TG

That shrieking klaxon you can’t hear? That’s a submarine making a crash dive and keeping it very quiet. It’s a very nice, very expensive submarine. All the bells and whistles. A top end submarine. It’s Melbourne’s top end real estate market. And now it’s diving. Then why can’t you hear the alarm? [pullquote]…everyone is staying quiet-as-mice […]

What’s on everyone’s mind? There’s a significantly better-than-even chance it’s not real estate. Certainly not at the top end. There’s just not enough good stuff around to exercise anyone’s imagination. [pullquote]…you may as well go back to sleep until the bunny has been and gone.”[/pullquote]OK, there are exceptions such as that below, but unless there’s

If you needed any more proof that we live in volatile times, you need look no further than the streets of Melbourne during the last weekends of March, 2011. The loudest sound (not counting some itty bitty car race) was every auctioneer’s nightmare: silence. A year ago, anything that wasn’t condemned (and some which were)

In Real Estate World, they love a label (OK, they’re not alone). So what happens when a reasonably consistent flow of properties coming to market is interrupted by school holidays or a long weekend? There’s a catch-up surge in subsequent weekends. Super Saturdays! Seems like there are more and more of those each year. While

The goss … Innocent Party (IP) meets Top Agent (TA), “I have a house to sell, it should fetch $8 million.” “Ah!” says TA, “Let’s have an expressions of interest campaign. We can spend $80,000 on advertising!” “But what if there’s not much interest? What if there is just one person?” [pullquote]…top-of-the-range dummy bidding opportunity.”[/pullquote] “No

Glory Alabama! The weekend was meant to be the first full indication of the direction 2011 is likely to proceed, yet those who anticipated a market with continued momentum have proved somewhat … premature. [pullquote]… reduced numbers of tyre kickers and lower crowd numbers.”[/pullquote]Of the auctions held, a third failed to sell. The most noticeable

And so we begin, as every year, on the cliff-tops of Sorrento and Portsea. Ilyuka, anyone? $28 million and the new owner is visible from the moon (watch the movie); but that was the exception. The rest of the cliff-top (forgive this) fell off the cliff. Last summer two cliff-toppers went for auction with $6

If there was a Fruit Shop Theory of Real Estate, and there may yet be, the past few months may be understood more easily. On entering the shop, you’re greeted by the fruiterer. Charming man. Beautifully dressed: tailored suit, gold watch and BMW tie-pin. He has a smile which makes you nervous. The first thing

There are trends and there are exceptions. When the exceptions cease to be exceptional, that could be a new trend emerging or, like waves on a beach, it could quietly disappear into the sand. All of which is of casual interest to the casual observer but is in the you-bet-your-future category if you are buying

Here, there, everywhere you look there’s another pundit with the definitive view on what the market is up to/will do next/has done. Whatever. Here a boom, there all gloom and did you see the number of people (or the absence of people) bidding/attending inspections/putting their heads in their hands and deciding to go to the