Real Estate Matters | What does next year have in store for us?

Juliet Risdon

If you are anything like me and 86.6 percent (a made up number) of the world’s population, you want to know what the future holds for you.

A sneak preview of just 30 seconds ahead would be enough to make us a fortune at the Blackjack table, but foolishly we attempt to predict what will happen over the next 365 days.

Here we go.

Prediction 1: The roadworks that have just been finished outside your apartment will be dug up again.

Confidence in this prediction: 100 percent

This is so certain that no casino will even take a bet on it. We know because we tried.

Prediction 2: Banks will reduce ‘loan to value’ rates to 40 percent. or less.

Confidence in this prediction 80.5 percent

You will need to save every dollar you earn for seven years to get together a deposit for a property. As long as prices don’t go up in that time.

Prediction 3:

Another senior public figure will be jailed for corruption

Confidence in this prediction: 73.6 percent

Not quite as certain as prediction No 1, but rather like watching a drunk man attempting to walk across an ice covered lake whilst carrying a live chicken without falling over; You wouldn’t bet against it.

Prediction 4: The light rail system will commence operation

Confidence in this prediction 64.2 percent

You can look forward to being trapped in a sealed metal container traveling at high speed with a thousand person tour group, all carrying flags. Oh, and you are also 30 feet in the air.

Prediction 5: The bridge opens causing an instant and permanent traffic jam. forever.

Confidence in this prediction 45.09 percent

You can look forward to being trapped in a car traveling at no speed whatsoever. Oh, and you are also perched 100 feet in the air above a raging sea.

Prediction 6: Segregation.

Confidence in this prediction 35.7 percent

Blue card holders will be fitted with a trackable microchip that also gives electric shocks, and your work permit number will be tattooed in a prominent position somewhere on your face. You are not allowed on a bus (electric shock), or in the taxi (electric shock), and you are banned from doing any kind of work that can be done by an ID holder (huge electric shock & deportation), that also includes the job you were hired for.

Prediction 7: Macau will become a ‘smart’ city, but roundabouts will still pose an unfathomable problem.

Confidence in this prediction; (Smart City 8 percent Roundabouts 60 percent) Average 34 percent

We will know everything we need know instantly, including our exact location in 3 dimensions. Unfortunately, we are stuck behind a bus that has stopped on a roundabout. Again.

Prediction 8: One single bitcoin will be worth more than all the money in the whole wide world.

(Confidence in our prediction: 50 percent)

The owners of bitcoin will buy their own planet using a bitcoin derivative, and will retire to the planet to watch the remainder of people on earth fight over the crumb of a bitcoin that was accidently left on a frozen hard drive. Later to be turned into a film by Steven Speilberg (Jnr).

Wishing you all a wonderful and prosperous 2018.

Juliet Risdon is a Director of JML Property and a property investor.

Having been established in 1994, JML Property offers investment property & homes. It specializes in managing properties for owners and investors, and providing attractive and comfortable homes for tenants.

www.JMLProperty.com

[email protected]