Greetings and news from Down Under

Well firstly let me say that I hope you all had a great Christmas and that you are all looking forward to a great New Year.

I am currently sitting here in my friends surburban house in Sydney Australia, well firstly sorry to say but it is about 26 degrees already and only 8.30 am. Am I missing the freezing temparatures of the UK..... No, im not.

My first day here was yesterday and although ive been here before some years ago I couldnt help but look in some of the estate agents windows. Now for those of you that have been, Sydney is as you know one of the best places in the world, and no where more does the saying 'location, location, location' exist more than it does here.

My friends house is down a pleasant road in a very nice part of Sydney, nothing special but equally nothing down beat. His house is 4 bedrooms and built into a hill, so the three bedrooms downstairs that are built into the hill make them feel a little dark and damp (well in the winter anyway) Its ojnly 20 years old and has no real cutting edge design. Pleasant is the word to describe it. It has an average sized garden and no pool (which I must have a word with my friend about. Oh and there is no garage and no view.

So why am I telling you all about this, well if I picked this house up and put it next to mine, it would sell for about 300k/350k sterling (there is no pound sign on the keyboard !!!) if I were to rent it out it would get about 1200 a month. So you can now get an idea about. Well if this came on the market today here, it would sell for $1.8M thats about 1.3M sterling. Yep I fell over too and rent, well they are renting it at a mere snip of 1000 pounds a week. A bargain.

So location is still the key (in the main) I am very lucky to be holidaying here and it is impossible to not look around and think what a beautiful place to live but unless my lottery ticket comes in, I think I will remain the frustrated visitor, sleeping in the spare room.

New Year Greetings

Well I just thought I'd take this opportunity to wish all of you and your families a very happy New Year. I am currently standing in comet at Heathrow airport playing on their Ipad.
While I am away Mark, Simon Kat and Josh will be looking after things so if you need anything at all just let them know.

So from a sunny Australia I will wish you a great New Year and to all of you who have supported us in 2010 we thank you.

Many many thanks Peter

We Think House Prices are set to rise in 2011

Yep, we think house prices will inch ahead in the next year. The Bank of England want things to start moving again and their commitment to keep the base rate at 0.5% demonstrates this.

So a small rise, hopefully in line with inflation will see house prices continue to slowly rise and according to the Centre of Economics and Business Research the market will 'really' start picking up in the following years with London leading the way again.

My view is bricks and mortar will always be a safe bet, maybe the days of making a fast buck are over but as always and with all the safest bets, it is a long term play. Just a shame the banks wont open the door to the wanna be players.

Think Competition - Win an Ipad

Only two days left to win an Ipad !!
All you need to do is answer the following question and email us your answer. Click on the link below and you could be the winner

Click here to enter the think competition

Good Luck

The Think Blog goes Live

Hi everyone, in this day and age we at Think property are aiming to keep you ahead of the game.
We are aiming to send out our regular 'think blog' highlighting changes in the property sector and market.

We want to make this as interactive as possible so please give us any feedback or even let us know if there is anything you feel we can do better.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading and receiving our future blogs and tweets and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Have a fantastic Christmas and onwards and upwards for 2011
Cheers Peter and Mark