With the healing process well underway, what has become overwhelmingly apparent, is the confidence generated by the power that lies within. Initially, the powerful information highway ran amok with comparative analysis that compared the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to the Great Depression and christened it ‘Great Depression Two’. What next? With the benefit of hindsight, fighting adversity can be very revealing, especially for those who backed their business models in trying times. If you are not prepared, you won’t be spared!

Let’s look at the rings of confidence – well the ones I recently observed that I consider noteworthy.

www.timmooneyphotography.com

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced this week that our local economy should shrink 0.3 per cent in 2009 which, when compared to other OECD economies, is the lowest decline predicted. It predicts that in 2010, the Australian economy will roar back 2.4 per cent in GDP growth. The OECD identified China as the driving force and upgraded growth estimates from 6.3 per cent to 7.7 per cent in 2009 and 9.3 per cent in 2010. This is good news for Australia given that China is a major trading partner. Just as interesting, will be our June quarter GDP results. Whilst our unemployment rate is predicted to reach 7.9 per cent (lower than Budget forecasts of 8.25 to 8.5 per cent) our labour markets remain resilient compared to other global economies.

Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) meeting in June, confirmed that Australia is negotiating the current global downturn well (also noting a very strong recovery in China). The RBA also noted that bank funding costs are rising. This coincided with a statement from the Commonwealth Bank’s head of retail banking, that the bank faces extra costs equivalent to 0.6 per cent over the next eighteen months. This announcement has seen homeowners rushing to lock in mortgage rates, believing that in Australia, interest rates have now bottomed. The lowest variable rate that can be obtained from the major banks is 5.74 per cent and three – year fixed rates this week jumped to 6.69 per cent.

Also, this week, in the opinion of The Real Estate Institute of Australia, residential property markets have bottomed and there is anecdotal evidence that property markets are now consolidating. This is in line with what we have been suggesting in recent editions (you heard it here first). Auction clearance rates are a great barometer and this week’s results certainly confirm this market positioning. Markets recording sales evidence above 80 per cent are considered booming markets.

What didn’t happen in the Mosman housing market in 2009 was a capitulation of values. The presumption that every second home was on the market never came to fruition and in 2009 it was not 50 per cent, rather 2.75 per cent. Here is a three year snapshot of Mosman house sales from 1 January to 23 June 2007, 2008 and 2009.

1 January 2007 to 23 June 2007

• Total recorded sales – 215
• Total sales value – $573,794,220
• Median house price – $2,230,000
• Average Mosman house price – $2,668,810

.

1 January 2008 to 23 June 2008

• Total recorded sales – 160
• Total sales value – $452,066,112
• Median house price – $2,530,000
• Average Mosman house price – $2,861,177

(Note: less sales higher median and average price)
.

1 January 2009 to 23 June 2009

• Total recorded sales – 95*
• Total sales value – $218,141,001
• Median house price – $1,780,000
• Average Mosman house price – $2,134,602

*Our recent sales have not been included in the 2009 figures as yet

Now this is where it gets interesting – for Richardson & Wrench Mosman & Neutral Bay (RWM) sales data.

RWM sales in June 2007 – $18,836,000
RWM sales in June 2008 – $19,815,000
RWM sales in June 2009 – $51,038,200

The reason for this amazing result (given the current GFC) is quite simple. Our point of difference is our online positioning. The number of online and email newsletters has jumped over the last five years, increasing by 475 per cent, while print (only newsletters decreased 43 per cent from 7,395 to 4,180) and those in both print and electronic formats remained about the same (4,859, vs. 4,949), according to www.mediafinder.com

The moral of this story lies in our discipline and determination to lead our industry by example. What you put into your industry of choice determines what you get out of it. Yes – writing a weekly online newsletter takes time and effort. So does maintaining one of the largest databases in the industry. However in simple terms this point of contact is what generates results.

We all know that actions speak louder than words and all any business can hope to achieve, is client satisfaction with optimum results. Subscriber sales rose this week to $899,066,219 (the Australian record) http://www.rwm.com.au/sales-list/sold_listing/

Cheers ^__^

For this week’s recorded Mosman real estate, Cremorne real estate, Neutral Bay real estate and Cammeray real estate sales http://www.rwm.com.au/news/

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26.06.09Robert Simeon2 Comments »

Yes – Fort Crumble (NSW government) is basically lost and now trying to turn back time. Today, it is stone motherless broke and with no idea how to turn the economy around, can conveniently lay the blame on the global financial crisis. The 2008/09 budget announcement re-winds the clock to 1996 (when NSW was last in deficit). With an estimated budget deficit of $1.3 billion for 2008/09 and net debt to rise to $12.9 billion by June 2010, it’s hard to believe that Fort Crumble can return a budget surplus again. (It could not manage NSW in economic growth – with record tax/GST receipts).

