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Ask any business owner what the key to business longevity is and nine times out of ten the answer will always be – customer service. It all started just before the running of the 150^th Melbourne Cup when the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced its Statement by Glenn Stevens, Governor: Monetary Policy decision.  The punters were shocked with this rate rise shock – the fourth increase in 2010. The cash rate increase was later to be described as the RBA makes pre-emptive strike, economists say. Then as quick as Americain down the Flemington track the Commonwealth Bank adds 45bp to home loan rate effective from today, citing “overall wholesale funding costs continue to increase as cheaper funding expires and is replaced with more expensive funding”. The banking stewards (otherwise known as politicians) were quick to saddle – up although opposition Treasurer Joe Hockey was already in a somewhat awkward and lonely canter.

A graph that has figured prominently in Virtual Realty News is the Household Estimates of 2007 – 08 which is the last Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) measure of Australian households that rent, own with a mortgage and own without a mortgage – which I call The Big Third Theory.

• The number that rent – 2,399,900 which equates to thirty (30) per cent.
• The number that own with a mortgage – 2,835,200 which equates to thirty six (36) per cent.
• The number that own without a mortgage – 2,679,200 which equates to thirty four (34) per cent.

Based on this anecdotal data where with each and every cash rate increase the impact affects sixty six (66) per cent or 5,079,100 Australian households. Politicians need to cease being statues.

BUY PRINT

Another Tim Mooney brilliant capture that would make a great front cover for Eastern Suburbs real estate agents’ Christmas cards – nothing beats a sensational aerial shot.

Credit card debt more common than mortgage debt and we all know that the Big Gang Theory of increased funding does not apply when they are already charging consumers around twenty (20) per cent. When the Melbourne Institute revealed their June quarter 2010 results they announced that for the first time since November 2006, credit card debt is the most common form of debt among Australian households, rather than mortgage debt. The number of households with credit card debt was 36.6 per cent, while 33.9 per cent had mortgage debt. Credit card rates should be at the very same rate as home mortgage rates.

Customer service is all about meaning business not being a mean business – The Big Gang Theory.

Joe Hockey has good idea, no – one takes notice given banks showing no rates restraint, despite massive profits so out came Joe Hockey’s Nine – Point Plan when he addressed the AIG Annual National Forum in Canberra on October 25 in Canberra – “It’s time to talk banking.” Banks, rates and regulations: who’s in charge here? As Westpac chief Gail Kelly calls for calm as anger builds over bank rate rises given the banks are wary of Hockey bandwagon. The irony being that just only last week it was Hockey who was copping the bashing when he suggested that he’d re – regulate interest rates. As Dennis Shanahan wrote in The Australian – It’s Hockey’s turn to bash Swan. “In just a few moments yesterday, Joe Hockey and the Coalition went from being buffoons to heroes. And Wayne Swan went from being economically and politically superior to being populist, ineffective and trailing the opposition Treasury spokesman on banking policy.” Out from the gates then jumped Wayne Swan flags banking reforms declaring the federal government would now announce banking reforms next month prompting Hockey “The Jockey” to demand release reform plan now – the “Big Fella” was now on a roll dining out on roasted swan.

There was still plenty happening within Fort Fumble’s home economics kitchen when Phillip Coorey from the Sydney Morning Herald revealed – Out in the cold: Rudd held fake budget meetings to stop leaks not to be confused with steamed leeks. “Kevin Rudd and his senior ministers were so suspicious of Lindsay Tanner that they used to hold fake pre – budget meetings to ensure their plans did not leak. According to accounts of meetings of the now abandoned Strategic Priorities and Budget Committee, nicknamed the gang of four, some meetings with Mr Tanner would deliberately be light on detail. After the meeting concluded and the then finance minister had left, the other three members of the committee – Mr Rudd, Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan – would reconvene and discuss their budget plans in detail.”

