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New Year - New Home Real Estate Limited MREINZ Lifestyle TRUELY ICONIC Web ID: T14494 Refer to Page 5 ISSUE 246 - Current to 2nd February 2016 tommys.co.nz The first word from Refreshed from the Christmas holiday break, many will be wondering what the real estate mar- ket has in store for them this year. Our belief is that the end of 2015 will be a reliable indicator of what we can expect to see in the early months of 2016. In simple terms, a market that favours home sellers, a market that offers a paucity of property for sale particularly in the popular and more affordable price ranges, and a market that has no shortage of buyers armed with low cost mortgage finance and who are ready to make buying decisions. The best market indicators (a record for Wellington) but suggesting that there could be producing real estate office in that we have available to us low compared with Auckland’s some softening of the Auck- the country. This is an award are our own Tommy’s sales $765,000. land market as the rest of the that we are extremely proud throughout the Wellington country ramps up. This may of and is a driving factor in • There was a 21% rise nation- region and it is no secret that be true, and some increase in our ensuring that we are not wide in the number of sales 2015 was a year that pro- Wellington house prices would only “top” for sales numbers over $1 million with November duced record results for us. not surprise. Some econo- but also for delivering a high 2014 recording 688 sales in In mid- December the Real mists are suggesting that the level of service to our clients. this category and November Estate Institute of NZ (the magnitude of possible price Offering a supreme service 2015, 833 sales in excess of $1 most up-to-date source of real increases could be sufficient and hopefully winning the million. estate data in NZ) reported to worry the policy makers in award again in 2016 features that nationally from January to • 20,126 dwellings sold by the Reserve Bank. Time will largely in our New Year reso- November 2015 compared to auction in the 12 months to tell! lutions. We believe this to be the same period in 2014 there November 2015 representing an achievable target based In summary, we believe that were 23% more sales and a 22.3% of all sales, an increase on a combination of effective 2016 is likely to offer just 7% increase in the median sale of 49% in the number sold by marketing and by utilizing the reward for property owners price. Tommy’s contributed auction in the 12 months to sales skills of our dedicated who have put their faith in significantly to that increase in November 2014. sales team. residential real estate as an sales volume and also gained investment option and that Buying or selling in 2016, we market share in the Wellington • The breakdown of the value resident owners will also reap urge you to call a member of area. of properties sold in November 2015 compared to the rewards of their efforts in our sales team for advice. Any Other interesting and impor- November 2014 is shown in maintaining and upgrading real estate transaction tant statistics released by the the table below. their homes. There seems requires a buyer and a seller Real Estate Institute of NZ little doubt that demand will be and we promise both parties were:- All the pointers are that 2016 strong and our responsibility we will protect their interests will see a continuation of the at Tommy’s is to maximize the and create an opportunity for • 8048 dwellings sold in NZ buoyant market of last year selling potential of the them to realize their real in November 2015 compared where strong buyer interest properties that are entrusted estate dreams and with 7416 in November 2014. resulted in multiple offers be- to us for sale. aspirations. ing presented to many prop- • The National median price erty owners. The Dominion Tommy’s city office was last Best wishes for a successful for November was $459,500. Post of December 19th head- year recognised at the Real year in 2016 with your An increase of $3750 on the lined “Regions brace for house Estate Institute of NZ annual personal, career and family previous year. Wellington’s price rises” with the article awards as being the top lives. median price was $435,000 November 2015 November 2014 Best wishes, $1 million plus 833 10.40% 688 9.30% $600,000 to $999,999 1802 22.40% 1677 22.60% Tommy’s Real Estate $400,000 to $599,999 2130 26.40% 2017 27.20% Under $400,000 3283 40.80% 3034 40.90% All properties sold. 8048 100.00% 7416 100.00% | ISSUE 246: Current to 2nd February 