by Alistair Helm in Facebook
Here are articles posted on Facebook over the past 2 weeks - short, spontaneous insights and observations which I felt needed immediate discussion and didn't warrant long-form articles written.
by Alistair Helm in Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Companies, Real Estate Industry
On the face of it the NZ real estate industry is incredibly competitive. There are over 10,000 licensed agents all fighting for just 76,000 property sales a year. That’s barely one sale per agent every 6 weeks of work, one income bearing sale - lean pickings indeed!
Some might argue that there are too many agents fighting for a slice of the real estate cake. That might well be true, but on the face of it, it certainly looks to be a highly competitive industry. Further to support this belief is the extent of marketing undertaken by individual agents eager to secure your business, all showcasing their skills and experience.
The differentiation of one real estate agent to another, or one real estate company to another in NZ is paper thin - they all have a list of glowing referrals as long as your arm and offer "Free Appraisals" as if this was a compelling point of difference.
However when was the last time you saw a NZ real estate company undertake this type of advertising?
I am grateful to Robert Brown who snapped this photo from a train in Kent, England.
For clarity let me share the text of the advert:
"Strutt & Parker sells houses faster than any other agent in Sevenoaks. And Whether in town or country, we achieve on average, 99% of the guide price".
Now that kind of messaging in advertising certainly gets me interested.
To have this type of insight and performance metrics to guide my decision as to which agent to use would be far more powerful from endless testimonials that all praise the agents to the skies.
The problem with testimonials is that they are curated. When was the last time a testimonial expresses anything but glowing endorsement? In today’s world negative reviews as part of an open dialogue of customer feedback is far from being viewed as the death-knell of a business, far from it as the honest balanced feedback is judged positively. Having rich comparative data on agent performance would be a great competitive advantage for any real estate company or individual agent.
A NZ real estate company that could deliver this performance as demonstrated by Strutt & Parker would not only be able to gain new customers, it could also attract the best agents. Such competition would certainly force other real estate companies to seek to better understand why their performance lagged behind the leader. This would engender competition in the industry. Drive efficiency and enhanced customer satisfaction.
Whilst I am sure there will be detractors to this article and this fundamental question, there is no denying the fact that real estate has metrics. Be it the days-on-market, the asking price to sales price ratio, the marketing investment vs return, or the market share of a real estate company (there is one company for which such data exists - Barfoot & Thompson). The key question is, do real estate companies hold themselves accountable to these metrics, do they want to from a public accountability perspective?
The Real Estate Institute as the industry association with the majority of licensed agents and offices as members has within its Code of Agency Practice the following clause:
Clause 9.
Ensure that all advertising and marketing materials and conduct of the Agency Member and their employees is a fair representation of all relevant facts, and therefore not in breach of any relevant statutory requirement (such as the Fair Trading Act 1986 and the Commerce Act 1986).
Ensure advertising and marketing content does not denigrate other competitors or the wider real estate profession or practitioners.
The second paragraph is the key as the industry interprets this (or has agreed to interpret this -based on conversations I have had within the industry) as companies and agents should not use data from the Real Estate Institute published sales data to undertake comparative advertising which would "denigrate other competitors".
We live in a digital world, one in which we can evaluate our tradespeople, our local cafe and every product we want to buy. We can use the collected wisdom of the global community to guide our decisions, so why is it that the decision to seek to find a professional to facilitate the largest transaction of our lives cannot be better informed through access to performance data?
This is not to say that the decision of the choice or agent or real estate company should be a purely objective decision, the feel and fit of the right agent is also key as are referrals but a third leg to the decision stool adds stability and surety to the decision.
I stood up at a real estate conference a couple of years ago and challenged the presenter when he expounded the view that the “Next Big Thing” in real estate marketing was videos for individual listings.
Time and technology advancement has not diminished this view, although as ever there are nuances as to the question “Will video play an every greater role in real estate marketing”?
Here is my perspective on the matter.
When it comes to property searching, the most critical stage is the early process of filtering. This is where buyers are building up a picture in their mind as to the type of property they want to buy and in doing so examining the various options, undertaking a filtering process. This process of 'include this / exclude this' is largely influenced by images. The brain can scan and process images at an incredible speed (apparently the brain processes images 60,000 time faster than text) and to prove my point here is a simple experiment I carried out.
I took a random listing from today’s property market - “Ripe for Renovation!!!” 65 Court Crescent, Panmure, Auckland a property being marketed by Ray White. (I used this listing simply as an example, not to make any judgement on listing agent or Ray White or the property).