Lindsay Tanner is writing a book and I can’t wait to read that given the revelations say very little for Kevin Rudd’s schoolyard games amid financial crisis. I can’t ever remember reading a more damaging report about an elected Australian government’s economic credibility. I must admit that I have always been a Lindsay Tanner admirer – he was smart, to the point and definitely not a populist policy proponent.  Kevin Rudd denies holding fake budget meetings … why am I not the least surprised.

In the meantime, Australia is bathing in a budget surplus (not) as Labor racks up $25.2 billion deficit in just three months shadow minister for finance and debt reduction Andrew Robb reported. The latest government financial statement reveals a staggering budget deficit of $25.2 billion for the first three months of the financial year. “The government is banking on improvements in revenue to bring the budget back to surplus, yet this statement shows no signs of the level of improvement that will be required and therefore spending must be cut.” CommSec chief economist Craig James estimates that the underlying budget deficit in the year to September was a record $63.3 billion. “The main concern is that revenues are still tending sideways rather than showing signs of repair. Meanwhile, government spending is at record highs and showing no signs of stabilising.”

Without a doubt one of the smartest economic reports that I have read is Economic reform will curb pressure on rates which lays much of the blame for increased interest rates on inept government policies. “But while rate rises are a blunt instrument, they are just about the only way the RBA can suppress demand. With a rising dollar, which will depress exports other than minerals and energy production, it is an automatic stabiliser that will slow the economy. A far better solution would be for government to have invested in infrastructure – railways and ports – to increase the efficiency of exports and to have improved productivity in southeast Australia, which is not benefiting directly from the boom. But the Howard government spent the taxes raised by energy exports on its watch on welfare payments and Kevin Rudd threw money at unproductive job programs, as Julia Gillard is still doing.”

“In the current circumstances, the price of stalling economic reform will be more painful than interest rate rises”. Hence, building approvals slide more than expected in September with a 6.6 per cent fall – in the year to September building approvals were down 11.6 per cent.

So figures confirm building weak which is understandable given the Gillard government still has more than $6 billion to be spent with her Building Education Revolution. Don’t blame the Big Gang Theory entirely as we all know they suffer on compassionate grounds. The answer should not be directed to angry customers should switch banks: Gillard rather economic reform, and we all know what happened to the Henry Tax Review.

No wonder Australians want an election – now given both forms of government continue to ignore economic reform. It is becoming increasingly obvious that economics is not a strong point for either party of choice – hence the ongoing and growing budget deficit.

When it comes to Nation Building – Fort Fumble (Gillard) has lost the plot!

Subscriber sales jumped to $986,510,220 so we are closing in on the magic $1 billion in subscriber sales.

Cheers ^__^

This week’s sales Mosman real estate, Beauty Point real estate, Clifton Gardens real estate, Balmoral real estate, Cremorne real estate, Cremorne Point real estate, Neutral Bay real estate, Cammeray real estate Click Here

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5.11.10Robert Simeon6 Comments »

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I’m not talking about the de-throning of the Minister for Pink Batts (Peter Garrett) debacle either! Rather, just exactly what went wrong with their misguided Nation Building spend fest that has now resonated into a property boom (in some areas). History shows such market movements can be contagious, as was subprime, which brought about the global financial crisis (GFC). Fort Fumble (Federal Government) reacted by directing its spending obsession into schools (with plaques) when in fact, it should have taken aim at our housing, transport and health debacles. What Messrs. Rudd and Swan missed, was that all Australians live in houses, use transport, and do require hospital assistance.  By comparison, a much smaller percentage attends school – another no brainer!

The 7.30 Report ran an interesting piece this week Australian houses amongst least affordable in the world. Its working paper was the latest release of the 6^th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2010 which is always an interesting read. As Kerry O’Brien stated “There is some concern that this latest property boom again raises the spectre of an unhealthy bubble; but there’s a range of contradictory elements at work that potentially pose a profound challenge for Australian authorities.” In 2009, Australia constructed around 130,000 homes nationally when we needed to build 190,000 to meet population growth. In 2010 it is projected that Australia will construct just 152,000 homes – so Fort Fumble has builders working on schools? Home prices will continue to rise as will rents too! Supply is not even close to meeting demand.

