Month: February 2008

Sheeting Due to Start Tomorrow

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Well, this will hopefully be fourth time lucky.

Finally today the Gyprock sheeting arrived. The team doing the sheeting is due to start tomorrow, and I’m told that they will only take two days to do all of under the house!

The plasterer will come in after that (hopefully next week) to plaster up all the cornices and joins. He should take longer than the guys doing the sheeting, but not by much.

Delivery of the Gyprock plasterboard was delayed first by our leaking front veranda. Then the delivery got delayed because the Bruce Highway was cut off south of Townsville and the Australia Day long weekend was happening. And then I don’t really know why it was delayed, but the last delay was only for a day.

It will be exciting to see the walls finally go up. Even with the frames up it is hard to judge scale, so with the Gyprock sheeting finally going up it should look good.

I’ll need to make sure to post photos.

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Interest Rate Hike – Could Send 300,000 Out of Their Homes

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The latest interest rate hike here in Australia sets the official interest rate at 7%, which is an 11-year high. Since 2002 interest rates have gone up 2.75%, and it is starting to hit people really hard.

Australia already has a nation wide housing affordability crisis, and this is only adding to the problems. It’s expected that up to 1000 families here in Townsville are expected to default on their home loans. Nation wide that number is expected to be as high as 300,000 for home loan defaults.

This could be only the start of a huge mortgage crisis in Australia this year, with an expected further increase of at least 0.5% at least this year to try to curb inflation here in Australia (ex. grocery bills have increased about 50% since 2000).

When we got our first home loan about 5 and a half years ago we fixed our loan at 5.99%. On this house our current loan was fixed for three years at 6.99%. If we were to re-fix our loan right now and stick with the Bank of Queensland (who we currently use) we would be looking at 8.49%. By the time our current fixed loan ends in September we could be looking at a potential rate of 8.99%! Ouch, that will be quite an increase…

I know that I shouldn’t complain. My parents and Tamara’s parents all lived through the 1980s when housing loan interest rates at 20+ per cent. I heard on a radio show that here in Australia over 35% of the average families wages already goes into their mortgage repayments. The upcoming interest rate hike will increase that percentage even further.

From what I have read there are mixed feeling about how the interest rate hikes will affect house prices. The Townsville Real Estate Market is going gang busters, and has been for a while, but even a place as booming as Townsville is vulnerable to the increases in interest Rates. Only time will tell that I reckon.

Sources:

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One Step Closer to Becoming an Australian

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For those of you who don’t know, I am a Canadian who has living in Australia for nearly 10-years. My wife is and Australian, as are my two kids who were born in the Townsville Hospital.

Today I sat for my Australian Citizenship Test. Before I did the test I read through a free booklet that the Australian government provides, “Becoming an Australian Citizen“. I also did a few sample Australian Citizenship Tests and was quizzed by Tamara on the booklet.

Well, I passed my Australian Citizenship Test with 100%! I’m pretty excited as I have never been a person who enjoys test…

I wrote a bit about actually sitting the test on my personal blog, as well as some links to some sample tests on that site. Here are links to those articles:

Now I’ll be able to send in my application for Australian Citizenship and go from there to eventually a citizenship cerimony.

Townsville Showgrounds Decission – Best All Around

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Last year the Queensland State Government floated the idea of selling off the Townsville Showground to make way for more development near the centre of Townsville. This week though the government announced that they will not be selling the Townsville Showgrounds for redevelopment.

As a resident of West End, Townsville I had mixed feelings about the sale of the Townsvile Showgrounds. In one hand I like having the Showgrounds here, there is a lot of history to it, and it is central for most people in Townsville. At the same time though I was getting fed up with some of the noise, especially from the motor sports and speedway events begin held there.

In backing off the sale of the Townsville Showgrounds the Queensland government also stated that “high-level impact events such as motor sports and outdoor concerts should not be allowed at the (Townsville Showgrounds) site“. The report went on to say that state government land in the Bohle, a mostly industrial part of Townsville, had been identified for a proposed motor sports complex and drive trainer centre.

So as far as I am concerned, it a win both ways. Townsville gets to keep it’s Showgrounds, and there will be a new, suitable facility built for the motor sports.

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