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The 2010 federal election is all about the polls (cometh the spin) then three years on, we have more broken promises than promises that actually came to fruition. Neither party has a single blueprint for the Australian economy, nor the nation as a whole and this was classically highlighted during the global financial crisis spend– a– thon which we are told constantly, saved the Australian economy from recession. Australia’s need to invest in infrastructure, is urgent – roads, rail and ports and this is why Fort Crumble faces election annihilation when NSW goes to the polls in March 2011.

Infrastructure in NSW ‘average to poor’ a scathing new report card from Engineers Australia where more than three quarters of the sectors require major or critical changes. This report highlights the point that industry can identify the problems, yet elected governments are incapable of preparing a work – in – progress strategy for Australia. Fix these problems because today our population is well ahead of infrastructure which was brilliantly explained in gotchanomics doesn’t bring home the real bacon.

Labor struggling in key states which led to rolling out the barrel – Labor denies pork – barrel suggestion. Andrew West from the Sydney Morning Herald wrote Back on track – and just the ticket for commuters “It is politically brave for a prime minister to appear publicly with a NSW premier these days. It is crazy brave to make a joint announcement about public transport. The NSW public is so cynical about public transport promises – after 15 years of projects being announced, postponed, shelved and re – announced – that voters no longer believe state Labor can deliver a crucial service.” The $2.100 billion rail link announcement for Parramatta and Epping will no doubt be shelved once Fort Crumble is removed permanently at the next state election – all aboard the PM’s Parramatta express. Who could forget reading How lazy Nathan Rees sold NSW short which explains why Gillard and Keneally fail on Sydney’s transport infrastructure funding. More than half the pledged monies promised in the current election will not be spent until after the next election in 2013 – pork rolled out on the never-never.

BUY PRINT

Surveys reveal that Australia is home to the world’s least – affordable property. Pundits are at odds over whether it might end in a bang or a whimper – a great read Forever blowing bubbles. The Real Estate Institute of Australia recently announced that a contributing factor to the increase in house prices and the decline in housing affordability, is the under-supply of housing. According to the National Housing Supply Council, the gap between the supply and demand for housing will increase in the next eight years and this will put further pressure on house prices.

Nothing new on offer since the houses that Kevin built – “It might be important to voters – but not the parties”, wrote Kevin Saulwick. “There may have been more pressing issues than housing affordability at the 2007 election, but not many. Which makes it all the more remarkable that three years later – and with the same level of community concern about the cost of living – there has been little focus on housing by Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. When Kevin Rudd sailed into office, it was due to Labor’s success in putting itself on the side of the angels when it came to housing costs. Rudd’s message was simple: he sympathised with families bleeding ever – larger payments on mortgages and rent. And he came to office offering policies aimed at increasing the supply of affordable properties to help reduce the pressures.” The Emperor was de-throned by the Orange Roughie because he had lost his way, then poor polling saw a phoenix – like resurrection to lead Labor to better polling – hence the soap opera.

Housing affordability can come down only with much improved infrastructure policies – Capital city house prices up 18 per cent from last year – ABS even though home loans sink to nine – year low. When infrastructure is non–existent, this leads to construction slumps in July because there is no point building, where there is no demand (especially when NSW has no South West rail link, North West rail link, Parramatta to Epping rail, M4 East and M5 East duplication). If these facilities were in place as promised, NSW construction would be booming and housing affordability and rentals much more affordable. How can Australia “move forward” when infrastructure is moving backwards, compared to our population growth? Policy on the run again as NSW Labor in the dark over Gillard’s Parramatta – Epping rail link promise which has been revealed as the rail pledge a carrot in push for McKew win for the seat of Bennelong – Maxine who?

The last remaining economic data statistic before next Saturday’s election was released this week – shock jobless rise where the three states of major concern for federal Labor – NSW, Queensland and Western Australia all experienced unemployment increases.

Whilst home loans fall as interest rates bite the good news is that the Reserve Bank of Australia RBA statement suggests longer pause given RBA forecasts plenty of blue sky ahead. With the election ‘soap opera’ out of the way next Saturday, we can expect some normality back in our property markets. Electoral promises rarely come to fruition as The Emperor “Kevin 07” found, even though he has been brought back to life – with a faint pulse.

Richardson & Wrench Mosman & Neutral Bay (RWM) has been busy working on our infrastructure and this week, we released our RWM mobile website. Previously with your mobile phone you could view our website with your phone which was a navigation nightmare because it is impossible to view a macro site on a micro application and do justice to our properties. Agentpoint our developers this week launched our mobile micro site for mobile phones users.