Last Sunday, editor of The Sunday Telegraph Neil Breen wrote “Labor bungling a total turn-off” where he too turned back time. Neil Breen wrote “On Tuesday, Treasurer Eric Roozendaal will deliver the 15th budget since Labor was returned to government in NSW at the 1995 election. They switched off. Long ago.”

What an amazing capture by Tim Mooney – my favourite photo so far and one that illustrates just what makes Mosman so special. A natural suburb with a striking seascape where nature is preserved over housing development – be the judge? Since Tim joined our online platform, Virtual Realty News, many subscribers have contacted him to purchase his photos for their enjoyment.

Website: www.timmooneyphotography.com

Email: info@timmooneyphotography.com

Back to Neil Breen, “You need only read the following excerpt to understand why. It’s from then Treasurer Michael Egan’s first budget speech 14 years ago.

Labor was back in power and was feisty.

“For too long, we have put up with long hospital waiting lists, an understaffed police service, inadequate child protection and lack of accommodation for the disabled.”Mr Egan thundered.

“This budget delivers major improvements in hospitals, schools, police and crime prevention and community services.” Sound familiar?

Fourteen years on, everything is broken and now, our Premier ‘Nathan Please’ has listed Mosman police station for sale – indeed a backward step. If he can’t manage a surplus, how can he manage debt – by living in the past?

Thank goodness the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) remains on the money. This week it released board minutes from its last meeting – keeping its powder dry. As our economy manoeuvres its way through a global crisis there are obvious and escalating concerns which were highlighted when the Commonwealth Bank raised its standard variable rate last Friday (still below competitors.)

As the retiring member for Higgins announced this week, the greatest challenge facing our economy in years to come will be interest rates and yet, leading economists still maintain that borrowers should remain on variable rates. I don’t agree.

The problem with interest rates, is lack of competition as identified this week in www.crikey.com.au “Since the financial crisis first became apparent, the Government has explicitly put competition second to the need for stability within the Australian financial sector, waving through the merger of two of the five largest banks in Westpac and St George and acquiescing in the Commonwealth’s (CBA) rescue – purchase of Bankwest. The consolidation has come at a time when non- bank mortgage lenders and regional banks have either been driven from the market or badly bruised by the financial crisis, magnifying the damaging anti-competitive effects of the dominance of the Big Four.

Once competition is lost in Australian markets, it is awfully hard to regain. The ACCC has no divestiture power, so even when we are over the impacts of the financial crisis, we will not be able to regain even the limited degree of competition that applied until 2008. The only sensible course of action for most consumers is to buy bank shares, and get at least some benefit from the gouging, exploitation and bastardry that our banks can get away with.

But that’s no help to small businesses that can’t get loans, or face usurious interest rates when they do, or exporters, who face a punishingly high Australian dollar courtesy of our interest rates. Or, for that matter, to the workers who depend on them.”

Much like Michael Egan’s prediction in 1995 (it never came to fruition – only his pension evolved) BIS Shrapnel’s Residential Property Prospects report announced that house prices will rise by nearly 20 per cent over the next three years. “Green – shoots” of recovery based on the first home buyers grant and low interest rates. Green shoots can quickly become red shoots should banks up interest rates – which explains why the RBA continues to keep their powder dry.

One day later, the following graph appeared online criticising BIS Shrapnel for its forward thinking because such forecasts do not consider the x-factor and three years on so much can change. There again, fourteen years on and nothing has changed for the NSW government (other than a huge deficit). With fewer banks today, this scenario is no different from the control that Woolworths and Coles have over food and petrol prices.

Wayne Swan criticises the CBA for “selfish acts” and its rate increase of 0.10 per cent that “threatens recovery” of Australia’s economy (still the lowest). It is somehow puzzling that Ruddy Fantastic then shakes his sauce bottle to all and sundry in an effort to stimulate our economy. Not in agreement, Westpac and St George then increased fixed mortgage rates by 0.5 per cent, citing higher wholesale funding costs. Quite the opposite when the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced that our Big Four banks are currently enjoying healthier net interest margins (NIM) than before the global financial crisis. “The major banks ‘ NIM currently averages 2.27 per cent, which is a little above the level before the onset of the financial market turbulence in mid 2007.” Nation Building or Bank Gilding?

