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<p><span>John Symond, the founder and chairman of Aussie Home Loans, believes the Sydney residential market was peaking.</span></p>
<p><span>"She's topped out," he suggests.</span></p>
<p>"I really can see, I am feeling it already..that the market is just starting to come off the boil," he told Ross Greenwood on the <em>2GB Money News</em> program tonight.</p>
<p>"By Christmas I reckon instead of going up in the hot areas by 15%, I reckon it will be like half of that."</p>
<p>"Into next year, I think they'll (prices growth) will settle right down to four or five percent. It will be a more healthy market, than the fears that are around at the moment.</p>
<p>"Ross I have been telling friends of mine… who ask me that question all the time … and I reckon that the prices are so high at the moment, my suggestion is wait six to 12 months the chances are, all going well, there will be opportunities out there that you will probably buy better in some areas than what you can buy today."</p>
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Patience John Symond advises Sydney first home buyers: the market is coming off the boil

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<p>It was four months ago - the WA mining town auction that shocked the nation.</p>
<p><span>The ABC reported on a </span><span>Port Hedland February auction where the fibro cottage was passed in at auction for $360,000 unsold - its highest offer reflecting 2006 price levels.</span></p>
<p><span>Immediately after the auction came its declared $600,000 asking price, then $590,000 in March.</span></p>
<p><span>It had last traded four years ago for $1.3 million, and before that at $870,000 in 2009 and at $350,000 nine years ago in 2006. </span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://www.janfordrealestate.com.au/1928630/" target="_blank">It is now for sale at $470,000</a> after yet another price adjustment. </span></p>
<p><span>The three bedroom, one bathroom 1960s house sits in the heart of the Western Australian mining town. It is within the business and commercial district, opposite developments and not far from the boat ramp, Marapikarrinya Park, and fishing wharf.</span></p>
<p><img src="/images/2015/06/17/700_headland.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p><span>Real estate agent Barry Walsh at Jan Ford Real Estate told the ABC the top bid was a sign the mining boom's construction phase had tapered off.</span></p>
<p>Negotiations continue for the sale of the cottage with 145 square space on its 600 square metre block.</p>
<p>It was initially listed for private treaty sale in June 2013 at $1.42 million.</p>
<p>Property Observer understands its most recent rental asking price was $800 a week in mid-2014, having been in excess of $2000 a week in 2008 and 2011, when it was last sold.</p>
<p><em>ABC</em> reported that the <a href="/expert-insights/buying/39982-sydney-s-weekend-auction-clearance-rate-soars-to-82-but-port-hedland-highlights-who-the-might-can-fall" target="_blank">fibro cottage passed in at auction at $360,000</a>, with the highest offer reflecting 2006 price levels.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">In February the listing agent, Barry Walsh at Jan Ford Real Estate, told </span><em style="line-height: 1.3em;">Property Observer</em><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> that at the peak of the mining boom, property prices in the Port Hedland and South Hedland regions were unsustainable.</span></p>
<p>"It was totally unsustainable where it was, and now that it's stabilising, it will bottom out, and is in the throes of doing that," says Walsh. He says 18 Edgar Street was advertised to rent at $2,400 per week at the market's peak," said Walsh.</p>
<p>"And now, you wouldn't rent it for $500 per week. That's a reflection of the rental market."</p>
<p>According to Walsh, the market was now in the process of returning to its fundamental value.</p>
<p>"The stabilisation of the market is a very good thing for Port/South Hedland and the Pilbura region," he says.</p>
<p>"It was unfortunate that the market went where it did, to unsustainable and disproportionate price levels."</p>
<p>He attributes some of the price escalation to the inability to release a sufficient amount of land for development to cope with the influx of residents who were attracted to the area's mining economy. The infrastructure required to house the expected 30,000 to 50,000 residents – everything from hospitals and schools to sewers and roads – wasn't available to facilitate the expansion of the region, making tenants compete for the existing properties.</p>
<p>"The rents got to about $2,800 a week – some of the dearest in the world."</p>
<p>He says 18 Edgar Street is currently advertised for $600,000 through private treaty, with a couple of potential buyers engaged. He says the property, as it exists now, would only be worth around $250,000 to investors as a residential building.</p>
<p>"Everyone up here would want at least 10% gross return", Walsh explained.</p>
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Port Hedland auction shocker - still unsold four months on

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<p><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">GUEST OBSERVER</span></p>
