Lefty wrote:

Hey Freckle, some might say you  have been sighting the sun to long

LOL.. heading back to NZ in 2 weeks. Snow and rain everywhere…..brrrr.

It's time to circle the wagons. I don't like what I see coming in the next decade. NZ has a small sparse population that is flexible and adaptable. No matter how bad things get NZ will be luxury and security by comparison. 

The current risk with RE markets at the moment is that they're running on hype and BS. 90% of the population wouldn't  know what's actually going on from one day to the next and rarely does the average Joe consider fundamentals in general discussions.

As I keep saying to people; market hype, political hype and industry hype can drive a market for only so long. After that if fundamentals don't stack up then the market corrects to reflect reality.

17% may sound good but it's only 5% per year on average. If you aren't getting 7-8%pa then your rental yields better be good to compensate or you're simply going backwards.

The problem for Qld and by default Brisbane, is there is very little economic upside in the short to medium term (3-5yrs) and not a lot of confidence in economic uplift beyond that. There will be the odd suburb or two that will jump for short periods but over the long term their average growth will invariably reflect trend. I see too many investors who get excited about short term jumps in suburb prices and then ascribe some level of general market confidence to these rises. 

Most investors don't realise they need to get around 10 -15% CG in the first 3 years just get back to break even on ingoing and the first 3 years operating costs. 

I tend to think that making a buck in this market climate will require a much more pragmatic approach than in the past. Those that specialise in particular markets with specific investing methodologies will more than likely do better than most.

Ziv you need to dig a bit deeper. Coutts (AKA Bank of Scotland) is up to its eyeballs in BS. UK governments been bailing their backsides for a while now and they're still a dog of a business if any of Reggie Middleton's exposes on Irish banks and the RBS connection is anything to go on. If memory serves me correctly they're ranked number one dodgey bank in the UK. When the likes of a GS and RBS start telling you things are all roses it's time to run a mile. They'll be flogging Jap related financial products to anyone daft enough to buy them.

They're bearish property but bullish Japan …. ????

 Ballarat is one of those in between towns while Bendigo is more of a regional hub. The difference is subtle but enough to make a difference.

As Scotty says upload to a storage location like photo bucket etc. Once you have it uploaded go and view the image in the stored location. You can then right click on the image and "Copy  Image URL" . Come back to your comment box here and click the image icon. Paste the URL in the entry box, click in the "width"  box and a preview image should appear. If it's all goodclick ok.

The other option is just to past URL links in the comment box here linking back to your storage site.

You're what I call the tail enders. The players that come along at the top of a boom and who for the most part are trying to get some action before the opportunity disappears. Tail enders tend to lack patience because they fear missing out. Unfortunately that engenders the wrong emotional mindset and leads to poor decision making in most cases. It can be a hard thing to deal with when you've raised your hopes only to come to the realisation that you're probably too late. Tail enders don't really want to hear 'it's all' over and are prone to ignore negative info in favor of positive messages that reinforce their ambitions. 

Getting your head around reality can be challenging.