The Wakelin Blog

I had fun and gathered some major insights into how other investment experts are grappling with the challenge of skittish times at the shooting of an Eureka Report Investing Outlook video this afternoon. Sitting around the table with the doyen of business commentary Alan Kohler were investment allocation expert Doug Turek and Managing Editor of Eureka Report, James Kirby...

In light of an Australian Bureau of Statistics report showing dramatically higher housing costs over the last 15 years, Monique Sasson Wakelin, managing director of Wakelin Property Advisory, is encouraging all stakeholders to address this pressing concern. “The ABS data shows that despite housing costs rising 42% over the last decade for mortgage holders, the proportion of household income spend on a mortgage remains steady at around 18%,” said Ms Sasson Wakelin...

Monique Sasson Wakelin was a guest of Hilary Harper's Saturday 12 November 2011 Breakfast Show to discuss buying strategies in the current soft market. You can hear a recording of the show and read some of the tips here . Image: Pixomar

Asset Returns: Past, Present and Future is another fascinating report from the economics team at the ANZ. It reviews comparative after-tax and after-cost returns for the main asset classes over the last 24 years, and provides some predictions for the future. The main finding is that residential property was the standout asset over the last 24 years, outstripping shares, government bonds, commercial property and term deposits...

Saturday saw the release of the REIV’s median price data for the September 2011 quarter. The 2.8 per cent drop in the quarterly median price for houses in Melbourne confirms the trend that prices have been slowly softening since around May 2010. As is often the way, it has taken sellers that long to ‘meet the market’. In its release the REIV suggests that outer suburbs are performing better than inner suburbs...