2016 Chinese Hot Pot There’s an old saying about China. After staying a month, one can write a book about it; after a year, an essay; after fi ve years, perhaps a sentence. It was ‘Red’ China when I fi rst saw it in 1976 from a vantage point on the border of Hong Kong (then a British colony), peering at the traditional market town of Sham Chun Hui. That sleepy town is now Shenzhen, one of China’s largest cities with a population of 11 million, and home to many of China’s most successful high-tech companies, including Huawei – the world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer. There’s nothing new about Chinese ingenuity; their Four Great Inventions date back to ancient times: gunpowder, paper, the compass and printing. Karl Marx reckoned those inventions ushered in bourgeois society: “gunpowder blew up Han people) came to pay tribute famous wall – the Great Firewall with the distinction that Chinese the knightly class, the compass to their Mongol overlords. that blocks access to US social food rarely uses dairy ingredients. discovered the world market media like Twitter and Facebook. Chinese food comprises eight and founded the colonies, The capital’s location on the edge distinct regional cuisines, although and the printing press was the of the Gobi Desert seems odd: Tiananmen Square, right in the Cantonese (from the Guangdong instrument of Protestantism there’s no river, no sea front, no centre of Beijing, is one of the world’s province, in the south) is the most and the regeneration of science lake. Its inaccessibility meant that largest city squares (nearly all are in common in New Zealand. Chinese in general; the most powerful for centuries peasants delivered China) and will – possibly forever – cooking has been infl uenced lever for creating the intellectual the city’s food staples (rice and be remembered as the site of 1989 by international trade and its prerequisites.” corn) on barges they’d dragged bloody pro-democracy protests invaders; the Mongolians and for over 1600 km. when hundreds (possibly thousands) Manchus introduced hot pots, China’s capital city, Beijing, was of civilians were shot. Now there are while Portuguese and Spanish called Peking until 1979 although The city’s climate is hardly CCTV cameras everywhere, and fi re traders introduced chillies. the old name lingers on: the welcoming either. Deep snow in extinguishers just in case people set In return, the Chinese have airport’s code is PEK plus Peking its northern hemisphere winter themselves alight. Opera, Peking University and – (all central heating is switched infl uenced food everywhere that highpoint of Chinese cuisine off on March 15 – akin to some Chairman Mao’s embalmed they’ve gone; most of us have a invented in the Imperial Kitchen – of Wellington’s older apartment body lies in state in a mausoleum favourite (mine’s Ma Po Tofu, a Peking Duck. blocks with their communal in the square; after his death spicy Sichuan dishes). If yours is central heating); a long, hot and tensions with the Soviet Union Chop Suey, think again; it’s not Unlike Shanghai and Hong Kong, smoggy summer that runs from forced the embalmers to take really Chinese at all. Instead Chop Beijing isn’t beautiful; its ugliness May to October, and lots of wind advice from the Vietnamese team Suey is an ‘American Chinese’ has been commented on since around March. who’d embalmed Ho Chi Minh dish now well-established in the 13th century when it was in 1969; according to the New countries like Samoa. It’s loosely founded as China’s capital by Beijing is only 60 km from the York Times, they’d worked on the based on on a humble dish Mongolian Kublai Khan (Genghis Great Wall’s Juyongguan Pass. corpse in a jungle cave with the (tsap seui, or leftovers) eaten by Khan’s grandson); the place where The Great Wall, a formidable Vietnam War raging around them. Cantonese farmers; stir-fried China’s main ethnic group (the piece of engineering, was Unfortunately, the Vietnamese shoots, vegetable thinnings and constructed in three phases didn’t know how to build an air any unsold vegetables. Early between 221 BC and 1644 AD. tight coffi n so, unsurprisingly, Chinese migrants took the dish It marked the border, provided there are rumours Mao’s body is to the United States, where it thousands of jobs, prevented actually a wax effi gy. became the speciality of third- By Nicola Young defections and displayed the string Chinese restaurants. And nicola@ emperor’s might. It didn’t, Chinese cooking is considered that’s a very long way from the nicolayoung.co.nz www.nicolayoung.co.nz however, stop any invasions.