THE Real Estate Institute has warned homeowners to keep up to speed on the tax laws after one homeowner was hit with a surprise land tax bill of $14,000.
Real Estate Institute of Tasmania president Martin Harris said the property owner had left the home to go interstate for family reasons but did not want to leave their home vacant and insecure for insurance and peace of mind reasons.

“Friends stayed at the property for a nominal rent and did the right thing by completing a rental bond form,” he said.

“After a six-month period the owner was promptly billed land tax for over $

Terri has joined our ever expanding Property Management Department. Terri comes to us with a wealth of industry experience and will be a great asset to Your Address and all our clients.

THEY are often accused of wanting it all now, so how can members of Generation Y save a deposit for their first home?

Resi Mortgage Corporation chief executive Lisa Montgomery says with a plan of attack, it is possible.

Firstly, put aside the flash car, latest mod-cons and lavish trips overseas.
“If you are a first-home buyer and you are really serious about what you want to achieve financially, it’s best to take a really good look and do a personal audit on what your incoming and outgoing costs look like,” Montgomery says.

“If moving home is an option, move home. If it

Have you ever noticed that regardless of which particular industry caused a nation to prosper at any given time, the wealth of a nation always ends up sitting in its residential properties? It has been estimated that around 70% of an industrial nation’s wealth exists within its residential properties. You can test this yourself, by looking around at 10 of your friends and family and see where their wealth is. You will quickly discover that the majority of their wealth is in their home, regardless of what line of work they do. History reveals you will see new industries come and go, in cy

The Reserve Bank of Australia board has cut the official interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.25 per cent, giving mortgage holders and borrowers a chance of a pre-Christmas reprieve. Now lets hope that all lenders pass on the full interest rate cut to their clients.

Next time you are making a cup of coffee in the morning, spare a thought that you are dealing with a potential fuel of the future.

It’s not just aroma – in Britain, engineers have built a car that runs entirely on coffee beans and broke the world speed record for a car powered by organic waste.

In September, a modified Rover SD1 averaged 66.5mph at the Elvington Race Track near York, smashing the previous record of 47mph achieved by a US team that built a car fuelled by wood pellets.

Engineer Martin Bacon, with the Teesdale Conservation Volunteers of Durham, stripped out the old car and re

One of the biggest trends in renovating we might be about to see emerge is the mini-makeover.

Think: paints, cupboard handles, tap fittings, wallpapers (yes, wallpapers going up, not coming down) and the polishing of timber floors. Also light fittings and window treatments. Anything that changes the feel and adds a bit of pizzazz without spending the big bucks.

If that sounds like the ’70s revisited, perhaps it is. Hopefully not with such garish results, though.

And yes, if you are thinking – ‘hang on, hasn’t everyone been doing this all along?’ In part you are right. But the differe

The housing sector is stabilising as talk of an interest rate rise wanes and Australians are encouraged to borrow more, economists say.

The number of home loans approved in August rose 1.2 per cent to 50,965, official figures show. Economists’ forecasts had centred on a 1 per cent rise in housing finance commitments for the month.

August was the fifth straight month that housing finance commitments had risen.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said total housing finance by value rose 1.0 per cent in August, seasonally adjusted, to $20.848 billion.

JPMorgan economist Ben Jarman said the figu

It can sometimes feel like making earth-friendly choices means spending more money.  Well, the good news is that being green doesn’t have to break the bank. With a little creative thinking, it’s easy to ditch the high prices of trendy eco products and go green at no cost.

Here are the first five of our top 10 ways to go green on the cheap.

1. Head outside
With the warmer months here (in the southern hemisphere anyway), now is the time to get outside and visit your local park or beach to throw a ball, have a picnic, run, jump, swim or simply commune with nature – and it doesn’t cost a