It was Nude Opera this week when renowned photographer Spencer Tunick enticed approximately 5,200 Australians to bare all on the forecourt. A case of love the one you’re with or maybe a case of I spy with my little eye someone beginning with…? The shoot has been called Mardi Gras: The Base.

Tim Mooney Photography

It was another tough week for The Emperor who fronted The 7.30 Report Kevin the confessor and said  “We are taking a whacking in the polls now. I’m sure we’ll take an even bigger whacking in the period ahead, and the bottom line is I think we deserve it, both – not just in terms of recent events, but more broadly.” True, when The Daily Telegraph ran “Prime Minister Kevin Rudd losing support in western Sydney” the Mad Monk seized the moment “Rudd rattled, says Abbott” then The Emperor (later to morph as Dr. Emperor) faced an attack from within “Rudd mea culpas have shot party in foot, say ministers”. Never one to miss an opportunity, I grabbed this comment on The 7.30 Report – Kevin the confessor.

The Emperor “One of the problems that we have had as a government, for which I accept responsibility, is we didn’t anticipate how hard it was going to be delivering things.” PM, this is otherwise known as business acumen. The Mad Monk responded “Kevin Rudd thinks he’s the economic genius who saved Australia from a recession but the public might conclude he’s just won the gold medal for waste.”

With his new policies on the run, now Dr. Emperor is taking a scalpel to our hospitals. Amazing what a difference a week makes. This political operation long overdue and Kevin Rudd to cut away the dead tissue of our ailing health care system Dr. Emperor moved into a totally different theatre, that being the operating theatre – Rudd announces $30.9 funding takeover of the public hospitals where just a week from the Pink batt debacle  Rudd’s hospital reform more radical than 1984 Medicare revamp. So how is The Emperor going to doctor our hospitals? Rudd takes $50 bn from states for hospitals. Not bad, given they are already in deficit with a growing interest payment of nearly $20 billion per annum. We found two great articles that critiqued Dr. Emperor’s health announcement Graphs galore but answers to big hospital reform questions are scarce by Lenore Taylor of the Sydney Morning Herald and Steve Murphy from Business Spectator Balance of Power. Australian states and territories are currently drowning in debt to the tune of approximately $133 billion which is about the equivalent of what Fort Fumble now owes (both increasing not decreasing)

Fort Crumble (NSW government) would be ‘champing at the bit’ given, NSW takes the biggest slice in GST handouts. This no doubt  assisted their  mortgagee – in – possession sale of “NSW Lotteries sold in $1 billion deal”where a confused Treasurer Eric Roozendaal said, “That means total proceeds of the sale of NSW Lotteries for NSW taxpayers of more than $1 billion – money that will go straight into funding frontline services for the families of NSW like teachers, police and nurses, and strengthening the state’s balance sheet.” He later said the sale proceeds would go directly into paying down the state’s debt – a margin call?

Pulling plenty of strings, our “Puppet Premier” then embarked on an estimated $750,000 television campaign in an attempt to convince constituents just how Australian she really is. No mention of NSW Labor just her website Kristina Keneally – although I did notice that our Puppet Premier forgot that when any Premier runs an advertorial they always have our Australian flag in the background – another massive blunder! It keeps getting worse “NSW fails to secure funding for infrastructure” in a staggering admission (not really) Fort Crumble announced that it was awaiting an invitation. Infrastructure Australia then advised that submissions were not by invitation only – Fort Crumble consistently hopeless. Yes Minister!
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So let’s look at what has happened in our Mosman market compared to same time in 2009. Bearing mind that in 2010 some sales are yet to be recorded at Domain Property Data.