The property has 12 photos a brief description and a video - all on Realestate.co.nz
The pictures told me all I wanted to know about this property - how it is laid out, what condition it is in. The description to be honest told me a lot about the neighbourhood. However I was looking to buy in the area, I would surely have done my background research or be living locally anyway. The video though was literally a complete waste of 46 seconds - it was not to be fair, a video, rather it was a photo montage set to music with no voice over featuring just 8 of the 12 images.
The fact is that this type of video is the least valuable form of video content and certainly of no value on a property portal like Realestate.co.nz.
Home buyers using property portals such as Trade Me Property and Realestate.co.nz are constantly in the state of filtering. Wading through the aggregation of listings. It could be argued that all that is really needed on such sites are the the primary data of the property location, price, number of bedrooms, bathrooms and the size and of course the images. In some ways agent contact details and time of open homes as well as method of sale are secondary. The last thing that is needed to be honest is a video.
However I do believe there is a place for video but it is selective usage rather than universal.
However before I expound on my view as to the best use of video as a passionate technologist I would be remiss if I did not highlight a massive leap forward in the presentation of property listing images in an automated fashion - imagine the video from the last listing on steroids. That is what Redfin has done in the US. In real time when you view a single listing on their site a computer programme creates a video with voice over curated with the primary content - try it out by clicking the Play Video link on this sample listing.
The business model of Redfin is somewhat unique to the US model of an MLS system with buyers and sellers agents and this is why listings offer a rebate! - the key thing is text of the listing has been translated into computer generated voice over and on screen graphics - its smart, very smart! Try any listing on Redfin and you can see the computer programme work on any listing.
Anyway back top my hypothesis of how video can be used in real estate marketing.
Before examining the form of video I want to state that the hosting of a video for a property should be on the real estate listing company website, the agent website or a solus website - this is where interested parties should be encouraged to go once they have "added it to their favourites" from a property portal.
The value of a specialised video is its ability to create in the viewers mind an experience of being in this house. This is undertaken through a professional video shoot that is shot and edited to become a visual story with a clear sense of a beginning, middle and end. My interpretation of this structure would be an opening which creates a sense of context. Where the house is in context to the community and how it is seen from its ‘street appeal’ - the exterior presence. The middle is all about the body of the house, how it is laid out and how it creates a liveable environment, however that might relate to the type of property, recognising this will be different for an city apartment to a lifestyle property. The tail end of the video needs to be that classic ‘close’ in the sales sense of the word - reinforce the key benefits of the property and leave clear message of how to move to actually visit the property as this is the outcome that as an agent is wanted.
Having outlined this is as personal perspective of the ideal video I can tell you what I would not advocate in video production.
If you want a great example of a well produced property video have a look at this one:
It’s a style of video that I have not seen before and until I saw it I probably could not have anticipated how much I liked it or even described the style and how it would appeal and why. The key point of difference for this video which I was almost cringing at the beginning was the actors. Once you accept them for what they are and they don’t burst into signing agents or get silly, I think they add a vital component of context. Seeing how people live in a house in a non-intrusive manner became for me both compelling and engaging, that had me viewing the video all the way through.
So I do believe video has a place in the marketing mix of real estate. It is not in my a core part of every listing nor should it be by some default of technology regardless of how smart or fast that technology is. Where it lives and how people access it needs to reflect the place the medium has in the path-to-purchase of home buyers and in my view that means on company websites of real estate operations as well as agent websites of rich bespoke content rather than competing for attention of portals which as pure-play operations should be about efficiency rather than bogging people down.
As a closing comment and example. Here is possibly one of the most extensive (and expensive) multimedia productions I have ever seen for a single property. A US$26m property on the island of Maui. The property has its own website, naturally. It does have which must be unique a 15minute movie that barely shows the home itself (check out the Explore tab) as well as a guide video tour, a virtual reality tour and a Feng Shui appraisal - have 25 minutes to spare immerse yourself in Hale Ali'i
by Alistair Helm in Mobile, Property Portals
It’s about this time each year that we start to get glimpses of the potential look and feel for a new iPhone - the rumour mill goes into overdrive ahead of the latest design and the people at Apple panic lest a test version is left behind at a bar!!
When it comes to design at Trade Me Property I am not sure there is quite the same amount of excitement, rumour or speculation. So let me take on the role of cheerleader of what I think may be a future direction of Trade Me Property in the mobile arena and possibly the web overall !
