Whether you believe this or not about the women’s movement, the effects were clear. More women working allowed the banks to extend exponentially more debt. Two incomes could now bid on real estate and inflate land prices. This new dynamic helped produce explosive boom and bust cycles in line with the 18-year cycle. In rich countries, two-thirds of women above the age of 15 work. Women are now as career-orientated as men. Still, the lowest rates of females in the workforce lie in the Muslim belt. The area stretching from Morocco across North Africa and the Middle East to North India. Islamic culture in areas of these regions discourages female education and employment. In North India women are considered fair prey for men if they roam outside their houses. Especially at late hours. Times change… We now have the ‘work from home culture’. It’s being heralded as a positive revolution for all of us — the ‘good’ effect of COVID. And as it happens, tech — Zoom, Google groups, and other teleconferencing networks — now pave the way for women in these nations to work from home on par with men. No social stigma, no lack of safety. They don’t have to leave the confines of their home at all. They can do both office and family chores. They may even earn enough to hire domestic help. Is this another ploy to create more working slaves? You decide. The women’s lib movement doesn’t call for freedom from wage slavery or the worldwide system of financial control. Either way, you know how the ending goes. It feeds into land prices — just as it did in the ‘first wave’ of women entering the workforce. We can expect global land values to rise as this takes effect across India and the Middle East. If you want to free yourself from similar wage slavery, you must learn to play the system to your advantage. - Vacancy rates in Perth and Brisbane are below 1%. Yields in many areas are above 5% — easily covering payments on an interest-only loan.
- In Western Sydney, so many buyers camped out for new land subdivisions, security had to be called.
- A Brisbane real estate agent recently told me he is seeing record numbers — more than 150 groups — pour through his open inspections. He also had to hire a security company to handle the influx.
- In regional VIC (Geelong and Ballarat), properties are receiving multiple offers sight unseen. It’s unprecedented for these regions.
As pointed out a couple of weeks ago, the rise of blockchain and fractional ownership models is going to continue to open the real estate market to swaths of young speculators who can’t access loans. The initial surge at the beginning of this year was driven by owner occupiers. Now we’re starting to see investors join the crowd. Bear in mind, we’re only at the start of the second half of the real estate cycle as we explain to readers in Cycles, Trends & Forecasts. We have a long way to go yet. Changes to taxation could produce a short-term pullback, as mentioned last week. But there’s plenty to offset that with record investment in infrastructure and a return of overseas immigration at some point. All this supports the premise that we’re facing the biggest real estate boom we’ve ever seen. Let’s see how it plays out. And don’t forget, if you want to see how you could take advantage of it, you can get access to all our insights and information in Cycles, Trends & Forecasts. Best wishes, Catherine Cashmore,
For The Daily Reckoning Australia | 