Open a browser on your mobile phone and type in www.m.rwm.com.au. Our research and development team are currently testing new technologies, all to improve your RWM real estate experience..
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Online is our real estate industry point of difference, because we are the only agency that gets it – so now you get it. Our clients can now sit outside one of our properties and view it on their mobile phone (outside set inspection times) from our mobile RWM website.

Thanks to Steve and Richard for filling in whilst I was relaxing in our Thailand branch office which is better known (by me) as the Tipsy Prawn.

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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13.08.10Robert Simeon5 Comments »

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The circuses at Forts Fumble and Crumble are folding their tents because, with below par performances, the crowds are disgruntled.  Angry voters ready to give Rudd the red card an amazing turnaround where this fairy–floss policy is being eaten away and RSPT now means ‘Return Sender Priority Termination’.  Having said that, under the big tent in Canberra, The Emperor (Kevin Rudd) is the  star performer of his pet event – the back flip, which he performs with ease.  It would be much easier to call an election and put the RSPT to a referendum.

Can the tax be fixed when Rudd says it’s not broken? The Emperor appears to be a broken man bearing no resemblance to Broken Hill. Kevin Rudd fights dissent in ALP ranks yet the Ring Master PM Kevin Rudd holds line on mining tax reform. The trampoline at Fort Fumble is losing its bounce, as Peter van Onselen declared this week in The Australian novices at the wheel of state. It was revealed that two thirty year olds and a thirty one year old, with no experience in the labour movement and next to none in industry or business, are coaching The Emperor with his back – flips. “However, now that Rudd appears out of his depth, caught up in poorly constructed defences of policy positions and back downs over challenges he had previously described as too important to walk away from (think emissions trading), the trio is being blamed for bad advice that could culminate in Rudd becoming the first Prime Minister in nearly 80 years to lose office after one term.”

The show must go on…..

Bugger – I thought I had Tim with this week’s request. Thinking North Pole next week!

BUY PRINT

Having read the Minutes of the Monetary Policy Meeting of the Reserve Bank Board and feeling somewhat comfortable that one institution has its act together, out came Australian housing market ‘a time bomb’.

Humming “send in the clowns” and in they came. “The Australian and British housing markets are the last two bubbles left in the wake of the financial crisis, and it is only a matter of time before they crash, warns legendary US investor and co – founder of global investment firm GMO, Jeremy Grantham. Mr Grantham famously reported a year before the global financial crisis: “In five years, I expect that at least one major bank (broadly defined will have failed and that up to half the hedge funds and a substantial percentage of the private equity firms in existence today will have simply ceased to exist”. The Australian reported yesterday that he said “ Australia had an unmistakable housing bubble and that prices would need to come down by 42 per cent to return to the long – term trend”.  “You cannot possibly miss it,” he said.

Reserve Bank waters down fears of real estate housing bubble and consumer sentiment is holding up. The Real Estate Institute of Australia weighed in No housing bubble in Australia citing over the period December 1996 – December 2009, median house prices increased from around $160k to around $500k; a trebling in thirteen years. Within this period there were four phases:

• From December 1996 to September 2000, median house prices in Australia showed a moderate average growth of 2.1 per cent per quarter.
• From December 2000 to December 2003, house prices appreciated at a greater rate of 3.9 per cent per quarter on average.
• From March 2004 to December 2008, house price growth moderated to an average growth of 0.8 per cent per quarter.
• During 2009, growth of median house prices again accelerated to 2.9 per cent per quarter.

Time to take a Mosman tent snapshot to see where we are today, compared to this time last year. The messages are mixed as the results show. We collated the data from Domainpropertydata and it should be noted, that a significant number of sales in 2010 are yet to record a sale price because of confidentiality agreements. It will take a few more months before we have an exact position, so these figures will be higher, rather than lower.

Mosman house and semi sales 1 January 2009 – 15 June 2009

• Total number offered – 148 @ $329,394,627
• Total number sold – 132 @ $305,159,627
• Private Treaty – 120 @ $280,714,627
• Auction – 12 @ $24,445,000
• Total Combined Median – $1,815,500
• Total Combined Average – $2,347,381
• Highest Price – $13,200,000
• Lowest Price – $975,000

Mosman house and semi sales 1 January 2010 – 15 June 2010

• Total number offered – 171 @ $276,487,629 (2009 – $329,394,627)
• Total number sold – 147 @ $276,487,629 (2009 – $305,159,627)
• Private Treaty – 91 @ $206,089,629 (2009 – $280,714,627)
• Auction – 56 @ $70,398,000 (2009 – $24,445,000)
• Total Combined Median $2,105,000 (2009 – $1,815,500)
• Total Combined Average $2,425,330 (2009 – $2,347,381)
• Highest Price – $11,000,000 (2009 – $13,200,000)

The Auction Comparisons

• 2009 Number Auctioned – 34 (2010 – 87)
• 2009 Number Withdrawn – 27 (2010 – 10)
• 2009 Number Sold – 12 (2010 – 56)
• 2009 Clearance Rate – 35 % (2010 – 64 %)
• 2009 Adjusted Clearance Rate – 20 % (2010 – 58 %)

The challenge ahead for real estate in 2010

This is not confined to the Mosman market. All real estate markets will face the challenge of matching and/or bettering the sales results recorded in the 1 July 2009 – 31 December 2009 market where results were significantly higher, compared to the previous six months.