Houses – I January 2009 to 1 March 2009 compared to 1 January 2010 to 1 March 2010

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As you can see, it is line ball where we will be monitoring results throughout 2010 and calling it as it is. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) moved the cash rate upwards this week by 0.25 per cent to 4.00 per cent and here is (what the economists said) about this week’s increase. Certainly when the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that Australians spent $20.100 billion on a shopping spree in January this did not help the RBA’s decision.

As quick as a flash, the banks jumped on the increase where the standard variable rates are;

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Of greater concern is The Emperor’s move into hospitals and his threat to call a referendum should the broke states and territories not agree. Since Federation, there have been 44 referendums and just 8 have been successful. Success of late, has not been one of The Emperors strong points. Then again it is an election year so anything goes. Policy on the run can have dire consequences. Just look at Fort Crumble selling off state assets.

Our Puppet Premier in white – another clue! That flag was raised years ago so (the Fort has some continuity), what assets are next? What do you think about Dr. Rudd’s hospital announcement? Obviously one week’s work and better known as “policy on the run” to stop his poll haemorrhaging voter dissent.

Cheers ^__^

This week’s sales Mosman real estate, Cremorne real estate, Cremorne Point real estate, Balmoral real estate, Neutral Bay real estate, Cammeray real estate Click Here

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5.03.10Robert Simeon8 Comments »

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The Emperor (Kevin Rudd) was back at it again recently when he commented on Australia’s skyrocketing population and quipped “I actually believe in a big Australia. I make no apology for that.” Well, Australia actually does need apologies, because critical infrastructure advice continues to fall on the deaf ears of our elected politicians.

After all, there must be something seriously amiss when past King of Spin, “Bobby Dazzler” Carr starts penning and pontificating on population policies in the Sydney Morning Herald. “Perish the thought that we can handle a bigger population” wrote the Dazzler “Some Australians must have felt similar estrangement when they read federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner’s defence of Australia’s runaway immigration targets, playfully comparing our population densities with those of Bangladesh.”

Then the Carr crash (with accompanying air – bag), “That Tanner is one of the best minds in federal politics will only deepen the rift between 90 per cent of Australians and their political and business leadership over population policy, or rather the absence of any policy except “more”.” It would now appear that “Bobby Dazzler” is over the selective hearing condition that plagued him in his reign of the Premier State from 1995 – 2005. The transformation went from Premier State to State of Decay to Fort Crumble and even though it did not happen overnight, it is now a nightmare.

Maybe this vacant plot of land might make a nice residential subdivision with very little chance of flooding?

www.timmooneyphotography.com

Sydney to squeeze in 640,000 new homes by Matthew Moore – Urban Affairs Editor the Sydney Morning Herald identified “A forty per cent increase in Sydney’s population over the next 20 years means the State Government has no option but to open up scores of suburbs for new developments, according to radical proposal for Sydney to build 640,000 new dwellings.”

For this to happen, Fort Crumble would need a plan so I went in search and found that it does not look pretty, as Andrew Clennell of the Sydney Morning Herald revealed. Rees desperate to stand for something “In this respect he hopes to get something on the radar at Macquarie Street that has been lacking for the past 12 months – POLICY.”

They obviously can’t hear but thankfully they can read. “Number one on his list is transport. The transport blueprint that Rees promises to hand down sometime over the next three weeks is likely to be treated with some scepticism.” I guess he means this is like a homeless person entering Star City and requesting a seat at the High Rollers Table – after all Fort Crumble is broke. Back to Andrew “This is because of the large number of projects that Labor has promised, and then not delivered, in 14 years in power.”

Oops “Bobby Dazzler” was at the helm for ten of those years – although Fort Crumble would win a wood chopping event as they sure know how to wield that political axe.