This potential new design style isn't the result of any leaked documents left idly behind in the rubbish bins of Wellington as Trade Me relocates across the road to some seriously smart new offices, no this design look and feel is as they say ‘In the Wild’ - as per the new design of a Windows 8.1 app.
Now I know Microsoft tablet installed base is not that huge. Estimates for last quarter of 2013 was 4 in every 100 table sales was for a Microsoft OS version - potentially rising to 1 in 10 by 2017, but it is clear that NZ has some very smart Windows 8 developers.
This I think is the key. For the development of this app, Trade Me has worked with an outsourced team from LazyWorm Apps. In doing so I think they have brought some fresh thinking to the Trade Me Property look and feel. Up until now mobile design has been somewhat constrained by what appears to be very hard baked-in principles of the core design principles of Trade Me design, which whilst ensuring super intuitive design user interface has ended up looking a little samey and dated. So I think this new look and feel is the result of a smart decision by Trade Me to let things run a little bit wild on what is likely to be their smallest installed base tablet app. However what we may see is this design creep across the web and other mobile platforms.
This is the screenshot that got me hooked from viewing the profile pages of the app ... sadly I don't have a Windows tablet to view it on so the comments are limited to the look rather than the user interface.
There is a simplicity and cleanness to this design. The function menu uses the colour cue of the brand whilst the logo is recessed. The images of properties are clean and engaging.
The map view of search uses neat shaded circles to cluster listings in a very clear way with density of colour reflecting density of lisitngs
The listing image viewer consumes the screen in an immersive manner with the overlay providing the necessary contextual information
by Alistair Helm in Facebook
Smarter way to help people find where to live - the US real estate portal Trulia has created a game which based on responses to lifestyle aspirations or behaviours helps you better select a New York neighbourhood - great approach to the primary task of helping people choose where to live before - what to buy.
Significant shift in the property market over the past year - the May data from Realestate.co.nz which powers the Property Dashboard has shown a significant easing in the shortage of inventory we have been experiencing over the past year
House earns more than your income! - the headline story from last weekend for me signalled a tipping point in the property market
Property sales in May continue to track down - the latest sales data from REINZ
Attention to detail in real estate advertising - some shocking misspelling within real estate advertising!
It appears the UK and NZ property markets are joined at the hip - we are now seeing mirrored stories between the two countries!
The ultimate example of real estate marketing - the property is on sale for US$26m and the marketing online thru this unique quality site must have cost US$150,000+
I fundamentally believe that access to better property data will empower property buyers, sellers as well as the real estate industry. Data needs to be timely, accurate, credible and ideally open (in the sense of access to the raw numbers).
This was my view back in 2009 when at Realestate.co.nz we put together the first NZ Property Report for March 2009. The concept of the report was to provide insight into the supply side of the property market. At the time we had insight into sales volumes and sale prices from REINZ and QV but we had no data as to number of new listings, the asking price expectations and the level of available inventory of property on the market. All vital indicators to the state of the property market.
This data is the core of a property portal, especially as Realestate.co.nz had the most comprehensive database of listings going back to 2006 when the site was launched.
We cannot claim the credit for the invention of the NZ Property Report as ever the best ideas are shared, refined and developed. I was inspired by the Rightmove House Price Index from the leading UK property portal.
There were two key principles I set down at the launch of the report:
1. The data would be collated, analysed and published on the 1st day of each month for the month just finished. This was a principle of the fact that being a website the data was accessible immediately so the report could be produced so quickly following the close of the month
2. The core data would be made open and accessible to all, so that anyone could use it to make their own analysis
Five years later and the report has grown to be of great value to a wide audience. I have created the Property Dashboard from the data. The commercial banks use the data and I know from discussions I had with the Reserve Bank Governor at the time that the data was valuable as another indicator of the market for housing, not to mention the media interest (great PR!)
So it has been with growing frustration that I have awaited the May report since the 1st of June and today is the 13th, that is 9 working days. Now I would like to point out I hold no animosity to my prior employer. I am simply an independent property consultant, analyst and commentator who relies on this information, and I have people who also rely on what I produce.
I have been patient, I sent an email to Realestate.co.nz on Friday the 6th of June requesting an update as to when the report would be published. I have not had a response to that email. I spoke to a media colleague on Tuesday the 10th to see if he had heard any information as to a date of publication, he was told that "there would be further delays and this month's Report might be a bit brief".