Mosman house and semi sales 1 July 2009 – 31 December 2009

• Total number offered – 192 @ $418,706,750
• Total number sold – 174 @ $408,296,750
• Private Treaty – 127 @ $340,354,750
• Auction – 47 @ $67,942,000
• Total Combined Median – $2,250,000
• Total Combined Average – $2,617,286
• Highest Price – $12,000,000
• Lowest Price – $836,000

There is no way to avoid  the fact that our property markets have slowed since April economic recovery seen losing steam.  Events in Europe and of course the ongoing hangover of the RSPT debacle have  also been major contributors. So back to those green shoots we go – home building the biggest in nearly six years and investors ignore signs and pile into property.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that while home loans to owner/occupiers fell a seasonally adjusted ten per cent in the first four months of the year, lending to property investors rose eleven per cent. In the past year, lending to investors rose thirty per cent nationwide, and twenty per cent in NSW.

Our property markets (historically) tend to hibernate over winter so I wouldn’t read too much into present activity. It’s actually a good time to buy!  It does appear however, that the “fat lady” won’t be singing for some time to come, which shows just how hard it is to read property markets. Unlike the share markets, we don’t have buy and sell recommendations.  Investors are selling out of the stock market and moving their funds into the property markets – another clue?

Word from Sideshow Alley this week is that The Emperor is considering performing until April 2011 where he will call an election. Looks like his advisers consider it would be smart to go to the polls immediately following the Fort Crumble election in March 2011. I wonder if this weekends by – election in Penrith may change that decision?

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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18.06.10Robert Simeon2 Comments »

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Political correctness is out the window too. With more back flips than a Russian gymnast, degrees of difficulty can escalate in an election year (if off balance) and coupled with poor execution, can result in a lack of balance. It’s all very well to talk-up the routine before the execution, but we all know that Fort Fumble (Federal Government) resembles a modern day pin ball machine that constantly hits  tilt and freezes as a result of overzealous activities. In a nutshell:  You pour money in, only to see the machine (otherwise known as an economy) correct your aggressive behaviour!

The Emperor’s (Kevin Rudd) Achilles heel today, amounts to nothing more than activity freeze. More concerning is that the back flips are not supported with answers pertaining to the original decision -making processes. The Emperor today, is taking plenty of steps back and very few steps forward. The wind has left his sails. Too much, too fast, results in chaos!

Somewhat ironic following the global financial crisis (GFC) that the government of the day keeps back flipping with an abundance of poor policy execution, that does not promote business confidence. Ironic, in the sense that these, either deferred or cancelled policies, now equate to increased unemployment.  It is said that “a picture is worth a thousand words” so this week’s picture is dedicated to the failed economic policies and chartered courses of Fort Fumble and Fort Crumble.

BUY PRINT

Our Virtual Realty News research department (me) is always looking to give subscribers relevant and interesting data and we found just the thing  – IOU AUSTRALIA. The website says “Dedicated to delivering accurate information based on Australia’s debt situation in a real time snapshot. Numbers are based on public information, and are adjusted to reflect the information given out by various organisations time to time. Figures represent our nation’s financial health, and the debt we may leave for our children and future generations.”

Again, Fort Fumble and Fort Crumble lead the way – this is scary, have a look at Debt Clock Australia. I will try to obtain the relevant data and what the figures resembled when The Emperor took over the throne. Tony Abbott’s razor plan to pay off our debts is a good start given spiralling government costs add to deficit pressure as MPs fear Kevin Rudd is losing control.

Not as bad as Greece which today, has an estimated $430 billion, Sea of Debt – although one must remember that once upon a time its debt too, was just a fraction of what it is today. Greece has a deadline of May 19 to pay down its debt and the odds of doing so are looking like 430 billion to one. Greek debt fears rock US, European stock markets and the banks must not let Greece fall.

Sydney, you are the weakest link: survey and the latest quarterly Access Economics business outlook report, tips NSW to underperform again, during this next mining boom as interest rates, push up the Australian dollar and harm manufacturers and tourism operators in NSW. State is paying double for land Fort Crumble is paying up to double for land as part of a $250 million property buy–up for public housing.

