Unit sales ‘improved considerably’ as amid share market turmoil

Everyone is now crying US president Donald Trump’s ideas are causing chaos. And they are causing chaos. But, there is a method in his actions and the rest of the world needs to take note.

The United States owes so much money whoever will come to get it will be sent broke before the US suffers. It must sit with its creditors and work out its problems. Don’t ever run away.

In 1973 I owed a lot of money to Citibank. They came to me and said ‘pay up’. The problem was with the US, where they needed money.

I did not run away, but started fresh blocks. All the others ran away. When they saw I did not run, and built more, they came to their senses and we finished as good friends.

America did make the mistake of giving many people money which they could not get back. But, America should not damage many countries now. And, the spill-over will affect our housing market, which has its own issues.

I, of course, only build apartments. And our planners understand this is the thing we need to do. We will never build all the homes we need unless we start making mobile homes, which are very popular in America. I had many mobile homes and the people were happy.

We must also support housing with investment. Those who control what is the people’s superannuation must start to put money into units and not blame everyone for shortages.

They must do the right thing by looking at problems, as not fixing them will not fix them, and only worsen them. Super funds have a lot of money and are not controlled like banks.

The problem with super funds is their values go up and down in line with markets. They don’t generate the kind of capital gains like we have done in apartments. Notably, as soon as the sharemarket dropped our sales improved considerably.

Now our own government owes a lot of money, so they think first of how to get the money back, and only then about assisting in the building of apartments.

The government must charge developers and buyers less. If developers lose money they don’t build and if the government charges more they will build even less, leaving the government with less. Governments must learn to see how much people can pay, not how much the government can get from them.

We should remember we are in a lucky position in the world. The Chinese will never want our houses with people who would be a liability to them. They might only take our minerals in the event of a conflict. And Russia is too far away to bother us.

But, America should not spend so much money on arms. Because the Americans will only fight for America. Forget about them coming to our aid. Just get the arms from them if necessary.

Housing our people should be the real focus. Before we develop a site, we must pay the government big fees. Now the government is short of money, they are raising these fees and this will result in the price of units going up. So even though more land is becoming available, the higher costs mean no greater amount of unit building will occur.

Because of the tariffs being raised by the United States, costs will go up. But, we all believe that because of these greater costs the Reserve Bank will lower their benchmark rate. The market now expects four to five interest rate cuts this year.

So, the best thing to do is to buy as much as possible and as soon as possible.

 

This story first appeared in The Australian.