mrd

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.  The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.

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Our office will close @ 5:00pm Friday 19th December and re open at 8:30am on Monday 5th January 2009.

We wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous and happy New Year.

Kind regards,

The mrd Team

Housing Minister Robert Schwarten said recently “There’s been skyrocketing rents, the growth in off-campus student accommodation and rental accommodation for seniors, and the emergence of rent bidding or auctions, which I consider to be a most un-Australian and unfair practice”.

State Parliament passed legislation last night to respond to the changing private rental market.

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,24744318-31037,00.html

A common question being asked right now is “Would I be wise to fix my interest rates now for three years”? Are you a betting person? Fixing interest rates is gambling with your bank and there must be one winner and one loser. That is an overly simplistic view of how the world actually works, so let me offer some deeper insight so that by the end of this article you will be better equipped to answer your own fixing interest rate questions.

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Transit oriented development is a concept which involves concentrating a mix of uses – housing,  shops, offices and other facilities – around transport hubs such as train stations and busway stations.

Precincts where transit oriented development principles are applied are called transit oriented communities.

Transit cities are based on the principles of Transit Oriented Development. This is a form of urban development that clusters a greater mixture of land uses around a high quality transport service. The transport node, either train, light rail or bus terminus is designed to be the focus for the development and ideally becomes the community ‘heart’. It is where people shop, work, meet, relax and live.

Transit Oriented Development is gaining currency worldwide as a key tool to reduce car dependence, boost public transport use and hence reduce reliance on fossil fuels…

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In the next week or so I am going to address the issue of swapping from a current fixed rate to a variable rate. I can only generalise because the cost/benefit ratio will differ in each case. If you are in that situation stay tuned and we will show you how to assess whether or not it will be beneficial for you.

Happy Investing,

Nick Lockhart
mrd customer care program… because investing is personal

“You Can Live WITHOUT Your Income” Information Session; recorded in May 2007

Running time approximately 1 hour 23 minutes

Our Customer Care Program Works For You… because investing is personal

In the beginning God covered the earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, with green, yellow and red vegetables of all kinds so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

Then using God’s bountiful gifts, Satan created Dairy Ice Cream and Magnums. And Satan said, ‘You want hot fudge with that? And Man said, ‘Yes!’ And Woman said, ‘I’ll have one too with chocolate chips’. And lo they gained 10 pounds.

And God created the healthy yogurt that woman might keep the figure that man found so fair…

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This afternoon Glenn Stevens, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia announced a reduction in the official cash rate by 100 basis points. In layman’s terms that means a 1.0% reduction… bringing the cash rate to just 4.25%.

Commonwealth, Westpac and NAB moved quickly and cut their variable home loan rates within a few minutes of the Reserve Bank’s announcement; Commonwealth and NAB by a full 1.0% and Westpac by 0.8%. Other lenders will soon follow making official announcements.

Using the Commonwealth Bank as a typical example, the rate for a full document standard variable loan will now come down to 6.74% with the discounted rate (Professional Package) being 6.04%

Back in August, just four months ago, the Commonwealth Bank’s full document standard variable loan was 9.58%. Someone with a $350,000 mortgage has seen their monthly interest commitment drop by $828.33 over this time… with more to follow in the New Year!!!

• To read today’s statement from Glenn Stevens; RBA Governor – click here
• To read my interest rate cut prediction of last Friday- click here
• To read about “What In The World Is Going On With Property” Web Seminar (our very last for 2008) – click here
• To register for our “What In The World Is Going On With Property” Web Seminar (our very last for 2008) – click here
• To read testimonials of other web seminar attendees – click here

Happy Investing,

Nick Lockhart
mrd customer care program… because investing is personal

At its meeting today, the Board decided to reduce the cash rate by a further 100 basis points, to 4.25 per cent, effective 3 December 2008.

Recent actions by governments and central banks to stabilise their respective financial systems have begun to take effect. Nonetheless, financial market sentiment remains fragile, as evidence accumulates of weak economic conditions in the major countries and a significant slowing in many emerging countries.  Commodity prices have fallen further.  This, combined with the likelihood of below-trend growth in the global economy, suggests that global inflation will moderate significantly in 2009.

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