The First Time It’s Never Been A Sure-Fire
A report from the New Zealand Herald. “Auckland property speculators are on-selling homes on the same day of purchase for huge profits, sometimes without even setting foot inside. Incredibly, one Auckland house was sold three times in a single day with its value surging by nearly $80,000 in less than 24 hours. Other astute buyers have ‘flipped’ their new purchases for instant profits worth tens of thousands of dollars, with one speculator pocketing $100,000 the same day they bought and sold a Papatoetoe house. One investor who buys and sells Auckland properties - sometimes on the same day - has defended the practice, labelling it ‘easy money’ in a rising market.”
“‘If you can swing a property deal once a week and make 20 or 30 grand, why would you not do that?’ said seasoned Tauranga-based investor Ian Stevenson. ‘Big money is chasing good profit here but it’s the market’s rise that’s driving it because they’re not fixing the Auckland problem.’”
News Limited on Australia. “Australia has roughly ’six weeks’ to prevent a housing market collapse caused by the banks’ crackdown on foreign investor lending, a US defence think tank has warned. The Washington-based International Strategic Studies Association argues ‘changes in local banking policies’ could see foreign direct investment in the property sector ‘decline markedly.’ ISSA president, West Australian-born Gregory Copley AM, told news.com.au the ‘banks’ caution is precipitating the market collapse.’”
“‘The banks clearly believe Australian real estate values will decline, so they are attempting to avoid that risk. They’ve learned from the US collapse that seizing real estate collateral is a no-win scenario when the volume is great and the market slow. In so doing, they precipitate the market collapse but are less exposed to it,’ he said.”
“NAB chief economist Alan Oster described the ISSA’s prediction of an imminent collapse as ‘garbage.’ ‘One of the big problems of apartments is most of them, we don’t know who’s funding them,’ he said. ‘If the big banks don’t know who’s funding them, then the bottom line is, basically the main risk is somewhere else. What the banks were trying to do with the tightening of apartment lending, particularly to foreigners, was make sure that if people were having trouble offshore they didn’t end up in the Australian banking system. To get any sort of problem you’ve really got to have something going wrong in China and then everybody selling their apartments at the same time. If they do that then it’s not an Australian problem, that’s a global problem.’”
The National Mirror on Nigeria. “Quite unexpectedly, house rent has crumbled to an all time low, under the weight of the current recession in the economy, and this has left people to wonder what was actually happening. Could it be that Nigerians have suddenly become more frugal in their spending habits in view of the bleak economic realities?”
“Alaoma John, resident of Wuse, observed that uncertainties about the future of the economy were responsible for the perceived fall in rent across the territory. ‘Many families who lived here before now have already moved to places where they could find low-cost accommodation at a discount even a three bedroom flat for less than a million Naira for a year. They prefer that to luxury homes just because of the bad economy right now,’ he said.”
“In his words, ‘Many families who have been living in these high brow districts are finding things tough these days, especially where their breadwinners who could be civil servants, businessmen or contractors were owed salaries for several months, had poor returns on business, had not been fully mobilised for contracts done.’”
“An estate developer, who preferred to be simply addressed as Engineer Ajani informed us that a bedroom flat that he had advertised for rent after much renovation work somewhere in Lugbe had not been taken by any tenant for over 10 months till date just because he left the rent at N350, 000 for a year without the option of staggered payments.”
“Barrister Adeyemi Moshood, corroborated the first respondent when he said that several houses all over the place, especially in Maitama, Asokoro and Wuse had been vacant for up to thirteen months now after their last occupants moved out. ‘Just drive around town, from Wuse to Maitama to Asokoro, all you will see would be the tags which hang around these houses, saying, ‘House For Rent,’ or ‘Vacant Accommodation, Please Call This Number…,’ and so on.’”
From CBC News in Canada. “Income properties used to be a pretty safe investment for many Calgarians, but the city’s rising vacancy rate is making some landlords nervous. Mark Hawkins, president of Rentfaster.ca, says landlords need to reflect the economy in their rates. ‘Because the market is very different than it was a year, what it was two years ago, the economy is way different here, so people have to react to that and adjust their prices,’ he said.”
“In addition to dropping rental rates, landlords should also consider other incentives, he added. ‘Being flexible on some other terms, like an early move-in date or not a year’s lease, maybe an eight-month lease, can be more important to the renter than a reduction of the rental rate.’”
“Ryan Kostel, who manages several rental properties in the city, says the energy sector downturn has changed the market. His parents invested in rental properties years ago, and they never had a problem finding tenants — until now. ‘I mean, I’ve only been helping out for the last few years but still, this is the first time it’s never been a sure-fire,’ he said.”
