News and Thoughts
Thoughts on the Real Estate market and beyond.
Is easier really better?
01 November 2011New Zealand is generally recognised as a business friendly environment. In fact New Zealand has ranked first as the world's easiest place to start a business and third out of 183 countries for ease of doing business in a report from the International Finance Corporation and the… Read More
What the customer needs
07 October 2011It seems a long time ago now, but when I went to sales school, one of the principles I learned was to identify what the customer needs.It may seem simple - but it has stood the test of time. It is much easier to make a sale when you are fulfilling a need than attempting to… Read More
Steve Jobs doesn't sell real estate
30 August 2011There has been much written in recent days since Steve Jobs' announced his decision to step down from the role of CEO of Apple. There is no doubt he has remarkable insight and foresight, and that he has had an immense impact on the technology that forms part of our daily lives. Amongst… Read More
Capital Gains Tax
29 July 2011A Bonus for Business ? Over the years we have accepted the generally held notion that a capital gains tax would be bad for business - and that politically it would not fly in New Zealand. However, now that the Labour Party has ensured that the concept will be firmly in… Read More
Market commentary for May 2011
01 June 2011The pattern which has been evolving this year continued during May. There are good interest levels in property – particularly in the range from 300 m2 through to 1000 m2, from both tenants and owner-occupiers. Often however, that interest has to be flushed out, and those… Read More
The customer is always right?
01 June 2011This mantra is often repeated as though it is a fundamental law of nature. Certainly the more we read management and business books emanating from the USA , the more we are convinced that American writers believe it. Perhaps it was written down on one of those lumps of stone Moses… Read More
The power of suggestion
05 May 2011Many years ago in another life I spent considerable time in the company of sheep. This was back in the days when wool was primarily used for making heavy garments to keep soldiers warm in faraway wars, and lamb was frozen for the long trip to the "mother country". And a good background… Read More
The recession is over!
05 May 2011Whilst the quarterly economic activity numbers which officially tell us how our economy is performing are important, we prefer to rely on other measures to form our opinion. These other measures we find to be more reliable, and in particular don't contain that time lag which usually… Read More
Our comment on the industrial property market
05 April 2011Whilst the period since Christmas has seen increased levels of activity in the market (certainly greatly increased over last winter), the majority of deals appear to be in leasing and cash flow properties, with very little action in the owner occupier sector. There is anecdotal… Read More
There has to be a better way!
05 April 2011We are all familiar with the Pareto Principle - often known as the 80/20 rule - whereby 80% of the outcomes are caused by 20% of the actions. 80% of road accidents are caused by less than 20% of drivers. 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. Additional to that, 80%… Read More
Expedio can assist
05 April 2011With buyers perceptions rapidly changing, and therefore impacting on activity levels, to ensure results we all need to consider alternatives to traditional transactions. In the current environment buyers are increasingly hesitant to commit - primarily as a result of negative media… Read More
The power of communication
05 April 2011We have to admit it. There are times we struggle to understand some of the complexities of the modern world. We have given up looking under the bonnet of our trusty Toyota except to periodically check the dipstick and the washer water level. The computers under there confuse us.… Read More
Global financial crisis, or Abdication of personal responsibility
05 April 2011Isn't it ironic that in an age when access to information , news and opinion is easier than it has ever been ,most people still seem to have a very cursory knowledge of some of the events that impact on us the greatest? The headlines "Global Financial Crisis" have been used so… Read More
The value of utility
05 April 2011Back in the early 90's, I once spent some time visiting in a small town in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It was a pleasant little town, not too far down Interstate 5 from the coffee capital of the USA - Seattle. The town was perhaps the size of Pukekohe. It had the… Read More
State of the market
05 April 2011Compared to 12 months ago it is very obvious that there is currently significantly less activity in the marketplace. With predictions of slowing economic activity many tenants are looking to downsize rather than expand, and prospective owner /occupiers are constrained by tightening… Read More
recession - really?
05 April 2011We managed to talk ourselves into a recession. Admittedly it was on the back of , and as a somewhat reflex reaction to, some of the most immoral and rapacious behaviour seen in most of our lifetimes. While banks in this part of the world may not have had their snouts firmly… Read More
Our view of the marketketplace
05 April 2011There is no doubt that we are in a changing markeplace. Whilst some of the problems are of our own making, especially in the finance industry, the repercussions from the US sub-prime mortgage debacle are not. Yet they illustrate once again that we live in a global village, and… Read More
How hungry are we really?
05 April 2011Last month we posed the question in relation to businesses exhibiting at a trade show: How many of the 6 businesses were hungry enough for my business to follow up after the show ? The answer: There were no cigars this month.No respondent came up with the right… Read More