[flighty]

I was lucky enough to make a bit of money flipping property when the market in the UK was a bit healthier. One flip I did made me more money than my annual salary! Just wondering if property flipping is popular in Australia and if anyone out there's making money doing it?

[Thongs of Praise]

Yes, it's very popular. A lot of Aussies have made a lot of money out of property, even if they've only bought a house and lived in it. They've seen its value shoot up. Houses are very expensive compared to wages.

I remember watching Andrew Winter on Selling Houses before we left the UK. His tips actually helped us sell our house before we made the big move. He's living in Australia on the Gold Coast now and he makes Selling Houses Australia. This year he won two ASTRA (http://astraawards.com.au/) awards - for viewers voted Favourite Program and for Most Outstanding Lifestyle Program.

So, yes, everything about houses and property, including developing is very popular here. (The viewers voted Favourite international show was the UK's Grand Designs (Series 6), another housing programme.)

Here's Andrew Winter's Australian property blog (http://www.lifestylechannel.com.au/AndrewWinter/index.asp).

[FamousFive]

The Aussies - my personal experience in Sydney - are more heavily into property investing and share trading than I'd seen in the UK.

[flighty]

Thanks guys. It looks like there'll be plenty of competition buy places with potential. It'll also take a bit of time to find my feet. I knew exactly the kind of older properties I wanted in the UK but the Australian market will probably be a lot different. I didn't know Andrew Winter was in Oz now. I used to watch with jaw gaping when he took nearly all the furniture out of living rooms leaving a couple of chairs and a TV so the rooms looked bigger. I couldn't believe the punters looking to buy would be daft enough to fall for it, but they did. It works for me too. Amazing. It'll be interesting seeing his take on the market in Oz. Nice bit of market research for me!

[quincy]

If you want an idea of how obsessed people are with property investment there is an article here (http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25906118-2682,00.html) about part time courses offered by TAFE SA (http://www.tafe.sa.edu.au/NewsandProjects/PropertyInvestmentCourse/tabid/1816/Default.aspx)in 'how to be a property investor'.

Indicating South Australians have survived the worst of the global financial crisis, latest TAFE SA figures show enrolments in its property investment courses have more than doubled in a year.

The part-time course, which takes about four months to complete, aims to give students the knowledge and confidence to invest in property with topics covering buying, selling, renovating, developing and renting property.

Starting in about two weeks, the next course has already attracted 63 students, with the potential for more, compared with 25 at the same intake last year. TAFE SA property and share investment co-ordinator Peter Koulizos said this indicated a resurgence of property investors.

[flighty]

Courses in property investing!! That's a new one. I got into developing just watching TV with the likes of Sarah Beeny and Andrew Winter. It looks like the Aussies take their property developing very seriously. I possibly means that, if the market stops rising naturally, margins will be tight because you'll need to offer a bit more when you buy a house to beat off other developers.

[bettyshoe]

Oh flighty, I hope I don't annoy you but I'm so wishing that all of thsi property stuff would just stop. I just want to be able to afford a nice house without constantly having to panic that prices are racing ahead again. I HATE this culture that says inflation's good if its house price inflation. I contstantly live on edge because I worry about us affording a house and I worry that our kids will never be able to afford something nice. If all those hardworking people like you would only do something more useful than driving up house prices and making them unaffordable for normal poeple I'd be very happy.

[flighty]

Hey bettyshoe, I'm not annoyed in the least. I sympathise with you completely. In fact, I was just like you until I decided "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

We also struggled with affording the sort of place we'd like until we got a big financial lift out of developing. To be fair to myself, when I sell a house, it's in far better condition than when I buy it, so there is a genuine, worthwhile part to what I'm doing.

As for the kids affording a nice house, again I sympathise with you completely. The way I look on it is that neither you nor I are going to be able to change the economic big picture. All we can do is find the best things we can do to make sure our kids will be able to afford something. That's most likely going to mean making sure we can help them out with a deposit. The way I can do that has been property developing.

[quincy]

The housing market is quite flat at the moment so it is harder to make a profit.