I believe that Realestate.co.nz has a professional responsibility to this report. If they are having trouble or have other issues they should inform their audience. They have a website to which they could post an update. They could publish the raw data to assist those who rely upon it. What I think they should not be doing is going silent.
I hope that the report will be published - today ideally. Sadly this will make it the last report of the month given we have had the Barfoot & Thompson report, the Harcourts report, the QV report and likely as not the REINZ report today - from 1st to last!
In someways not surprisingly as I was writing this piece the May report has been published 9.30am Friday 13th June. I did think that I might delete this article but I feel the comments and opinions expressed are still valid and need to be heard by Realestate.co.nz - I will leave you as the reader to judge whether thats is the case or not
NZ may have an impasse between agents and Trade Me - however across the Tasman it looks to be heading for an outright war between the two leader property websites!
The Australian digital property marketing space is a heavyweight boxing ring with the incumbent REA Group (majority owned by News Corp) facing off against a newly resurgent Fairfax owned Domain. The clash is about to get elevated to a whole new level given the email sent out by the CEO of Domain, Antony Catalano calling on agents to pull the plug on REA Group.
The email has been sent as an open letter to the real estate industry and pulls no punches. Stating that “If Australia's real estate industry had any doubts that it is fuelling its own demise it need look no further than the reality behind REA's latest round of price hikes.” This will sound familiar to NZ real estate agents if you were to replace REA with Trade Me, however we have yet to hear this level of rhetoric from Realestate.co.nz.
The argument expounded in the email is nothing new and is something that I have often stated over the years - that the headline traffic numbers of websites bear no relation to the scale of the industry in terms of genuine buyers. Catalano states that the 23 million visits made to the REA platform per month bares no relation to the monthly property sales of 33,000, just as a monthly traffic to Trade Me Property of around 2 million unique visitors a month bares no relation to monthly property sales in NZ of 7,000.
Real estate online listings appeal to a far wider audience than buyers alone and always will do - its a fact and therefore the key determinant of true value delivery by a property portal is leads - quality leads that turn into buyers, as that is what agents want.
The email is emotional and colourful as is the writer who has quite a reputation in the industry in Australia. Antony Catalano was at one time the top executive for Fairfax Newspapers in Victoria in the real estate advertising business before leaving and starting up a rival publication which in the space of a few years came to virtually destroy the Fairfax magazine and driving Fairfax to acquire 50% of Catalano’s business.
The email is a carefully timed piece of incendiary media marketing. REA Group have just announced their latest round of price increases of as they like to present it - a market based pricing which whilst still based around a monthly subscription is edging ever closer to the per-listing fee structure implemented by Trade Me Property. In Australia these revisions to REA’s pricing policy are an annual event and always generates enormous vitriol amongst the industry but somehow the industry ends up paying the invoice and another year rolls around.
The other critical timing opportunity Catalano has played to, is the transition from the outgoing CEO Greg Ellis to the new CEO Tracy Fellows who although announced last week is not due to start in the role until September, so the interim CEO will be attending to this media barrage.
The stakes are high in the Australian real estate digital marketplace and the ego’s no less so. REA Group with its primary interests in the Australian market with the websites of Realestate.com.au and Realcommercial.com.au also owns websites in Italy and Luxemborg as well as Hong Kong, employing more than 700 people - its recent full year revenue was A$336m delivering an EBIDTA of A$164m giving it a capitalised market value of A$5.8bn. Domain by comparison has a revenue from Australian operations of the residential website of Domain.com and the commercial site of Commercialrealestate.com.au generated revenues of A$141m and an EBIDTA of A$45m.
It seems somewhat duplicitous for Catalano to challenge the industry to boycott REA as he trying to take the high ground as some white-knight to defend the interests of the industry, his agenda is as clear as day - to maximise the shareholder returns of the business he is charged with running.
