There has been much made of the poor US Retail Sales Data for December.

However, the figures were only down 0.4% on November. The most likely explanation being that some early Christmas shopping occurred November; and the increase in gift-card sales will not come through until early in 2008.

Clearly, the Sub-prime issues are having some effect. But, if you follow HS Dent at all — their view is that … “a short, mild recession is indeed likely, and we are arguably already in the middle of it.” (Update: Wednesday 16 January 2008).
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Well, here’s some good news on the next Property Workshop!

Following a barrage of emails from those of you who took off the week before Christmas … you will see that the early-bird registration has been extended until the end of January.

However, I suspect the “Full House” sign will be going up before then. Therefore, if you haven’t already reserved your seat … make your decision now — rather than miss out.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Chris

As the New Year opens, there are obviously some concerning signs emerging …

• Housing construction is in decline and is unlikely to improve before mid-2008.
• Write-offs in the sub-prime mortgage area seem to be growing daily.
• Mortgage foreclosures may reach 1.4 million this year - twice that for 2005.

Despite all this, Australia is largely insulated — but will still feel some of the side effects.
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Details are now up for you to read and enrol.

If you do come along … I promise it will completely transform the way you invest in Commercial property.

Last time … sadly, I had to turn a number of people away. However, those who did manage to secure a seat were truly stunned by some of the bold new ideas we covered — as part of the breakthrough 9-Step Formula.

Key issues like …

• Structuring your Finance to “beat the Bank”, and …
• Negotiating & Marketing techniques to make sure you leave NOTHING on the table!

To capture these same insights and enhance your own investment success … why not find out more about this Property Workshop?

Last week, I confirmed that the next Workshop will be held on Saturday 1 March 2008.

Because people had to be politely turned away from the last Workshop, I gave the opportunity to pre-reserve a seat … for those not wanting to miss out on this one.

Anyway, I was rather surprised how strong the pre-reservation has been.

And this Friday, it will be ONLY these people who will be given first chance to enrol — before the official posting of the Workshop registration page goes up next Monday.

So, if you would like the opportunity to “jump the queue”, you can still do so now. Because, with only 27 seats available (and some 4,019 on my Membership list), it may well end up being a locked-door Workshop.

Will things really change all that much, now that Australia has wall-to-wall Labor governments across the country?

You’d better believe it!
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All year, people have been pestering me to know when it will be. Well, the date has now been set for Saturday 1 March.

Again, it will be held within the Melbourne CBD — to make it easy for those flying in from interstate and overseas.

The last full-day Workshop turned out to be far too crowded. So, this one will be limited to only 27 people!

And, therefore, it will be on a first-come-first-served basis!
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If you believe the financial markets, there is a 90% probability that the Reserve Bank of Australia will increase out the cash rate from 6.5 per cent to 6.75 per cent.

But unlike other Board Meetings, there has been a gap of about a fortnight between the releases of the CPI figures and when it actually does meet on 8 November. And much can happen over that period.
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Australia wide, the level of Retail construction was up by some 17% for the 12-month period to June 2007.

In the main, this involved extensions to existing suburban Shopping Centres; plus some new construction in many of the growth corridors.
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Given the recent financial turmoil overseas, there are several questions that seem to be continually surfacing.

Can the world live with a ballooning US trade deficit? Are asset prices currently too high? Does anything good actually come from outsourcing to China and India? How will all that’s going on affect you as a Property investor?

To fully address these questions, you first need consider the change in the way Western companies are now operating.
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