You never know what your going to be handed in a train station: could be a ticket, maybe a price rise, even a good kicking. Yesterday for me it was a combination of all three. The ticket came in the form of a pamphlet from Lend Lease promoting a Brisbane property development. The price rise was simply any thought of buying an Australian property in current overvalued circumstances and the good kicking came from Michael Pascoe on page 3 of the aforementioned pamphlet:
As you can see, with his usual swagger, Pascoe launched into me for being a whiner, whinger, doom and gloomer. Although he doesn’t actually mention realty, given the position of the comment, the clear implication is that I’m just not buying enough property for his liking. Nor, in fact, for The Economist’s liking (without any mention of that magazine’s constant criticism of Australia’s property bubble).
It’s not clear what Michael Pascoe is doing in this pamplet at all. But what is clear is that if you’re feeling uncomfortable about buying an investment property or house in which to live then Mr Pascoe has a message for you too. Didn’t you know that in the Australian economy you’re either loading up on property or you’re a bloody bludger?
Finally, you can draw some comfort from the contrarian power of the Pascometer signal suggesting housing is about to take another leg down.