Anecdotal evidence suggests that consumers are cutting back on their spending around Australia. And it’s likely that luxury items and overseas travel will be the most affected.

A recent article in The Age expounded “The Flight to Value” — where Australian Property Monitors reported a 24% drop in the median price for Toorak Homes, in the 6 months to September.
(more…)

With the recent financial turmoil, you’re seeing a number of potential buyers who have pulled back from the Commercial Property Market for the time being.

Therefore, for some properties, you are starting to see the “Neglect Effect” come into play.
(more…)

There are a couple of questions on the minds of Commercial Property Investors at the moment.

And they go something like this.
(more…)

According to the recent Property Council (PCA) report in the Financial Review (AFR) … the 6 months to June saw overall demand for offices fall around Australia — as business confidence has gradually waned throughout the world.
(more…)

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).
(more…)

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.
(more…)

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.
(more…)

There has been much written over the past few weeks about the likely fallout from what’s been occurring in the United States. And some economists even feel it might be on the brink of recession.

The week, their Federal Reserve sought to address the immediate affects of the housing slump and the sub-prime crisis — by reducing US interest rates by 50 basis points.
(more…)

In an earlier posting, I raised concern over the dramatic increase in household debt — to the point where it now sits at over 150% of household disposable incomes.

As you can appreciate, the major concern has been as to how rising home-mortgage interest rates might cause a flow-on effect for Commercial investors. And this is because a fall in residential prices could adversely impact upon the security for any line-of-credit you may have against your home.
(more…)

The recent stock market instability has been more related to investor panic, than to any logic or reason. And you’re not about to see a stock market collapse — which has now been confirmed by Monday’s rebound, following 0.5% rate reduction by the US Federal Reserve.
(more…)