When Should You
Fix Your Interest Rate?

On Wednesday, I put up this post about whether or not to fix your interest rate, when purchasing a Commercial property. Only to find there was a problem with streaming of the Video.

Hopefully, that’s now been resolved; and so let’s try Take 2.

The simple answer to the question of timing is … when most Investors are not giving it much thought.

Like right now!

Anyway, here’s a short Video to explain my logic for saying this. Hopefully, it will give you a “helicopter view” of where things will head, over the next 5 years. [Read more…]

Retail Returns to Favour

Retail property has had some press coverage of late.

It has shown a surprising improvement, given global events and the hike in interest rates.

Westfield (a good retail barometer) reported a strong mid-year result from its Australian shopping centres.

RetailMar2010As you can see from the table, Vacancy rates have fallen significantly and Yields firmed — particularly within the strip shopping centres of Melbourne.

And furthermore, rentals have also started to climb … as the economic recovery has given shoppers confidence to start spending again.

Currently yields ranging between 4% and 6.5% across these various strip centres. And would indicate that investors are returning to retail property once more.

If you are planning to acquire some Retail property, you need …

    1. A strong tenant (well-established, or proven backing);
    2. A long lease (5 years+); and also
    3. Solid rental reviews (CPI or at least 3.75% pa).

With these in place, you should be able enjoy a good long-term investment.

Your Opportunities Moving Forward?

There has been much written already about the global financial crisis.

But in layman’s terms, it occurred as a result of capital imbalances occurring throughout the world. And nowhere more so, than in America.

The principal cause can be found with the high levels of US debt-funded consumption. And in order to better understand this distortion, you might care to consider the following figures …
US Share [Read more…]

Your Handy Economic Clock

Over the years, you have probably seen various economic clocks explaining the different phases, and their relative timing.

Economic Clock

Economic Clock

Anyway, I came across this rather useful one the other day.

As you’ll see, it is actually a “Multi-asset Investment Clock” — in that you have all the sectors displayed together: Shares, Property, Resources and Interest rates.

Furthermore, if you click on it … you’ll see the clock confirms Australia is midway through its Recovery phase.

h3. And the timing for Commercial property? [Read more…]