It will be interesting to watch from the sidelines in NZ as the aspiration for Domain is to seek an IPO in the coming year or so as a further cash injection to support the ailing print media business of Fairfax - wasn't that the purpose of Fairfax selling Trade Me though!?
by Alistair Helm in Facebook
LVR impact distorting house price figures - I shared my views on the Auckland property market with Michael Wilson on FirstLine on TV3 following the release of the Barfoot & Thompson data for May
What is happening at the lower end of the property market? - an excellent new piece of analysis by Core Logic into the lower end segment of the property market
Great interactive Property Value graphic - The NZ Herald together with QV provide their quarterly data update on property values around the country
Presentation is so critical for the marketing of a property - but don't forget the garden! - here is a great example of a well presented and dressed new home, only someone forgot about fixing up the garden, a major let down in my opinion
So you think Auckland is expensive? - very interesting research on European capital city prime real estate costs per m2 shows how little you get for a million Euros and potentially how much you can get in Auckland
This is simply irresponsible journalism - for a newspaper to headline an article "House values soar in tight Auckland property market" when the data is hardly representative or authoritative in my book is irresponsible and misleading
by Alistair Helm in Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Companies, Real Estate Industry
Waking up to the headline of the Herald on Sunday this morning, I was confronted with the story that must be the worst nightmare for a real estate agent “Agent put pressure on widow to sell!”
Real estate agents rely on their reputation, as there is very little else to differentiate the services of one agent to another or one real estate company to another, and in this world where the right to be forgotten is wholly unworkable the real estate agent involved in this matter is likely to suffer significantly greater loss than the $2,000 he was fined by the Real Estate Agents Authority.
It was in fact the scale of the fine that peaked my interest and stirred me to look a little bit deeper into this matter as the authority has the jurisdiction to fine an individual licensee up to $10,000 and up to $20,000 in the case of a company - Bayleys, the company in question was fined just $1,500 in this case. Objectively then it is clear this case is by no means at the most extreme end of the criteria of unsatisfactory conduct. It should be noted that the finding in this case was unsatisfactory conduct not the more serious finding of misconduct for which the fines are up to $15,000 for an individual or up to $30,000 for a company
I have faith and belief in the role and effectiveness of the Real Estate Agents Authority as clearly, through their complaints procedure they have found the licensee agent and the company guilty and certainly the complainant did have due cause to complain. My concern though is with the reporting of this case in the media which I think does not in anyway match the scale of the complaint.
The readership of the Herald on Sunday as the newspaper publisher so glowingly highlighted the other day is 371,000, add to that an even larger audience online and the fact that this article is already the most read article of the day; and I would judge that this is effectively a public flogging and humiliation of an agent far more severe than is fairly justified.
Lets examine the facts which I have done so that transparency can aide an objective evaluation. (The full details of the decision by the Complaints Assessment Committee can be read here).
Firstly this headline and front page article is not actually news. The auction to which the complaint relates was held in March 2012, the complaint was heard and adjudicated upon on the 29th November 2013 and the fine was imposed on the 6th March. The article is published here on the 1st June 2014. So the newspaper has been sitting on this article in reserve for 3 months waiting for a quiet-news-day when they could roll this out in an attempt to fill a void as there is nothing remotely newsworthy (in the context of current) about this - it was news on the 6th March.
The complainant made 6 complaints against the company and 7 complaints against the agent
The complaints against the Licensee can be summarised as follows:
1. The Licensee had a conflict of interest when assisting the Complainant to obtain finance in September 2011:
The complainant approached the licensee in November 2011seeking to borrow $10,000 to undertake renovations on her home. The licensee advised the Complainant that this was not possible, but provided the Complainant with contact details of a mortgage broker who could possibly assist her in obtaining finance - appropriate and professional advice
Complaint dismissed
2. The Licensee failed to allow the Complainant to run an onsite auction with her preferred auctioneer Mr. S:
The Complainant signed a listing authority which featured an onsite auction with the preferred auctioneer in December 2011, however that authority was cancelled by the Complainant some hours after signing it.
Complaint dismissed
3. The Licensee applied pressure to the Complainant to list the Property for sale with the Agency:
There was no evidence of pressure. The agency listing agreement was signed by the Complainant after a 24 hour period had elapsed during which the Complainant had reviewed and consider the agreement and the auction as part of Bayleys “Big Call” auction campaign.
Complaint dismissed
4. The Licensee presented offers to the Complainant from potential purchasers which were in the region of $370,000.00 (being the Government Valuation) when instructed by the Complainant not to do so:
The licensee presented offers of between $367,000.00 and $405,000.00 and in the words of the Complaints Assessment Committee report were “therefore below the Complainant's price expectations (but) was beyond the control of the Licensee and no fault of the Licensee.
