STUPID TIMES ARE HERE
Click back to March and you will see our predictions of "Stupid Times Ahead".
Yes, we hate to brag but we were right again.
Last week's self-serving front page announcement in the NZ Herald by a Keiran Trass
(yes, "who????") predicting a 40% drop in the value of City Apartments put the cat among the pigeons.
We were "waiting for it" and we were prepared.
Hiding from my staff at my beach house in Pauanui the first call came through at 6.30am from the journalists at National Radio's "MORNING REPORT".
I was on with Trass at 8.10am and forced him to admit on air that he was in fact trying to buy apartments cheaply for his spruiker group Hybrid.
The Herald tried to patch things up later in the week with my comment: "pretty cruel stuff for someone with a vested interest talking about a 40% drop in the market".
As I was glad to be 200km away my uncomplaining but our overworked Sales Manager
(no he won't read this because he's too busy putting out fires) had to undergo film interviews all day trying to talk some sense back into the market and we featured on TV 1 news that night as well as TV 3's "Close Up".
I was interviewed by every newspaper in the country and ended up doing talkback with panicking investors in the afternoon.
Part of the impact problem of course is that, with the election over and a caretaker government likely until we can stand another election, the journos are a little light on copy.
So we got it.
Big time.
What's the damage?
A slightly freaked out banking fraternity is my biggest worry.
When the heavyweights haemorrhage everyone gets a bit bloodstained.
And some investors just dump like our Unilodge vendor this week at $80,000 for an $11,800 p.a. return (yes, 14.75% return, ouch.)
And no, don't send your name and number for the next one like that - you have to be at the Auction and bid like a real man, even if you're a girl.
Our advice is that the good suites are still being sold way under their intrinsic value (replacement cost) and if you are unfortunate enough to have been stitched up by the spruiker brigade into poorer units talk to us.
Rentals are picking up in volume but still fragile - an offshore landlord wanting certainty accepted this week a cheeky offer of $300pw for her fully furnished Metropolis 30 th floor one bedroom suite (no carpark). We thought the offer offensive but our client grabbed it. Maybe she was right to.
And don't forget that $7billion surplus!
This will blow over.
Call me.
Call me a hero.
Just call me.
MARTIN