Premier Keneally less popular than Barry Unsworth identified that if an election had been held in NSW last weekend, the Labor government would have been slaughtered. Charlie Aitken wrote on his Under The Southern Cross this week, “I did a bit of driving over the Anzac Day long weekend and sometimes you just have to wonder where your tax dollars go. How, for example, can the F3 Freeway north of Sydney, that basically is the gateway to Australia’s fastest population growth corridor, end at a roundabout?” Hypothetically, if another election was run this weekend the results would have been worse Melbourne set to overtake as biggest metropolis a 10 – year fall in the percentage of migrants settling in NSW and the lowest rate of economic growth of all mainland states has Melbourne on track to overtake Sydney as Australia’s biggest city.

With the First Home Buyers Grant (FHBG) you can artificially stimulate property markets, but the same can’t be said for Australian financial cash markets. Recently, I have been speaking with some of Australia’s greatest financial minds and some are predicting inflation hitting north of 10 per cent. The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) issued this week an alarming media release – Caution required on interest rates otherwise known as an economic storm warning.  The reason why?

Alcohol and cigarettes went up +3.5 per cent at midnight last night The Emperor added another 25 per cent increase to cigarettes that will drive interest rates up further– nice one Kev! An ongoing economic failed strategy that now has him called Captain Chaos or the Prime Minister for No Economic Idea! Frustrated that nobody has picked up on the fact that a 25 per cent increase on the price of cigarettes, will drive interest rates higher and higher – even if you don’t smoke!

Inflation jump drives rate rise prospect given inflation rose in the March quarter more than expected. Inflation rose 0.9 per cent which equates to a rise of 2.9 per cent in the year to March, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Housing is the major culprit which increased by 6.1 per cent due to increases in electricity (+18.2 %), sewerage ( +14.0 %), rents (+4.6 %), house purchase ( +4.1 %) – the major DNA for these increases lies with state governments that keep driving  these utilities up and they (as well as inflation) won’t be going down!

Throw in housing shortfall locking out thousands where Australia has 178,000 more potential home buyers than available properties, with Queensland and Western Australia accounting for almost half the total shortfall over the past decade according to the National Housing Supply Council. On present trends, the total gap will reach 640,000 by 2029. Such shortfalls are a guarantee that home prices will continue to rise as too, will rents. Here is a crucial graph that will now feature prominently, in future editions of Virtual Realty News.

Pay particular attention to the quarters of March and June 2007/2008 and September 2008/2009 pre global financial crisis – the greatest clue as to where the cash rate is headed. It certainly does not help when Fort Fumble is considered to be in total chaos over policy. Only Health remains. Ironic that inflation looks like exploding and our Federal Government is showing signs of imploding despite an election looming.

To make matters worse Kevin Rudd’s great ETS fraud found out – Andrew Bolt and “the greatest moral challenge of our age” decision to put climate action on hold smacks of political cowardice.

For mine: Paul Kelly from The Australian filed the most compelling read Rudd’s dangerous climate retreat. “As retreats go, they come no bigger than Kevin Rudd’s delaying of his once cherished emissions trading scheme – one of the most spectacular backdowns by a prime minister in decades.” Not a case of stand and deliver, rather ‘The Emperor running to them hills’. Then we have this pearler Department of Hot Air costing $90 million where the 400 public servants employed in the Climate Change Department will remain employed despite no work until 2013.

Check roof insulation before buying a home: Archicentre the building advisory group advised that vendors are not legally required to reveal if the home they are selling has been part of the Federal government’s scrapped home insulation scheme. Fort Fumble’s $2.450 billion home insulation scheme has been linked to four deaths and more than 120 house fires.

The much awaited Henry Tax Review will be released this Sunday and one could not rule out yet another Fort Fumble back flip.

Also, next week we will be revealing a real estate individual website first when we announce which company will be advertising its product on our website – property pages and daily email alerts?

Clues will be left on our blog –  banking or media? Maybe a property portal, newspaper group, or search engine?

Whatever, the case they want the thousands and thousands of eyeballs that RWM attract each and every week. Clue one – their business model loves bricks and mortar?

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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30.04.10Robert Simeon9 Comments »

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 »

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

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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)
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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 »

It would be simply impossible for anyone to win a spirited debate in defence of the NSW Labor government’s competency over the last decade. If you thought “underbelly” was riveting viewing, imagine a screening of “undergovernment” where honest tax payer monies simply disappeared, just like elected politicians (on pensions). Yet despite NSW record tax receipts, the state government actually went backwards financially and this resulted in the collapse of infrastructure.

The elected government at “Fort Crumble” (NSW government) is now faced with liquidation asset sales – this only happens when you are stone motherless broke. A government initiative to sell when weak and not at the peak is self explanatory. Soon to appear on eBay:-

NSW Government – sales spin to likely buyers.