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We wish you the very best Christmas & pray that
the New Year will bring you more joy, more
hope, more opportunities & lots of giggles!

Warm Christmas cheers from,
Nick, Katrina & the mrd team

Our office closes @ 5:00 pm today (Friday 18th Dec) and
re-opens Monday 11th Jan. Requests to Contact Us
will be attended to periodically, Thanks. More…

On Sunday Dec 13th the mrd team took a ride on the first trains from Robina to the new Varsity Lakes hub (next to the Acacia Centre that many of our clients have invested in).

The new $25 million station will be the centre of a “village” project. The Varsity Station Village precinct will feature residential, retail and commercial buildings providing services, shops, employment and apartment style living – all in close proximity to high quality public transport.

While at the Robina station we took a quick photo of the new $188 million Robina Hospital extensions. These are well underway and additional to the $42 million hospital upgrade that was completed a couple of years ago.

This is a 6 story complex of multiple buildings directly opposite The Wharf residential project – again one that many of our clients have invested in.

Robina Hospital Stage Two and Three

• Due for completion 2012
• New and refurbished buildings
• $287.7 million
• 154 new beds
• Clinical education and research centre
• Providing higher level care in:
  • medicine
  • palliative care
  • aged care
  • surgery
  • rehabilitation; and
  • mental health

Opposite these extensions land is set aside for the $37 million Robina Health precinct (see satellite photo below). Scheduled for completion in late 2011, the community will have a 3,500 m2 multi-disciplinary health facility providing:

• chronic disease management;
• post acute care;
• integration between child and youth mental health, child health and midwifery services; and
• car parking facilities.

The Titans $30 million “Centre of Excellence”, now well underway, is adjacent to Skilled Park (the Titan’s stadium) which was completed just two years ago at a cost of $160 million!

The Titans, newest entrants to the NRL competition, have continued to invest  in the long term future and development of the Club and its players by constructing a ‘state of the art’, multi-million dollar training facility adjacent to Skilled Park at Robina.

Offering a range of world class facilities, the Gold Coast Titans will be one of the best equipped in the NRL competition. At a cost of $30 million, CEO Michael Searle says the five story office and training complex will be unrivaled in this country and the envy of sporting teams the world over.

We noted new signs advertising the Stadium Village complex.

Stadium Village will be a vibrant seven days-a-week precinct anchored by Skilled Park Stadium. Stadium Village is capable of accommodating over 200,000 m2 of space in addition to the stadium itself.

Stadium Village will transform the new stadium into a living and vibrant people environment, with piazzas, trees, water, modern workplaces and contemporary village communities, alongside entertainment, leisure and hospitality for the whole family. Part of this development focuses on a sports medicine centre.

The satellite photo above will show you how much is happening in the immediate precinct of The Wharf and St Kilda; two of the more recent residential developments we have recommended. The Wharf stands alongside the newly completed $82 million , 16 story “Rocket” commercial building.

This whole area is only a ‘hop, skip and a jump’ from the Robina Town Centre where a new $92 million Myer store is under construction and the $350 million extension and revitalisation project was completed earlier this year. From the restaurants that surround the lake, or the ‘state of the art’ brand new cinema complex that overlook the lake, these residential projects are just a few minutes walk.

Robina Town Centre is alongside the M1 highway where $420 million is currently being spent. There is a new $80 million interchange alongside the new Varsity Lakes railway station. Just a couple of kilometres north is the Robina interchange at a cost of $60 million. Work is also well underway on the $47 million Mudgeeraba/Robina interchange (again a couple of kms from the Wharf, hospitals and stadium). Main Roads is also widening the highway from Nerang to Worongary from 4 lanes to 6 lanes in an attempt to cope with the increased traffic levels brought about by massive population growth in the region. Currently 107,000 cars a day use this stretch of the motorway.

We trust this information will encourage those mrd clients who have or are in the process of investing in one of the Robina projects we have recommended. For those clients that have not invested in the Robina Town Centre precinct or who toyed with the idea, it should give you a clearer understanding of why we recommend the projects we do and why we ourselves have been actively investing here.

As a fall-out of the “Global Financial Crisis” there are no new residential projects under construction in this area, nor is there much in the way of completed stock still available. Even if a developer started on a new project today we would still be looking at a wait of between 18 and 24 months before that stock was completed; and that is assuming a developer could find the land to develop, a bank to fund the project and was prepared to take on the risk at this time. All in all this amounts to a great outcome for property holders in Robina.

Projects with very limited stock still available are The Wharf and St Kilda.

Another very exciting boutique townhouse development that we are very excited to offer is called Wynd Villas (NB: Nick’s dad has contracted to buy one of these). To find out more about Wynd Villas click here.

Other Great Areas

Robina is of course only one of the areas with projects we recommend but the information above should give you some confidence regarding the research we do and the reasons we would recommend a specific property.

For more information or to request a complimentary no obligation cash flow analysis report on the above mentioned Robina properties:

• Call mrd on (07) 5580 8888 or
• Click here More…

Regular readers of this newsletter would already know my thoughts regarding housing affordability. In my opinion it is more a case of current expectations rather than a lack of affordability.