<p>The RBA continues to face a tricky balancing act. Low interest rates are needed to continue to support the rebalancing of growth, as mining investment continues to fall. But, interest rates have now been low for quite some time and they are starting to drive potential asset price bubbles in some parts of the economy.</p>
<p>The key problem relates to the fact that the RBA's cash rate is, and always has been, a blunt instrument. Low interest rates are having their strongest effect on housing prices, which is flowing through to a residential construction boom and a pick-up in durable goods sales. However, the transmission of this effect to business investment and hiring – which is what the central bank would really like to see – has, so far, been weak.</p>
<p>Housing prices are also rising unevenly across the country. Sydney prices are up 39% in the past three years, while prices are 22% higher in Melbourne and only 10% higher elsewhere. More even housing price growth would be preferred. Although the trends in Sydney and Melbourne are what should be expected, given that these cities have the least exposure to the mining sector, at the same time, this is how 'bubbles' can form. What looks like a strong growth story, based on fundamentals (think: the IT bubble of the early 2000s), sees rising investor interest and, at some point, prices rise ahead of fundamentals. The market gets exuberant, as investors begin to believe that prices can only go up. <span><br></span></p>
<p>The Sydney housing market is showing some of these more worrisome traits and has been for some time now (see '<a href="https://www.research.hsbc.com/midas/Res/RDV?p=pdf&amp;key=kCWWcrdPsN&amp;n=446843.PDF" target="_blank"><span>Downunder digest: Australia's housing boom may get bubbly</span></a>', 10 February 2015). Investors continue to dominate the Sydney market, prices are rising at 15% y-o-y and auction clearance rates are around record highs.</p>
<p>To try to deal with this issue, the authorities have been tightening prudential settings (to sharpen the instrument). Concerns about the housing market are also likely to have been a key reason why the RBA has been reluctant to have an explicit 'easing bias', despite below-trend growth and the central bank's desire to see the AUD fall further.</p>
<p><strong>No national bubble, but Sydney's exuberance is worrisome </strong></p>
<p>A housing boom is a part of the plan to rebalance Australia's growth as mining investment falls. When the mining boom was at its height, back in 2011 and 2012, the housing market was being held back by high interest rates which helped to make way for the mining boom without excessive inflation. Then, to stimulate activity in the non-mining sectors, the RBA cut its cash rate from a peak of 4.75% in 2011 to its current record low of 2.00%. As a result, house prices have risen by 24% in the past three years (Chart 1).</p>
<p>At this pace, housing prices have significantly outpaced household disposable income growth. But, from a national perspective these gains do not appear excessive. Indeed, the housing-price to income ratio is only now just reaching its previous peak levels (Chart 2).</p>
<p><a href="/images/2015/06/10/hsbc1.jpg" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a></p>
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<p>However, the national story hides some more worrisome regional trends. Sydney housing prices have risen by 39% over the past three years, much faster than the other cities (Chart 3). Housing prices are also still rising in Sydney at a 15% y-o-y rate. Although comprehensive state-level income statistics are not available on a time-series basis, it is likely that the Sydney housing price gains are outstripping income growth. Sydney housing price gains are running well ahead of national household disposable income growth (Chart 4).</p>
<p><span><a href="/images/2015/06/10/hsbc2.jpg" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a></span></p>
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<p><span><img src="/images/2015/06/10/hsbc2.jpg" alt="" width="649" height="302"></span></p>
<p><strong>Local investors and foreign demand driving the market </strong></p>
<p>As is part of the plan, the main driver of Australia's housing price boom continues to be low interest rates. As a result of low interest rates, housing loan approvals have risen by 67% since their trough in mid-2011 and are currently rising at a 14% y-o-y rate (Chart 5). It is also clear that the main driver of the ramp up in housing prices continues to be investors, rather than first home buyers or repeat purchasers for owner- occupation (Chart 6). This is more unexpected. Investor loan approvals have risen by 112% since their trough in 2011, while loans to repeat buyers are up 47% and first home buyer loan approvals have only risen by 13%.</p>
<p><a href="/images/2015/06/10/hsbc3.jpg" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a></p>
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<p><span>Again, there are significant divergences in the trends across the states. The New South Wales (NSW) market, which is mostly Sydney, is being largely driven by investors (Chart 7). The investor share of new housing loan approvals in NSW has remained around record levels for the past six months or so. </span></p>
