Hi
Below - is a response from a moman real estate agent
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Nothing beats a classic piece of journalism and an article that appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday by John Garnaut headed "Property falls hit the hardest at the high end", was a beauty!! I loved this one by John Edwards who is Chief Executive of Residex, "It's too early to call, but it looks to us that we've reached the end of the housing cycle". Well if it is too early, why comment! Or could he perceive the market to be 'descending down' just love all this property prophesying. The article went on to say "After taking into account preliminary figures for April, Sydney house and unit prices fell about 0.5 per cent on average over the last three months". Well nothing happened in April as we had a combination of school holidays, Easter and Anzac Day, so it was not a month to market property, and let us not also forget that a war was playing in the background. As for March, well that was actually a record month for many agents and we sold $35 million dollars worth of property, which was our all time record month. March also saw RWM post the second highest sale price ever recorded in Mosman!! Woo hoo, I loved this one also "The biggest falls in some of Sydney's most exclusive suburbs, with prices in Mosman down by over 7 per cent". What an absolute load of rubbish. The market is actually up this year by around 10 per cent, based on our statistics recorded, and the real test will be next week when the May auction results are posted. Now to add to the confusion, the article stated "The Residex figures measure repeat sales rather than median home prices". Well that would explain it, as the current average price for a home in Mosman is presently at an all time high at $1,785,349 and the figures for April will show the price climb higher.
The Internet came to the fore again this week when we posted two quite amazing sales, given that both purchasers never inspected the properties. One lives in the United Kingdom and another in Hong Kong. We sold a brand new apartment in the new Mirvac development in Hickson Road Walsh Bay for $1,795,000, and an apartment that had been on the market with another agent for six months in Shadforth Street for $1,342,500. Our Internet side of the business has now sold 94 properties, totalling $155,462,000. Now that is what I call a smart business plan! Both the properties in this case were identified exclusively on rwm.com.au. It just goes to show that some "never leave home without it". This week I read the most amazing quote by the author of The New New Thing, wherein Michael Lewis states "The future will be so different that the past will no longer even be able to serve as a reference - there'll be no point in examining track records when the race is no longer run on a track".
It will be very interesting to see how the 'Governor of Moolah' responds to the ascending 'Ozzie Ollar'. The meeting in early June could very well see a rate cut. Now that will make the property market very interesting! Given that we anticipate a strong auction result next week, June could very well have plenty of heat in it. So why not pop down to the auctions next Tuesday night, and Bon Appetit, as the menu will be awesome. Smoked salmon, creme fraiche and caper canapes, mushroom duxelle bouchee, prosciutto wrapped asparagus spears, plus a few more to whet the appetite. We are still deciding on the wine list, and I have always been partial to a soft Merlot in May. There is no point buying a property on an empty stomach!! Some offer Minties, but we much prefer to do our auctions differently as it is important that all our clients end up with a smile.
See you at the opens, or we will see you at the auctions. What you won't see is the Mosman market down 7 per cent. But there again, the vast majority already knew that!! I wish the guy who keeps writing this stuff, and who also wrote in January "Housing heads from boom to gloom" would subscribe to VRN. In all probability I will have to subscribe him myself. Now there is a clue!! Cheers...^__^