• North West Rail link (promised in 1998 and axed)
• North West Metro (announced and axed)
• Bondi Beach rail link (promised then axed)
• Parramatta to Epping rail link (halved to Epping to Chatswood rail link)
• CBD/second Harbour crossing rail link (promised and axed)
• F6 through southern Sydney, (on again, off again)
• M5 duplication (long delayed)
• M4 East extension (long delayed)

Last month’s parliamentary pay increases and the fact that our Fort Crumble premier should be (and is) the highest “paid premier” in Australia have been vindicated. Alex Gooding had this interesting analogy on transport in the Sydney Morning Herald – Three times denied: western Sydney misses out on transport, again (great read) which really adds a poignant perspective on the political decision making processes.
Ongoing calamities when “ Paid Premier” Nathan Rees overturned an earlier decision to contribute $45.000 million for the newly anointed AFL’s western Sydney franchise to build a new home ground – again out came that axe (perish the thought of constituents contemplating the axing our “Paid Premier”)

Macquarie Equities Research – this week released this compelling graph in its Australian economics report. Sketching the outlook for housing “this note examines the recent trends in the housing sector and looks ahead to key factors to watch in 2010.” Looks like a tsunami to me.

Macquarie Equities Research – “In our view, the key factors to consider are the favourable fundamental determinants – strong population growth and constrained supply – alongside the deteriorating level of affordability. With these factors working in opposite directions, it suggests that the more extreme forecasts of a house price bubble or a price collapse will continue to prove wide of the mark.” More of this report in next week’s edition.

Back to Andrew Clennell’s report “Sydney is experiencing transport gridlock. Public transport services in the CBD are overcrowded, even though train services are inadequate and in many suburbs non-existent. In response, transport plans are announced and then re-announced. New rail lines are proposed but then abandoned and governments blame increasing costs and global financial problems.” He did forget to mention that over the last fourteen years the NSW government also collected the highest amount of taxes in Australia’s history. In real estate terms it would be “dilapidated home – run down, neglected, yet with plenty of potential”.

So let’s look at what is happening locally. I went to Wayne Swan’s Nation Building website to see what is happening in Mosman and North Sydney municipalities. Indeed Nation Building personified – bicycle paths, perimeter fencing, a shade structure, and a few water bubblers -no wonder our economy has rebounded with such exhilarating speed. All that it takes is a plan!

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Our councils are doing it tough mentally and physically although they are making plenty out of parking fines as Vikki Campion reported in The Daily Telegraph. Where you’ll cop a parking fine. North Sydney Council collected $7,000,000 which was up 48 per cent from $4,700,000 and Mosman Council $1,700,000 up 89 per cent from $910,000. It should also be noted that Mosman Council has been aggressively investing in new parking meters so one could expect a significant revenue increase with this return on investment.

In retrospect, if our population continues to explode it would then not be unreasonable to draw a conclusion that our water supplies face significant declines too (it did happen well before the proposed population explosion). Now when you renovate or build a new home, you must provide water tanks in accordance with local Council building regulations.

So why, in any Mosman or North Sydney parks, ovals or reserves, have the respective Councils not installed water tanks? After all they have only to connect to their very own street storm water. Look at the number of parks, ovals and reserves located below street level. Balmoral Oval, Rosherville Reserve, Forsyth Park, Tunks Park, Primrose Park, Cremorne Point Reserve, Sirius Cove Reserve, Allan Border Oval, Rawson Park, Spit Reserve and Reid Park. These are but a few that are all entirely dam- dependent and coincidentally, always have their sprinklers on when it is raining.

Warragamba Dam is presently at 55 per cent capacity and declining – although the Kurnell desalination plant is soon to be completed and that will supply up to 15 per cent of Sydney’s water. Of course we can’t leave out evaporation as this coincides with policy that has also evaporated.

Then again I have never been one to water down an edition.

Cheers ^__^

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

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27.11.09Robert Simeon1 Comment »

Never one to miss an opportunity we had to investigate these “need for greed” accusations pointed directly at our very own Fort Crumble (NSW government). The Fort Crumble draw-bridge is now drawing attention to corruption, and we are not talking about “water under the bridge”. Stateline NSW published “The Land Bribe” another compelling read. “Tonight, a leading Sydney barrister specialising in planning and environment laws – he advises his property developer clients with contentious project to circumvent local councils and take them straight to the Minister for Planning because they won’t receive close scrutiny.” Now it gets interesting as for some unimaginable reason (you can be the judge), Fort Crumble changed its planning legislation. The dogs are barking from within their respective property kennels.