<p><span>Although investors in Australia's housing market tend to be lower risk borrowers, increased investor interest can provide a tell-tale sign that the market is overly exuberant. In Australia, investors tend to have lower loan-to-valuation ratios than owner-occupiers, to be older households with equity in an owner-occupied dwelling and have higher incomes than first home buyers. This tends to make them a safer risk for lenders. However, investors are also typically involved in the housing market on the expectation of capital gains. A high level of investor involvement is therefore a signal of a growing speculative dynamic that may be worrisome. If this begins to feed on itself, with expectations of capital gains starting to drive further capital gains, a bubble could form.</span></p>
<p>The other driver of the Sydney and Melbourne housing markets has been significant foreign investor interest, particularly in the apartment markets. Again, estimates of foreign investment flows are imprecise. This largely reflects that it is difficult to define a 'foreigner' in Australia's context. Keep in mind that 28% of Australia's population was born in another country, that there are 200k new migrants each year and around 500k foreign students in the country at any point in time. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, there are some data available from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), as genuine foreigners require FIRB approval for real estate purchases. The FIRB report that approvals for foreign investment in real estate rose from 12,025 in FY2012/13 to 23,428 in FY2013/14. Although this a significant rise (95%), it still only leaves measured foreign approvals comprising around 5% of all dwellings turned over in that year. It remains that case that interest rates and local buyers are the dominant drivers of the housing market. </p>
<p>However, the recent fall in the AUD, could mean that foreign interest in the housing market continues to rise. There is some evidence that a potential driver of increased foreign interest in Australia's housing market has been the recent depreciation of the AUD, particularly against the RMB (Chart 8). Further falls in the currency could continue to support this growing foreign interest.</p>
<p><span><a href="/images/2015/06/10/hsbc4.jpg" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a></span></p>
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<p><strong>Authorities are sharpening the prudential tool </strong></p>
<p>As the RBA's cash rate setting is a blunt instrument, further fine-tuning is largely being left to the prudential regulator. Indeed, the RBA appears to be increasingly focused on managing the real economy, leaving the role of managing the financial cycle to the prudential regulator (as we discussed in detail here: <a href="https://www.research.hsbc.com/midas/Res/RDV?p=pdf&amp;key=j8qW80utUE&amp;n=462148.PDF" target="_blank">Downunder Digest: Australia's evolving approach to macropru'</a>, 20 May 2015).</p>
<p><span>The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) already requires that all new mortgages pass a serviceability test at an interest rate of 7.00% and that lenders should not grow their investor housing lending at a faster rate than 10% a year, or they could face closer scrutiny if they do. In a recent speech, the Chairman of the APRA, Wayne Byrnes, made it clear that the prudential regulator had been turning up the dial further on its regulatory settings. As a result, most of the major banks have reduced discounts on lending rates to housing investors over the past month. </span></p>
<p><span>It also seems likely that concerns about the housing market have been a key reason why the RBA has been reluctant to have an explicit 'easing bias', despite below-trend growth and the central bank's desire to see the AUD fall further. </span></p>
<p><a href="/images/2015/06/10/hsbc5.jpg" target="_blank"><span> Click to enlarge</span></a></p>
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<p><em><span><a href="https://www.about.hsbc.com.au/hsbc-in-australia/management-team" target="_blank">PAUL BLOXHAM</a> IS CHIEF ECONOMIST (AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND) FOR HSBC. </span></em></p>
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Sydney's housing boom or bubble? HSBC's Paul Bloxham's worrisome conclusion

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<p><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">Aussie Home Loans chief John Symond has forecast that Sydney's booming residential property market was nearing its peak.</span></p>
<p><span>But he quickly added he thinks "there's buckley's chance of a price correction."</span></p>
<p><span>He told the 7th annual Citi Australia &amp; New Zealand investment conference yesterday he could see Sydney markets "getting trickier suburb by suburb."</span></p>
<p><span>"But the good news is that steam is coming out of the market and sanity's coming in.</span></p>
<p><span>"I think we're going to see a more flat market," he said.</span><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span></p>
<p><span>"Hot areas will still see a seven to nine percent gain, in other areas you might see a three to four percent, some other areas a five percent drop," he anticipated.</span></p>
<p><span>"You have to do your homework."</span></p>
<p><span>His comments came as the CBA joined Westpac in increasing home loan interest rates with CBA’s rate increase of 0.15% pushing up its package loan rate to 5.10%.</span></p>
