Keeping on top of technological change is key in today's real estate industry: Robert Simeon

So there we have it – another spill in Canberra culminating in the resurrection of a past prime minister who reportedly has found his way again. The only positive that I could draw from this complete fiasco was that both parties challenging agreed beforehand that the loser would retire from politics at the next election (whenever that now may be). Wouldn’t it be nice in future if all parties applied the rule that if a spill is brought on the loser agrees to bow – out at the next election?

Alan Kohler posted a cracking assessment on Business Spectator – The year of two elections “We will have a new prime minister, deputy prime minister and treasurer as well as new ministers for trade, communications, climate change, industry, agriculture and education – at least. What’s more, in an attempt to distance themselves from their unsuccessful predecessors, this new group will try to bring a different approach to government, as if they were a different party.”

“And then in a few short months there will probably be another change of government (still) with a whole new mob moving into the big offices, and a whole new approach. This time laws will be repealed and policies really changed.” I could not agree more with this critique “The conventional wisdom is that Rudd and Wayne Swan handled the crisis well and saved Australia from recession, but it was mainly Treasury secretary Ken Henry and Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens who did that. Rudd and Swan were bumblers, messing up the implementation of important tax reform, and fiscal policy more generally.”

In a perfect world (if that exists) Kevin Rudd should bring the election forward and allow Australia to go the polls on either August 10, 17 or 24.

If you want to see an unbelievable government stuff – up look no further than visa delays stall foreign investment. Where more than $1.7 billion in foreign investment, including crucial government infrastructure projects, remain in limbo due to a slow visa approval process by federal authorities. More than 350 investors, each pledging at least $5 million or more, have been nominated by Victorian, NSW, Queensland and Western Australian governments since the program began in November. So, why the delay, one might respectfully ask? Governmental bungling would be the precise answer.

Australian housing bubble risk “overblown” with prices to peak in March 2014: Citi – Under its expected baseline scenario, which assumes no further rate cuts until the second quarter of 2014, Citi Research expects nominal house prices to rise 3% between now and March 2014 and then start to fall slightly, driven downwards by among other things a slowing Chinese economy, a weaker Australian dollar and reduced Chinese migration.

It’s just a matter of joining the property dots as evidenced this week when Australian Property Monitors released their Housing Market Report. Sydney is now clearly the best performing local economy, with an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent in April, the lowest of all major capitals. Other leading indicators of economic activity, such as retail sales, also position Sydney as a leading economic performer. Investors and mid – range upgraders are currently highly active in Sydney, with both the first home buyer market and the prestige market remaining relatively subdued.

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Confirmation of that analysis is that the Mosman house and apartment markets are today running at the lowest levels in terms of properties presently on the market. The lowest number of houses that we had previously recorded was 70 – this week it came in at 68 and going lower given we have an election pending and we are entering that time of year where property listings go into their annual hibernation period.

Source: Australian Property Monitors

MOSMAN – 2088

• Number of houses on the market this time 2012 – 80
• Number of houses on the market last week – 71
• Number of houses on the market this week – 68
• Number of apartments on the market this time 2012 – 89
• Number of apartments on the market last week – 56
• Number of apartments on the market this week – 52

CREMORNE – 2090

• Number of houses on the market this time 2012 – 11
• Number of houses on the market last week – 7
• Number of houses on the market this week – 9
• Number of apartments on the market this time 2012 – 19
• Number of apartments on the market last week – 7
• Number of apartments on the market this week – 9

NEUTRAL BAY – 2089

• Number of houses on the market this time 2012 – 15
• Number of houses on the market last week – 9
• Number of houses on the market this week – 12
• Number of apartments on the market this time 2012 – 51
• Number of apartments on the market last week – 33
• Number of apartments on the market this week – 33

My love and fascination of online is no secret so it was great to read this week that Australians lead the world in online entrepreneurship: study. Analysing data from their customer base, e – commerce platform BigCommerce also found that Australians are leading the charge for online spending, with the average customer spend increasing 20 percent from $118 per order in 2011 to $142 in 2013. We are witnessing a very clear pattern here where businesses recognise (giving online customers what they want) given this is all about increasing and pleasing consumer participation with your online business model.

Shortly, we will be rolling out our latest online strategy which is very exciting – the latest technologies are simply amazing – for example, if you are browsing our website and you like a property, the simple click of the button will record an inspection entry straight into your online diary.

Our business model is to keep improving our relationships with our clientele both in person and online. What our industry needs to identify is that our clientele spend 80 percent of their time engaging with us online so that in itself identifies exactly why all successful online businesses are constantly reinventing their online platforms.