ASX Loses $50 Billion in New Year Retreat

The Australian share market is off to its worst start since the current index was created in 2000, losing $50 billion in value in three days of global turbulence. The New Year retreat has wiped 3.3 per cent off the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 since the Jan 4 opening, with all sectors succumbing to a toxic mix of weak Chinese economic data, a sharper-than-expected renminbi devaluation, softening commodity prices and broader concerns about global growth.

This January collapse was one of my predictions given at our workshops around Australia in 2015. Who took my advice and sold? My next predictions for 2016 and 2017 will be at our national conference – the Wealth & Property Expo in March. See you there!

At the same time I declared that property valuers expected house properties to fall 10% in Sydney and Melbourne. This won't come true, but in a year’s time who will hold this headline for account? It is like last year in April - Aussie Home Loans had headlines saying Sydney property prices will fall 14% over the course of the next 12 months. What a failed prediction that turned out to be! Did you panic and sell your Sydney property? They also had bad headlines in 2015 declaring that Sydney property prices would fall 50% - Of course they didn't!

Would you sell your Sydney property because of this headline? Prices of course continued to climb and have even doubled in some areas. What is the lesson in this? It shows that the media are there for entertaining. They are not there for education.

Where can you get education? Where are the reliable sources about property? The answer, really, is nowhere. We know that real estate agents have the best interests of the vendor at heart, and are legally compelled to get the highest price off you - the consumer.

Regards,

Kevin Young