<p><span>The veteran mortgage broker expected all four big banks would raise rates in response to APRA’s capital requirements.</span></p>
<p><span>"If all four come out I think that will force the Reserve Bank to drop rates another 25 bps, so that consumers feel their real interest rates haven't gone up," he said.</span></p>
<p><span>But with big banks poaching customers from other big banks to get some loan book growth, he said Australian borrowers "have never had it better in my 40 years.</span></p>
<p><span>Except for Sydney and Melbourne, the rest of Australia had not had the property boom, he said. </span></p>
<p><span>"You've got to remember between 2002 and 2012, Sydney was the worst-performing capital city in Australia - 2.2% growth per annum before inflation. </span></p>
<p><span>"All of a sudden, we're seeing 15-18% growth in the last three years driven by lowest interest rates in Australia's history and a surge in foreign demand, particularly Chinese.</span></p>
<p><span>"They are driving a lot of the prices in places like Sydney or Melbourne.</span></p>
<p><span>He said for a collapse there either had to be a sharp increase in interest rates and "there's no hope of that happening for some years, or unemployment picking up."</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">"I think we are approaching the top of the market.</span></p>
<p><span>"Different suburbs, in my opinion, will perform differently going forward," he said, adding there was a risk in off the plan were too many new apartments hit the market.</span></p>
<p><span>"Prices are levelling out and in certain suburbs I can see prices dipping a bit but certainly no collapse in prices because the appetite to own real estate is so great in this country."</span></p>
<p><span>"I think the price increases will abate, I think, by the middle of next year when it will be a buyer's market," he said.</span></p>
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Sydney's booming residential property market was nearing peak: John Symond 

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<div>The wealth effect from a multi-year Sydney property market boom has sent trend retail turnover, new motor vehicle sales, building activity and total employment in the Premier State surging to new highs in recent months. </div>
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<div>It's not hard to see why.<br><br>Over the three years to June 2015 the value of residential dwelling stock in the state has flamed up by nearly three quarters of a trillion dollars - massively boosting net household wealth in the process - and in turn leading to increased employment in the residential construction sector together with its associated multiplier effect.<br><br>The latest data from the ABS showed that the total value of residential dwelling stock in New South Wales has exploded by +$737 billion to nearly $2.3 trillion over the three years since March 2012.<br><br>However, increases in the value of dwelling stock have been by no means uniform across Australia as you can see in the first chart below.</div>
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<div><span>Indeed, while Victoria (+$327 billion) and Queensland (+$123 billion) have recorded some solid gains over the last three years - which have contributed to the combined value of Australia's dwelling stock surpassing $5.75 trillion - the total value of stock has been declining in Western Australia and the Northern Territory for the past year.</span></div>
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<div>Over the June 2015 quarter New South Wales (+$193 billion) and Victoria (+$65 billion) accounted for 95 per cent of the +$272 billion uplift in the total value of Australia's residential dwelling stock.<br><br>Note that although the ABS data series is not the most timely indicator, with the benefit of additional time to collate results it is likely to be the most accurate.</div>
<br><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Residential indexes</span></strong><br><br><div>The latest figures released today by the ABS to Q2 2015 recorded an extraordinary boom in Sydney dwelling prices with prices exploding +8.9 per cent higher in the June quarter to be +18.9 per cent higher over the year.<br><br>Sydney has not seen quarterly gains of this magnitude for nearly three decades in percentage terms.</div>
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<br>Solid gains for the quarter were also recorded in Melbourne (+4.2 per cent), Brisbane (+0.9 per cent) and Canberra (+0.8 per cent).</div>
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<br>Elsewhere index moves for the quarter were subdued, or negative in the cases of Perth (-0.9 per cent) and Darwin (-0.8 per cent).</div>
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<span>Since Q4 2008 Sydney's accelerating dwelling prices have blown up the index to be +77.3 per cent higher, with Melbourne a distant second at +46.8 per cent.</span><br><br><span>At the bottom end of the scale come the southern state capitals of Hobart (+12.6 per cent) and Adelaide (+15.9 per cent). </span>
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<div><span>The mean price of a residential dwelling as at June 2015 increased to $604,700 in Australia having jumped by some $26,200 in the quarter, with those gains having been overwhelmingly driven by Sydney (+$63,400 to $777,400) and Melbourne (+$24,300 to $605,000).</span></div>