Back to the NSW budget – with a brilliant spin to kick start the housing sector. A short lived spin – where just one day later the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) announced that (in the first quarter of 2009) home building fell to its lowest level in eight years. Economists then predicted that this sector would increase significantly in the second half of 2009 – this won’t happen as the banks are no longer lending to developers – fact. Re – affirmed by the latest ABS release which (alarmingly) identifies that our NSW government policy (rhetoric) is definitely not in sync with banking policy.

ABS data for the three months to March, identifies that the number of new housing starts has fallen to 5,400, down from 7,500 compared to March 2008. In the March quarter 2004, new starts were 11,000 (a fifty per cent decline). This is what then happens – the following data shows that Sydney clearance rates are now at 71 per cent and above 80 per cent, is considered a boom market.

Subscriber sales jumped this week to $892,096,219. Over the last 18 days, we have sold 16 properties to the value of $47,000,000. I might add that RWM is the only local agency reporting such great sales. As I wrote last week “better to be in the market than on it”, and that means growing your online market, not reducing it. The leaders in real estate today, are those who invested and developed successful online media platforms (years ago). Times have changed. We have and as our sales results prove, businesses need to move with the times. http://www.rwm.com.au/sales-list/sold_listing/

RIP – Paul Eastaway, a Mosman identity who will be greatly missed. A very funny and caring man who brought a smile to everyone’s dial – so many wonderful memories.

Cheers ^__^

For this week’s recorded Mosman real estate, Cremorne real estate, Neutral Bay real estate and Cammeray real estate sales http://www.rwm.com.au/news/

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19.06.09Robert Simeon3 Comments »

I well remember (some years ago) attending a real estate conference where the message was “success leaves clues”. Just one week ago we heard that Australia had avoided a technical recession. The same can be said for some real estate agencies that are individually turning market sentiment around with respective niche markets (suburbs) now moving from negative price expectations to positive sales results.

A common theme in business is judgement by individual results that resonate within the public gallery of observation and real estate markets worldwide have a massive number of adjudicators, both negative and positive.

One month ago I wrote, that in our opinion, the Mosman market had bottomed. Today, this coincides with another problem that highlights the shortage of new properties.

Tim Mooney Photography – Taronga Zoo, Mosman

www.timmooneyphotography.com

For those real estate addicts there are always interesting blogs concerning the Australian real estate industry on www.business2.com.au. There are plenty of inside real estate commentaries and debates are often heated – well worth a subscription and it’s free!

In the 2009 Mosman market (thus far), distressed vendor volumes have not eventuated, despite ongoing critical evaluations from many in the public gallery. The banking fraternity has now dismissed speculation (and expectations for that matter) that this financial crisis was a storm that simply could not weathered. How wrong was that theory?

With the passage of time, we are now starting to see our property markets stabilise and indentify upward price growth.

We publish every sale we execute http://www.rwm.com.au/sales-list/sold_listing/. Others ‘invent’ sales and make media announcements with no evidence to support such claims. Hey Presto or Pinocchio’s property announcements? Without clarification such claims remain on the nose!

Our subscriber sales climbed this week to $876,114,019 (up $17,020,020 from last week). Over the past two weeks, we have executed $27,320,009 in sales to subscribers of Virtual Realty News only. We don’t include our other sales where vendors/purchasers are not subscribers – see our recent sales pages.

It would be reckless in our opinion, for real estate agents in Mosman to suggest to vendors that prices will only get lower. Rather be on the market than just in it and for the record, RWM has transacted the highest volume of Mosman house sales in 2009 – more than any other local real estate agency.

What many forget is the simple market philosophy of meet and greet. As a vendor, you can’t greet the market if one refuses to meet it. Our recent sales successes have evolved because we found the competition instead of blaming the dark cloud of the Global Financial Recession.

This analogy also applies to advertising where ‘online’ in 2009 is the peak performer. Print media, formerly a print meat market, has lost vendor appeal. It now has to compete with the ever evolving online markets where interactive social networking is the preferred option of consumers.

They say in rugby circles “use it or lose it” and the best advice I can offer to print publications is, “if you can’t beat ‘em – join ‘em”. There is still a vital role for print to play in real estate. I believe however, that the answer is classified advertising used as a directory to point consumers to more advanced and informative online presentations.

