iPhone service

iPhone news. All our office uses an iPhone. Mine died today, so I drove 15km to the nearest apple shop.
"No sir we can't help you today, we can make an appointment to check it out for NEXT wednesday". Ok I can use an old one in the meantime, but how hard can it be to change a battery?
Well can I leave it with you? NO! (Then the entire staff clapped someone who had just purchased a computer).
Thanks apple that's rotten service.

Why are rents still rising?

Last year rents in many parts of Australasia rose more than at any time for the last half a decade – and it seems they are still rising. This is because landlords have to pass on their rising costs to tenants, isn’t it?

It’s certainly true that many people find this explanation for rent increases plausible. However, this argument doesn’t actually look at the deeper issues involved in rent movements.

After all, if landlords can pass their costs on, why do they complain about them so much? The truth is that experienced landlords know they can’t pass their costs on unless tenants are prepared to pay for them.

The important concept behind preparedness to pay is the real reason for rent fluctuations – up or down – and that is supply and demand. 

During the recent housing boom, investors put money into new apartment blocks and supply was at least keeping pace with demand and probably exceeding it, with the result that rents stayed low because competition amongst landlords to get tenants was high. In other words, the rental market belonged to the tenants.  The investors who bought the apartments weren’t so worried about rental income because they could see high capital appreciation just around the corner if they decided to sell in a few years.

As the boom came to an end, many investors turned to other forms of investment, taking their money out of real estate and building fewer apartment blocks. Thus the supply of rental apartments gradually dwindled, but – you guessed it - the demand for accommodation kept growing. This growth actually increased above its normal rate because fewer first home buyers were going into the market because they couldn’t cope with the high interest rates and the price of homes.

Landlords could finally raise rents without fear of losing tenants because finally it had turned into a landlords’ market. And naturally they could afford to ‘pass on’ any extra ‘costs’ or whatever explanation they want to use to justify the rent rises that followed. But the truth is, the only reason they can ever afford to raise rents is that there are more people wanting to rent a property than property available.

Source:  http://www.localpropertynews.net/

Who is making sales locally?....The REAL Story

Source:  Published house sales on realestate.com.au,
collated by markettracker each week.