T.E.T.

Melbourne is closed for the Cup. Nothing to report. We’ll be back next week.  

The day the market stood still. It was buyers’ advocate Nirvana! It was arguably the worst Saturday for auction clearances at the top end since the late 80s. The spring market failed its litmus test. Dismally.  Yes, many did sell afterwards; some near vendor?s expectations, others well short, but the clearest (and unreported) message of

There. In the distance. A band is playing. But it’s so far away that you can’t tell whether the tune is Auld Lang Syne or Happy Days Are Here Again. At the very top end, in real estate if not the share market, the trumpets are soaring. In a roller-coaster week there were four sales

A bunch of years ago, Bob Dylan wrote “The Times, They Are A Changin”. He could have been singing of now; as we write, banks are going “Whoops”, Governments are going “Oh bother”, car dealers are saying “Where is everyone?”, shops, travel agents and hotels are all loitering like barristers without briefs and we still

This, without doubt, is the slowest and quietest September in over 20 years. Did everyone go North? Yet the imagination of the real estate agent is a rare and remarkable thing. They can see buyers where we see … nothing. Yes, there has been a flurry of listings in the last week. Forced selling? From

Financial meltdown, footy finals, school holidays and our first (of many to come) mortgagee auctions. It’s a recipe for uncertainty, lack of direction, fickle interest and humble pie. Prediction for the next couple of weeks? Turmoil, amounting to absolutely nothing. We are living in interesting times. For those of us still at home in Melbourne,

Tears, tears, tears. And that wasn’t only the Collingwood supporters. Spring is supposedly a time of joy, but is now proving to be anything but for vendors. The zing is has left the town. Unless a property is unique, it’s a wallflower (and even for those, there’s no knock-on which can lead to new listings).

Kids, the market has turned. OK, you know that, we know that, but somebody really should tell the estate agents. They‘re still acting as if the boom rolls on. Their hope, it seems, is that if they don’t publish their poor results, reality will just go away, the Spring market will bounce back and all

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz. And if you listen to the agents, there’s about to be a re-play of last year’s Spring boom. Reality check: Unique AAA properties are still being bought, with some very competitive bidding. Anything less is anybody’s guess, but the trend is down, down, down. Mid-range, too many vendors

Now the other Olympics are out of the way, there will soon be no more excuses left to explain where the market is. It is now the start of the real estate Olympics. Top-end vendors have either been in Beijing or avoiding going to market when the world’s eyes are focused there. The real action