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<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Established houses outperform</span></strong><br><div class="separator"> </div>
<div class="separator">ABS data now exists back to September 2003 which allows us to compare the relative performance of established houses versus attached dwellings.</div>
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<div class="separator">As you can see below, on average established houses (+89 per cent since Q3 2003) have outperformed attached dwellings (+73 per cent) over the past dozen years. </div>
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<div class="separator">These figures equate to compounding annual price growth of +5.4 per cent for established houses and +4.6 per cent for attached dwellings since Q3 2003.</div>
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<div>Of course, averages mask any number of sub-trends, and it is also true that initial rental yields on townhouses, units and apartments can often be at least 1 per cent higher than those achievable from established houses in equivalent locations.<br><br>It may also be the case that going forward attached dwellings might perform comparatively well in the denser capital cities where the affordability of established housing is becoming increasingly prohibitive.</div>
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<div>Nevertheless, the above chart does hint towards land value and scarcity value as being two of the key underlying drivers of dwelling price growth.</div>
<br><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Supply response</span></strong><br><br><div>The preliminary figures for Q2 2015 recorded an estimated 9,528,300 dwellings in Australia, a reasonably solid increase of +38,400 dwellings for the June quarter and +161,500 for the past year.</div>
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<div>Unfortunately the ABS could provide no preliminary estimate for the number of New South Wales dwellings this quarter.</div>
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<div>Using projections of historic data it seems likely that assuming the data is accurate the total stock of dwellings in the Premier State has increa<span>sed by close to <span>~</span>120,000 units since September 2011, with the population of the state having increased by a<span>n estimated <span>~</span>375,000 over the same time horizon. </span></span>
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<div>In other words, despite an uplift in both home starts and dwelling completions since FY2012, New South Wales evidently has some way to go before the market becomes saturated with new builds.</div>
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<div>It was announced this week that the New South Wales Government will release some 7,700 hectares of land for the construction of up to 35.000 new homes to the south of Campbelltown.</div>
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<div>It is dubious, however, just how much impact newly constructed dwellings located 70 kilometres from the centre of Sydney will have on established dwellings in the inner suburban market given the poor level of substitutability with fringe housing. </div>
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<p><span><em>PETE WARGENT is the co-founder of <a href="https://allenwargent.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">AllenWargent</a> property buyers (London, Sydney) and a best-selling author and <a href="https://petewargent.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">blogger</a>.</em><br></span></p>
<p><em>His latest book is <a href="https://www.bigskypublishing.com.au/Books/General-Interest/Four-Green-Houses--and-a-Red-Hotel/1015/productview.aspx" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Four Green Houses and a Red Hotel</a>.</em></p>
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NSW dwelling stock value explodes: Pete Wargent

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<p>A major Sydney newspaper headline proclaimed this week that “Sydney’s property market boom is finally over but house prices remain high”.</p>
<p>Well, exactly. Therein lies the problem.</p>
<p>The article went on to say: “Sydney’s housing boom has finally reached its peak, but don’t expect house prices to start falling any time soon.”</p>
<p>In fact, Hotspotting research indicates the Sydney market reached its peak in the December quarter last year and sales activity has been on a gradual decline since then.</p>
<p>It’s taken the market and the media more than half a year to realise what’s happening.</p>
<p>Analysts, economists, commentators and writers rely on movements in median prices to inform their view of property markets. The problem is that median price data is at least six months behind the game.</p>
<p>The alleged median price for Sydney is still rising, even though the number of sales has been fading, auction clearance rates have been falling and professionals at the coalface have been reporting an easing of competition and evaporation of the boom-time heat.</p>
