housing thoughts

I've been thinking about housing stuff recently. Hubby has been working on the plans for the "dream house" or "project house".. the dimensions have alot to do with phi. Its absolutely massive, lots of big rooms, entertaining, kitchen, kids bedrooms, indoor courtyard, our own private retreat (spa, kitchen, bathroom, wardrobe, lounge area, sleeping area) with an upstairs library.. on the block of land theres a office building, carpark, huge garage, gardens, indoor pool area. With alot of japanese stuff e.g decking around most of the house that can be shielded with moveable walls in case of rain etc) but enough about that (pending on project being finished & sold)

Shortly the lease on this house will be finished. And so weve been thinking do we need more room? Is there somewhere nicer and better that we could get and be happy with? or do we stay here and wait it out? or do we sign up and have the security of a lease again? (remember pending baby #3 in august)

If we move, i'd love to have great central heating! and even better a central heating that actually had the air conditioning side of it?!! *rolls eyes* I can remember looking at the central heating control panel and seeing "cooling" only for me much later to think.. now air conditioning they usually have a box on the roof or outside that does that... and we dont have one?! argh!!! No cooling!!!!

I'd rather be closer to the school than the shops now. Altho most of the houses (well flats) between here and the school are amongst public housing... Which means i'd have to be west of the school just not the beach zone area (like right on the water)

But then theres thoughts on buying a house... no longer having to worry bout being kicked out (e.g the landlord sells the house) no longer dealing with agents, no longer waiting on someone else to organize fixes etc (who then end up doing a cheap job anyways) I do think buying a house is waay out of reach still. Yes at the moment our government give $26k grant when buying your first home that you must live in for a year (so not for investments)But i have to wonder exactly, if the grant was gone would the house prices drop? Because lets face it, some houses are insanely inflated... theres million dollar houses in A.C.T, and they just look like a house!

Some say the grant inflated costs. Some say that it should be scrapped and those getting the grant could end up unemployed. Some say that the grant covers state taxes that should have been scrapped when the GST came into effect. The oldies say that they got no grants so why should anyone else (but then pfft to them... buying back when a house/land was actually affordable and those who bought for so little can now cash up and sell for tons more.) Some say its not creating more new houses, that land release is slow (usually in the middle of nowhere). Some say its a waste of money that it doesn't stimulate the economy, create jobs etc. Some say its a waste and should be spent in hospitals or roads etc..

but hey if i knew i was buying a house, i'd love every cent of that grant ;) and i guess that's what it comes down to! I mean people can go on about the baby bonus ($5k over fortnightly installments thanks to all the teen mums) mostly coz they aren't getting/going to get it.... and they'd be alot of people who missed out on it (late 1990's?) and there's people who recently reckon that australia should have a 1 baby policy to stop "environmental suicide" to cut Australia's population of 22million back down to a more environmentally friendly 7million... but that opens a big can of worms of "who should have children", "Who can come here as a immigrant" etc.. its nuts! (and when aren't the out-there greenies who believe a animal has more rights to live than a human?)