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Tim Mooney Photography

www.timmooneyphotography.com

Barrister Tim Robertson told Stateline “The changes that have been made since 2005 have concentrated enormous power in the hands of one person, the Planning Minister, and it has returned the state to the position we were in about 1965. If you remember, the Premier of the day was a fellow called Askin, and we are now in the position with our planning system, that we have returned to the days of Bob Askin.” For the younger readership the late Bob Askin was referred to as a “deal or no deal” Premier. Maybe it has become contagious, as this week The Sydney Morning Herald ran this “Mamma mia, you know too much”.

The Emperor, otherwise known as Kevin Rudd, whilst basking in record high approval ratings, would be throwing chop sticks, dim sims and bok choy at his Fort Crumble counterparts. Despite the ongoing political calamities businesses are focussed on what is actually happening in our economic playground – where our report cards are most impressive. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute leading index of economic activity is on the improve minus – 7 per cent in May, minus – 3.3 per cent in June and minus – 1.8 per cent in July. The Institute predicts a tepid recovery in the second half of 2009 and a much brighter 2010.

Interest Rates

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Unemployment

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The Emperor is perplexed and we are not talking indigestion either, as he faces an election next year. Fort Crumble is of major concern to his popular Fort Fumble, given he possibly stands to lose five seats at next year’s election. A wobbly, as the Fort Crumble electoral Yum Cha is poisoning the diners and knives instead of chop sticks have become the preferred choice of NSW diners. Forget salmonella, it’s rather a case of political poisoning, where The Emperor should be forging ahead with a double dissolution.

The Emperor is focussing his efforts as the Master Chef of economics and his recipe to recovery is not only tasty but is receiving rave reviews. When our economy is doing well – we all benefit along the economic road to recovery.

Warren Buffet announced this week “the terror of last year is gone and that’s thanks in part to the Government.” You will no doubt note he said “in part to the Government” which is exactly what happened in Australia where businesses responded energetically to the economic landscape – some much better than others. Bear in mind that when the share market starts running, the property market follows suit – success leaves clues.

Share market

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Aussie Dollar

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First home owner hangover is in retreat, as for the second month running, the percentage of first home buyers taking out new loans has fallen to 25.7 per cent of the market, down from its peak of 28.5 per cent last May. The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) identified that “New South Wales remained the least affordable state or territory in which to own a home, with the proportion of income required to meet loan repayments at 31.1 per cent”.

NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal told Business Spectator. “The average mortgage in New South Wales is between $80,000 and $100,000 more than the other states. The average mortgage is around $400,000, so we felt the impact of the higher interest rates before we saw all of the cuts out of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) combined with the GFC particularly on our financial services sector.” So NSW has the highest mortgages, so why does Fort Crumble inflict the highest taxes on its constituents?

Back to The Emperor’s Nation Building “Chippie and Sparky” program, where you go to a school and demolish three class rooms then build another three. Australia has a chronic shortage of available homes, calculated to be 56,600 homes in 2009 alone – construction remains on the decline. The only problem with this analogy is that The Emperor can’t place his construction plaques on a residential house. The Emperor needs to embrace that Australians live in houses not schools! Is Nation Building better defined as modern day Electoral Gilding?

You may have noticed that our Subscriber Sales have dropped from $933,919,250 to $841,266,000 which is due to all sales being added to the total. We corrected this glitch and our subscriber sales are now at $866,059,220 – over the last ten days we have posted $30,000,000 in house and apartment sales.

The first edition of Virtual Realty News went out into the www on September 15, 2000 where from memory our email list was 37 recipients – this week we celebrated our ninth birthday.

Cheers ^__^

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

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18.09.09Robert SimeonNo 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 »