Rupert Murdoch announced this week that he believes that within a decade (I think three – five years) that the majority of newspapers will be delivered electronically. Mr Murdoch said, “If you’ve got a newspaper with a great name and great reputation, and you are trusted, the people in that community are going to need access to your source of news.”Mr Murdoch said, “This can all be served digitally and much more cheaply than it is now in a newspaper.” In an average week RWM would send up to 100,000 (sales and rentals) emails to clients on our database.

The Westpac – Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment rose 12.7 per cent to 100.1 points in June as a result of the strong economic growth figures recorded in the March quarter 2009. In May, the index recorded 88.8 points so a recorded index above 100 points has happened for the first time in seventeen months. As the mature markets rebound, a large proportion of this growth can be attributed to first – home buyers who could be called ‘the crash test babies’.

There is a clear message in the following graph which identities that the average first-home loan in NSW has increased by more than $50,000 (market competition). In just over a year, the average loan has increased to $300,000, thanks to record low interest rates and government hand-outs. The cheapest home loan currently available is with the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) at 5.64 per cent. The long – term cost of funding is increasing, which explains why (since January 2008) the CBA has held on to 0.82 per cent of net official Reserve Bank of Australia cash rate reductions.

In April 2009, home loans to first – home buyers reached a 14 month high as the dash for cash handouts from Federal and State Governments reached fever-pitch. The numbers taking out first time home loans jumped to 28 per cent in April – the highest share to first home buyers since the Australian Bureau of Statistics commenced recording in 1991.

Overall, home loan approvals have risen consecutively for the last seven months. Oh dear…. artificially inseminating property markets with the probability of an early election will equate to carnage for enthusiastic and naive property market debutants.

Ross Greenwood wrote a brilliant article on Money News. “Right now the Federal Government is at pains to tell everyone – including us the mug – punters to the International Monetary Fund that it will not exceed its own, self – imposed, borrowing limits. How much? $200 billion. And here’s a worry. If you work in a bank’s money market operation; or if you are a politician; the millions turn into billions and it rolls off the tip of the tongue a bit too easily.

But every dollar that is borrowed, some time, has to be repaid. By you, by me and by the rest of the country.

Just after 5 o’clock tonight I did a bit of maths for Jason Morrison. But it’s so staggering its worth repeating now. First though … here’s what Chairman Rudd has been saying about – what he calls – these temporary borrowings. Remember those words … temporary deficit … but the total Government debt could end up around $200 billion.

So here’s a very basic calculation … I used a home loan calculator to work it out … it’s that simple.
$200 billion is $200 million. The current 10 year Government bond rate is 4.67 per cent. I worked the loan out over a period of twenty years.

Now here’s where it gets scary … really scary.

The repayments on $200 billion come to more than one and a quarter billion dollars – every month – for 20 years. It works out we – as taxpayers – will be repaying $15.4 billion in interest and principal every year … $733 for every man woman and child – every year.

The total interest bill over the 20 years is – get this – $108 billion.

And remember, this is a Government that just 18 months ago had NO debt … NO debt. In fact it had enough money to create the Future Fund to pay the future liabilities of public servants superannuation … and it had enough to stick $20 billion into the Building Australia Fund last year …” Oh dear …

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported this week, that unemployment in Australia was up to 5.7 per cent. NSW lead the country in May, with 6.4 per cent. Of greatest concern is that with first home buyers, Ruddy Fantastic has been shaking his sauce bottle for an election party of mammoth proportions that will see heads spinning with an almighty hangover. Much like Nation Building which is being watched closely – with interest!

Then again, why do people find interest on debt interesting?

Cheers ^__^

For this week’s recorded Mosman real estate, Cremorne real estate, Neutral Bay real estate and Cammeray real estate sales http://www.rwm.com.au/news/

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12.06.09Robert Simeon4 Comments »

Consumer spending grew 0.6 per cent in the March quarter and the lucky country avoided technical recession. Depending on your political flavour, there was lots of political back slapping and back stabbing but more importantly, credit resonated through markets. The ASX 200 soared through 4,000 identifying five consecutive trading days above $5 billion (seven month high) – it was good news week for financial and property markets.

Fort Crumble (NSW government) had another negative quarter (0.2 per cent) and is technically in recession although ‘Premier Please’ remains in denial because the figure excluded exports. I am now focussing on ways to export a politician!

In business, you have to reach your Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) or it’s simply time to go. Surely the same ethos must now apply to elected politicians. There is no better example than what is happening at Fort Crumble, as the Sydney Morning Herald reported earlier week – “NSW burden drags nation deeper into strife. Business is calling for radical intervention to stop the former premier state’s decline, reports Jessica Irvine, Economics Editor.

