In terms of card payments, merchants in Australia currently pay less than merchants in many other countries. The comparison with the United States is particularly stark (Graph 7). For credit cards, Australian merchants, on average, pay 0.8 per cent of the transaction value for Mastercard/Visa transactions. In the United States the figure is much higher at around 2.2 per cent.
Large apartment developments have longer planning and development processes than detached housing. Purchasing the land, designing the development, getting approvals through relevant government bodies and then actual construction of the apartment block all take time. In a climate of rapidly rising prices, developers are willing to pay high prices for land on which to build apartments.