Sydney is an expensive place to live. It’s probably far more expensive than it should be as it’s not that good a place in which to live.

It’s certainly much better than most places in the world. That’s something that I cannot deny. However, Sydney seems to be a place of posturing. It has plenty of good things, but it doesn’t live up to it’s own hype, or that of the people who blindly give it love.

When it comes to expense, the Sydney housing market is pretty bad if you’re looking to live close to the C.B.D.

Recently whilst I was at work I was unlucky enough to overhear a conversation about how expensive it is to buy a house in Sydney, mostly because I needed the help of someone who was involved in said conversation. There was talk about how expensive it was to buy in Sydney (which it is), so whilst I was there and due to working in home loans for seven years, I threw in a few words.

It wasn’t long before the person complaining the hardest mentioned that they had an investment property and how they were getting help with getting it made worth more money.

One of the problems as to why Sydney is so expensive to buy a property in is due to how easy it is to purchase an investment property and sell it off for a decent profit. Much of the interest in investing is generated due to being able to run a property at a loss (sometimes involving keeping a property intentionally empty) to be able to claim it on tax.

Admittedly it’s only one of many problems, but it’s a problem nonetheless. Taking up property that other people might want to buy to move into and therefore lowering the availability of houses is utterly crap behaviour. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with looking to invest in property. I support the idea. However, I think that if you’re going to do it, then you should at the least rent a place out so that there’s a bit more availability. Housing prices will still go up and you’ll still make a profit. There”s nothing wrong with wanting to maximise profit either, but when it comes to the detriment of everyone else who might be looking to get a home and there’s a significant demand for entering the housing market, you’re kind of an asshole.

Anyway, I clarified that they had an investment property and after they confirmed, I said “You know you’re part of the problem, right?”. The response was that they wanted to make money for themselves.

I would like to believe that if you’re going to complain about how expensive it is to buy in an expensive place and also talk about  how you’ve got a place that you’ve purchased and are renovating to make more expensive, then you void your right to complain about how much it costs to purchase a place, the most obvious reason that comes to my mind being that you want the housing prices to go up and the second-most obvious reason being that you’re actively choosing to be a part of the problem.

Eventually, after the conversation moved onto why property was expensive, a brief discussion on renting being less expensive than buying (I’ll concede that it’s “wasted” money, but be that as it may, unless you really want to spend a long time with little money [or you make enough money that it doesn’t matter too much] it is generally much better to rent), and  being roughly told that I didn’t know what I was talking about, the conversation got to a point where property in Sydney being so expensive is due to foreign investors.

Foreign investment has little impact on the housing market in Sydney. It’s really easy to blame it when it’s only a tiny bit and it because it deflects any personal responsibility.

Well, that’s my rant for the day.