Tim Mooney Photography

www.timmooneyphotography.com

The decade-long slide by NSW into economic oblivion, if not arrested, may stymie the Rudd Government’s attempts to kick start the national economy out of recession.

The once “premier state” has been going backwards, compared to other states since the Sydney Olympics, on key indicators of economic health including growth, business investment, jobs, home building, wages a Herald analysis of official figures has found.” I have put the main points raised in the article in point form.

• NSW now contributes less than 32 per cent of the country’s economic production, down from 34.5 per cent just after the Games. An exodus of people interstate has also led NSW’s population share to shrink by 1 percentage point to 32.5 per cent.
• Even more remarkable has been the slump in NSW’s share of new business investment and new home building activity. Of every dollar businesses spend investing in new equipment and buildings, NSW accounts for just 23 cents, down from 35 cents in late 2000.
• And despite being home to one-third of Australia’s population, only 15 per cent of all new home-building takes place in NSW. The state approved just 1558 new homes in March, behind Victoria (4023) and Queensland (2052).
• NSW’s jobless rate remains consistently one of the highest in the country and the traditional wage premium NSW workers enjoyed over other states has all but evaporated. In late 2005 NSW employees earned $3500 more a year than the national average. Now it is just $500.
• Of $8.5 billion in transport spending announced in the federal budget on May 12, Sydney received just $91 million for a study on the West Metro, compared to $3.2 billion for a Melbourne rail project”.

Ouch! Brilliant investigative reporting. Now imagine if employment contracts were based on KPI’s. The vast majority of those in NSW government would be unemployed. Simply put: no longer can they remain a protected species especially when the state’s Budget deficit is announced on June 16. Fort Crumble is suggesting $1 – $2 billion some economists are already suggesting a massive $6-$8 billion deficit.

Should this be the case, NSW has then moved from critical to life–support where again, the once “premier state” is trading insolvent with a business plan outlined on the back of a postage stamp.

With Fort Crumble in a “state of shock” following Ruddy Fantastic’s Nation Building snub – it was somewhat ironic that it leaked (prior to Budget night) its approval of major road projects totalling $4.4 billion. For obvious reasons the approvals only apply to Labor seats because, after all, it is all about re-election.

Key Performance Indicators in NSW have been replaced by Key Political Intervention where a politician earns more in government than in opposition. Cash for votes are alive and well in NSW politics – although around the corner where Struggle Street meets at the intersection of Rage Road, our esteemed Premier, ‘Nathan Please’ has a problem with his unions. A bummer for Treasury as the unions flatly rejected a suggested freeze of the state’s public sector wages – teachers, nurses and police – better known as a Key People Indicator.

The same can’t be said for Ruddy Fantastic’s first home buyers grant. High beaming himself in parliament this week, he announced that a record 18,736 punters took up Labor’s offer in April. In past editions I have previously likened this grant to throwing lollies onto a highway – there will be casualties. For example: back in economic growth times, south-west Sydney identified home price collapses of around forty per cent – yet in recession (until this week) these very same areas are now in (Chk Chk) boom mode.

Ruddy Fantastic advised parliament this week that 18,736 excited homeowners took up Labor’s cash for letterbox incentive in April. This is much like the Federal budget’s spend plan – spend now and pay later. After all it’s only money and the artificial insemination of property markets has subprime written all over it. Just that this time around, we have the Australian version.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) left the cash rate at 3.00 per cent this week where we remain at 1969 equivalents. Forget Struggle Street and Rage Road, when rates do go up (and in all probability this will happen around July/August next year). For many inductees into the property market, this will result in Road Kill (depending on respective loan agreements) as our economy moves from deflation to inflation mode.

What inflated this week were our subscriber sales which jumped last week from$848,794,010 to $859,094,019. In total, we exchanged $ 13,905,000 worth of properties. As I suggested over a month ago, the market has bottomed and purchasers and vendors are now engaging (we don’t make these figures up – they actually happen). The big online businesses are leading the way!

Another great (free) daily read launched on the Internet this week www.thepunch.com.au from the News Ltd online stable. This week’s YouTube is Rove’s explanation on how Australia avoided recession (turn your speakers up) – very funny.

Cheers ^__^

For this week’s recorded Mosman real estate, Cremorne real estate, Neutral Bay real estate and Cammeray real estate sales http://www.rwm.com.au/news/

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5.06.09Robert Simeon4 Comments »