The numbers man
Page 1 of 5
5:00AM Monday June 02, 2008
By Greg Dixon
Kieran Trass denies being a property guru, saying he's just an average guy with a bit of not-so-average information. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey
It comes as a slight surprise that the prophet of property doom reads the Mahatma. On a low table in the hall of Kieran Trass' Mt Eden home, is a small selection of books by the great thinkers. This is where Gandhi sits, alongside Plato, the Dalai Lama, Edward de Bono and others. Their works are well-thumbed and many have small slips of paper tucked in them, marking favourite passages.
They're the first thing Trass sees when he comes through his door. Gandhi's influence has reached a nearby windowsill too. The word "Ahimsa" - a favourite of the Mahatma's, meaning "non-violence" - is spelled out in coloured letters leaning against the window's stained glass.
The word is the last thing Trass sees when he leaves his flat. I'll chance my arm here. It is entirely probable Gandhi - and everyone else represented in Trass' small library - knew little about the New Zealand residential property market. Trass, on the other hand, has spent much of the last decade meditating on (and, indeed, investing millions in) real estate.
The surprise, then, is the contra-diction. That the man whose business is helping himself and others to make a buck has been quietly investing in something altogether more spiritually pure. Of course, if a property market guru - though he hates and refuses the term - is going to make the sort of predictions Trass has made in the last year, it's probably just as well he's immersing himself in passivism and peace.
If Trass' recent inner thoughts have been awash in philosophy, his public ones have found him in bad odour in some quarters. Last May he warned of property price-drops within a year. Bullshit, said the real estate industry. By this February, Trass was predicting a property crash leading to as much as a 15 per cent drop in values over the next two to three years. Again the real estate industry baulked.
But then if there's one thing property buyers, sellers, investors and real estate agents didn't want to hear it's that the longest property boom of modern times might be over. And, it appears, they didn't want to hear it from the man who's taken to reading Gandhi.
Who's Kieran Trass? Murray Cleland, the president of the New Zealand Real Estate Institute, is not, if brusque tones are an indicator, even remotely joking. This is terribly curious. He and Trass have, though perhaps not by choice, appeared together in print and television news reports for some years, each spruiking often-opposing views.
A betting man would wager they've heard of each other, so I persist. You don't know who he is? I ask. "Nah," says Cleland. No? "Nooo. Well, I don't know the guy well enough to comment on him, anyway." More likely he knows of the guy all too well. You don't have to make a living flogging do-ups or have a working knowledge of indoor-outdoor flow to deduce Cleland might be playing games, because sometimes, at least, he and the real estate agents he represents don't like what Trass says.
Page 1 of 5
5:00AM Monday June 02, 2008
By Greg Dixon
Kieran Trass denies being a property guru, saying he's just an average guy with a bit of not-so-average information. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey
It comes as a slight surprise that the prophet of property doom reads the Mahatma. On a low table in the hall of Kieran Trass' Mt Eden home, is a small selection of books by the great thinkers. This is where Gandhi sits, alongside Plato, the Dalai Lama, Edward de Bono and others. Their works are well-thumbed and many have small slips of paper tucked in them, marking favourite passages.
They're the first thing Trass sees when he comes through his door. Gandhi's influence has reached a nearby windowsill too. The word "Ahimsa" - a favourite of the Mahatma's, meaning "non-violence" - is spelled out in coloured letters leaning against the window's stained glass.
The word is the last thing Trass sees when he leaves his flat. I'll chance my arm here. It is entirely probable Gandhi - and everyone else represented in Trass' small library - knew little about the New Zealand residential property market. Trass, on the other hand, has spent much of the last decade meditating on (and, indeed, investing millions in) real estate.
The surprise, then, is the contra-diction. That the man whose business is helping himself and others to make a buck has been quietly investing in something altogether more spiritually pure. Of course, if a property market guru - though he hates and refuses the term - is going to make the sort of predictions Trass has made in the last year, it's probably just as well he's immersing himself in passivism and peace.
If Trass' recent inner thoughts have been awash in philosophy, his public ones have found him in bad odour in some quarters. Last May he warned of property price-drops within a year. Bullshit, said the real estate industry. By this February, Trass was predicting a property crash leading to as much as a 15 per cent drop in values over the next two to three years. Again the real estate industry baulked.
But then if there's one thing property buyers, sellers, investors and real estate agents didn't want to hear it's that the longest property boom of modern times might be over. And, it appears, they didn't want to hear it from the man who's taken to reading Gandhi.
Who's Kieran Trass? Murray Cleland, the president of the New Zealand Real Estate Institute, is not, if brusque tones are an indicator, even remotely joking. This is terribly curious. He and Trass have, though perhaps not by choice, appeared together in print and television news reports for some years, each spruiking often-opposing views.
A betting man would wager they've heard of each other, so I persist. You don't know who he is? I ask. "Nah," says Cleland. No? "Nooo. Well, I don't know the guy well enough to comment on him, anyway." More likely he knows of the guy all too well. You don't have to make a living flogging do-ups or have a working knowledge of indoor-outdoor flow to deduce Cleland might be playing games, because sometimes, at least, he and the real estate agents he represents don't like what Trass says.
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