As Melbourne vacant lot values surge to an all-time high $375,000, following a 26.5% increase in value over the year to the June 2018, spare a thought for the land barons making-out like bandits. From The Age:
When John Woodman visits Casey council in Melbourne’s sprawling south-east, he parks his red Ferrari wherever he pleases…
Mr Woodman is a multi-millionaire planning consultant, developer, and head of Mornington-based consultancy Watsons…
And at the last state election, Mr Woodman was the single biggest property industry donor to the Liberal Party…
He is renowned for getting what he wants on the city fringe, where the stroke of a pen can turn paddocks into housing estates, and humble farmers into squillionaires.
With Melbourne under unprecedented population pressure, planning is big business…
This is the mass immigration ‘Big Australia’ ponzi in all its hideous glory: wealthy elites privatising the gains, while the losses are socialised on the broader community via worsening housing affordability and congestion, increasingly crush-loaded and expensive infrastructure, and an overall loss of amenity.
