudanese refugees, including some with no job, no English and no concept of finance.

WEEKEND AUCTIONS TAKE A HAMMERING

INTEREST rate hikes have bitten the property market around the country, with weekend auction clearance rates continuing to weaken.

HOUSE PRICES MAY STILL RISE

HOUSE prices are expected to rise by as much as 40 per cent across the country during the next five years, according to economic forecaster BIS Shrapnel.