Reinforcing my take on this subject was the release this past week of research showing that Australia has now overtaken the United States to have the largest average new home size in the world. While in the USA the average size of new homes have shrunk for the first time in a decade, due to global recession, average floor space of new Australian homes hit a record high of 214.6 square metres in 2008/09 financial year, according to official data.

When I hear the media and individuals complaining about how much more expensive housing is I often think of the new home we had built back in 1973. In that year, the median price for a house in Adelaide was $16,250. We built on land (at the cheap end of the market) for a total cost of just $13,000. Even so, I could barely afford this ‘huge debt’. Sydney’s median house price in 1973 was $27,400 and Brisbane’s $17,500; had I lived there I would probably have remained renting.

History & Inflation

Recently I received an amusing email that I thought offered some insight into history and inflation. From time to time you probably receive a postcard from your car dealer offering a special deal on servicing or something else; I know I do.

Well how about this one, a card posted from a Ford dealer in the US to a client back in 1928. NB: Click to enlarge image, if necessary.

How about that! A full set of pistons and rings for $7.00 with labour charges of $20.00 to $25.00 to “have your motor and transmission completely overhauled. That sure beats the $800.00 I had to recently spend to replace the AC fan speed controller for the SAAB; and that only covered the part.

More…

I actually wrote today’s main newsletter article late last week; I called it “Truth About Housing Affordability”. Coincidently, this very topic has had much media debate this week and after reading Christopher Joye’s online blog yesterday, Is Australian Housing Expensive, and listening to a segment on Lateline where Steve Bracks and Bob Carr discuss population growth, I couldn’t refrain from writing a follow up to my first article. I have called this; “mrd’s Property Selection Bias”.

Many have read my earlier contributions to the housing affordability debate; which are at odds with the populist view that ‘Australian housing is very expensive by international standards’.  Christopher Joye is the managing director of Rismark and the arguments he puts forward  in his article ‘Is Australian Housing Expensive’ are quite compelling, in my opinion.

More…

The Hormone Guide

Women will understand this | Men should memorize it!

Every woman knows that there are days when all a man has to do is open his mouth and he takes his life in his hands! This is a handy guide that should be carried like a driver’s license in the wallet of every husband, boyfriend, co-worker or significant other! More…

This is great news for those mrd clients who own Coomera property already, as well as those who are contracted to buy at Lily Rise; our featured property today!

Today’s paper, the front page, reinforces the excitement we have held for the Lily Rise, house and (freehold) land opportunities, which are just 800 metres from the centre of the new Coomera Town Centre.

State set to fast-track Coomera Town Centre

Gold Coast Bulletin | December 4th, 2009

THE Gold Coast’s super city is set to explode after years of ticking away like a time bomb.

Under a new State Government reform, plans to build the Coomera Town Centre, which will create 10,500 homes and 20,000 jobs and the Gold Coast’s largest shopping quarter, have been doused with rocket fuel and the development could now be completed within four years.

More…

Looking Back Over A Year

About this time last year many Australians were at the height of hysteria and panic. Fuelled by pessimistic and often irresponsible journalism, it looked to many as though the global economy would slip into the abyss and take Australia with it.

Lehmann Brothers, a large US investment bank had just collapsed, stock markets were plunging and the numerous ‘prophets of doom’ were being interviewed on primetime TV, scaring Australians into believing that their homes were about to plummet in value by 40%.

It now seems that the Rudd Government’s fiscal stimulus package was an overreaction. Certainly the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) began their massive monetary stimulus by slashing interest rates to 50 year record lows.

In amongst all this, we did our best to remain sober in our assessment of the economy and the property market. What we said then is still on the record now, via blogs and recorded webinars. In a nutshell we said that there were great buying opportunities for those that were informed and felt they could tough out the negatives. We said that Australia’s house prices would stall and perhaps soften due to a lack of household and investor confidence… but they would not fall by anywhere near 40% (except perhaps those executive homes at the top-end where demand is limited). We said that by mid to end 2009 we would see the market actually take off again and that 2010 would be a great year for those who hold an investment property portfolio. Might I add that we picked every interest rate cut ahead of time (with the exception of suggesting the RBA would go one more .25% down, which they didn’t).

I say all this not to ‘blow my own trumpet’ but rather to reinforce the seriousness with which we take what we do. We are not merely selling real estate but rather mentoring people to safely and responsibly navigate a wealth creation journey towards the realisation of whatever it is that is important to them and their family.

Unexpected Bumps

There have been some unexpected speed bumps along the way. I was not expecting the rental market to be so affected by the Rudd government’s boost to the first home owners scheme. I did not see rents softening as much as they have and I did not see the prolonged rental vacancies that have occurred; albeit just for a minority of our clients.

Looking Forward Over A Year More…

Worried that $607,000 is too much to pay for a Sydney house? The Reserve Bank isn’t and it expects prices to climb even higher.

In a speech that amounted to a defence of Australia’s historically high house prices the Reserve Bank deputy governor, Ric Battellino, told a housing conference yesterday to expect worse and to recognise home buyers were getting value for money.

Prices would climb further because the global economy was growing again and because Australia had entered “a new upswing” that would extend its record 18 years of continuous economic expansion.

He said house prices would be boosted by increased population growth and immigration, solid increases in household incomes and “substantial competition” for construction industry workers from the mining sector.

Australians had been spending more of their income on housing than ever but had been getting bigger and better houses as a result. More…