Complaint dismissed
5. The Licensee arranged to sell the Property to a personal acquaintance:
The Complainant alleges that the eventual buyer of the Complainants house was a personal acquaintance. The Complaints Assessment Committee received statements that disproved this as the eventual buyer had only met the Licensee at open homes
Complaint Dismissed
The final two complaints were upheld as unsatisfactory conduct and reading the evidence it is clear that the agent failed to act at all times in the best interest of his client, especially considering the age and emotional state of the client.
6. The Licensee applied undue pressure on the Complainant to sale the Property to the purchaser following the auction;
7. The Licensee’s conduct, during the course of selling the Complainant’s Property and as a result of the outcome, caused the Complainant pain and stress and reduced her financial security for her retirement years;
The 6 complaints against the Agency:
1. The Agency had a conflict of interest in assisting the Complainant to obtain finance in September 2011 to carry out renovations on the Complainant’s property (the Property):
Complaint dismissed based on the same evidence for the Licensee complaint
2. The Agency did not allow the Complainant to run an onsite auction with her preferred auctioneer Mr. S:
Complaint dismissed based on the same evidence for the Licensee complaint
3. The Agency did not provide the Complainant with adequate time to sell her property:
Complaint dismissed based on the due process was followed in the signing of the agency agreement and the professional manner shown by members of the Bayleys team and the auctioneer particularly at the auction.
4. The Agency’s auctioneer failed, prior to the auction, to read a statement prepared by the Complainant pointing out the Property’s selling points:
Complaint dismissed as the auctioneer presented the property in a professional manner to the ultimate benefit of the client
5. The Agency charged the Complainant an excessive commission:
Complaint dismissed based on the very clear detail provided in the listing agreement as to the commission and the ultimate sale
6. The Agency sold the Property for $451,000.00 when it had a true value between $480,000.00 - $520,000.00, thereby causing the Complainant substantial financial loss:
The Licensee appraised the property for sale in November 2011 fro between $440,000 and $470,000, it sold for $451,000. The figure if $520,000 was presented by the Complainant as a value estimate based on the view of another real estate agent who valued the property at $550,000
Complaint dismissed
The Agency was though found guilty of unsatisfactory conduct as “on balance, the Committee (took) the view that the Agency had ample evidence of the distress of the Complainant and the actions of the Licensee. In these circumstances the Committee view(ed) that that the Agency should have intervened and properly supervised the Licensee."
This brief summary of this case seeks to present a fuller picture surrounding this case rather than the truncated version presented in the headline story.
The fact is that the transaction of a property is an emotionally charged undertaking, even more so in the case of an auction. The process needs to be given the care, time and consideration by all concerned - both the agent and client. It is also logical that if the client is elderly and / or emotionally upset that the process should be handled with appropriate care. This was done by Bayleys and their team, however the agent in question did not apply the necessary care, and through the requirement of the oversight, Bayleys are found to be guilty on this matter.
This case is being appealed as per the article in the paper - as to the decision of the penalty, as opposed to the determination of the Complaints Assessment Committee.
The agent in this complaint Mark Birdling has only this one disciplinary complaint against him. He has been in real estate for over 9 years and has over that time sold many properties for which I am sure there have been many satisfied customers. He has been in my view wrongly singled out for headline-grabbing attention when the other 34 such offences of misconduct or unsatisfactory conduct in 2013 have been largely ignored. Sure the media have a responsibility to report what they see as stories and news of importance to their readers. However you have to seriously ask, is the headline story in today’s paper appropriate to the conduct or is it as so often happens and as I contend, a cheap media grabbing story where the short term profit motives of the media company rides rough-shod over the career and reputation of the real estate agent concerned.
by Alistair Helm in Facebook
Vendor Paid Marketing - in my view the term is inappropriate, the marketing campaign is the key question in selling a house and focusing on who is paying is illogical
What does the skyrocketing price of property mean for society? - a great article from a respected journalist about the London property market of relevance to Auckland and NZ
How can NZ burst the housing bubble? - this is an interview I did with Paul Henry on his TV3 show this week - IMHO No Bubble / No Crisis!
Affordability test for mortgage applicants or LVR restrictions? - some thoughts and observations as to the various options being looked at in the UK and NZ to cool the property market and why in my view we are fine as we are
Real Estate Speak - a somewhat lighthearted examination of a single listing which in my view is stacked full of superlatives and extravagant language
Property for rent with Bathroom & Kitchen in the same area - In my view a clear case of unprofessional behaviour by the real estate agent
Auction clearance rates falling - an excellent article from Campbell Live on Thursday night showcasing the empty auction rooms around Auckland indicating how the market has turned