<p>The market is clearly heading south but, according to the price data much-beloved by almost everyone, it’s still rising.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">Market watchers should be observing sales activity. The number of sales happening in markets provide a much more accurate and timely picture of market trends – and they can predict price movements.</span><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span></p>
<p>This is the basis of the Price Predictor Index published quarterly by hotspotting.com.au. We chart sales volumes in every suburb and town in the nation.</p>
<p>And this is what it’s telling us:-</p>
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<li>The number of Sydney growth suburbs is one-third of the number six months ago.</li>
<li>Regional New South Wales is rising and has twice as many growth markets as Sydney does.</li>
<li>Adelaide and Brisbane have both overtaken Sydney and continue to rise (but you won’t know it if you rely on median price data).</li>
<li>Melbourne has faded a little but remains more buoyant than Sydney.</li>
<li>Regional Queensland has almost as many growth markets as Brisbane does.</li>
<li>The strongest market region in the nation, now, is South East Queensland, with Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast all busy.</li>
<li>There are also markets in serious decline and they’re all locations that previously rose with the resources boom and were oversupplied by over-zealous developers.</li>
</ul>
<p>The sales volumes data shows that the pecking order in Australian real estate is changing – but it won’t show up in the median price growth figures any time soon.</p>
<p><em>Terry Ryder is the founder of <a href="https://www.hotspotting.com.au/" target="_blank">hotspotting.com.au</a>. You can <a href="https://mailto:ryder@hotspotting.com.au" target="_blank">email him</a> or follow him on <a href="https://twitter.com/hotspotting" target="_blank">Twitter.</a></em></p>
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The Sydney market is clearly heading south: Terry Ryder

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<em>Residex</em> released its data and property market update to 31 July which showed house growth over the quarter accelerate to "an astonishing" 7.6% to be 21.2% higher over the year.</div>
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<div>As the below <em>Residex</em> graphic shows capital growth in Sydney has continued to outstrip by far that seen in other capital cities where average growth for the quarter was under 1%.</div>
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<div>Sydney median house prices have now blasted well past $1 million at $1,017,500</div>
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<br>Regional house price growth was relatively soft across all states and territories on this index. </div>
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<div><a href="/images/2015/08/31/Resi1.jpg" target="_blank">Click here</a></div>
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<div><img src="/images/2015/08/31/Resi1.jpg" alt=""></div>
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<div>Sydney unit prices also recorded very strong 6.6 per cent quarterly growth to be 15.2 per cent higher over the year.</div>
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<em>Residex</em> has also recorded very strong growth in rents for houses and units over the past twelve months.</div>
<br><span>On the other hand median prices contracted in resources capitals Perth and Darwin over the past year.</span>
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<div><a href="/images/2015/08/31/Table_1_July_Stats_Summary2.jpg" target="_blank"><span>Click to enlarge</span></a></div>
<div><span><img src="/images/2015/08/31/Table_1_July_Stats_Summary2.jpg" alt="" width="765" height="670"></span></div>
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<div>These<em> Residex </em>updates are well worth a read.</div>
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<div>Discussed in this newsletter is how the increasing population density of Sydney may have contributed to outperforming capital growth.</div>
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<em>Residex</em> considers that strong captial growth in Sydney could continue for the next few quarters before stabilising at a high level.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div>These<em> Residex </em>updates are well worth a read.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Discussed in this newsletter is how the increasing population density of Sydney may have contributed to outperforming capital growth.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<em>Residex</em> considers that strong captial growth in Sydney could continue for the next few quarters before stabilising at a high level.</div>
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<p><span><em>PETE WARGENT is the co-founder of <a href="https://allenwargent.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">AllenWargent</a> property buyers (London, Sydney) and a best-selling author and <a href="https://petewargent.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">blogger</a>.</em><br></span></p>
<p><em>His latest book is <a href="https://www.bigskypublishing.com.au/Books/General-Interest/Four-Green-Houses--and-a-Red-Hotel/1015/productview.aspx" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Four Green Houses and a Red Hotel</a>.</em></p>
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