First, understand Asian investors’ behaviour!

There are 2 types of Asian real estate investors, and they are completely on the other end of the world!

1. Super speculators, I have known many of them who have no interest in living or rentals, just trade the property rights, they pay the downpayment and sell them to the next investors for a quick 10% to 20% profit, it’s like sharemarket..personally, I think there are better ways to trade, and there are also property derivatives available, but these kind of investors are around, and they are only interested in apartments, condos, and new developments only.

2. Income producers: By large, Asian investors are conservative; and as rental yield in Asia and Australia are always very low because of the high cost associated; rental yield in Australia or Asia hovers around 1% to 2% in most cases..some areas like SE Asia have little better rental yield, but still low compared to North American residential markets.

The 2nd group is where you want to reach; as they tend to be long term investors and real investors with cash - as they buy to hold for long term with stable income; unlike “property traders”, which, in time when the property market starts to drop, they will fire-sale their assets.

So, this is the first part about our real estate investment strategies to Asian investors, more to come…

It is a very common and can be a very frustrating problem. My friend launched a kids website from Australia for instance, it is a pure information only website; but the server of which its website is sharing contains some news websites which are on Chinese Government’s blacklist, consequently, her website was disallowed in China.

If you are launching a Chinese language website, you may consider choosing to have them hosted outside China, like Taiwan or Hong Kong; although they are also being monitored very closely.

Make sure your contents do not share any political views about China, even in the news section, as that can put your site into blacklist very quickly.

Another common way which we have done for may clients is to add Chinese language website and link from their original website, so your Chinese website actually sits on servers outside China. That way, the frequency in having your site into blacklist is smaller as the Chinese authority spends more time in controlling their domestic websites.

These are some issues you may encounter when you decide to launch your web marketing strategies into the ever growing Chinese markets.

As a regular visitor, and also someone who had lived in LA before, I feel the general perception about LA is really wrong. Yes, the city is big, massive, lots of traffic, but there are so many beautiful places in LA, and it is a great city. Like every city, LA has really bad areas, which you don;t want to go there in the evening.

Likewise, Sydney also has really bad areas plagued with gang violence, drug trafficking, some areas are so bad, that no-one dars to go to the train station after 4pm. My friend’s mom unfortunately lost her life while doing grocery shopping in one area, where she was attached by a bag-snatcher.

So, put those negative things aside; is LA good to live?

1. Well, traffic is bad in every big city, and LA is no exception. However, its massive high-way systems is not a bad solution after-all. LA is also a big city with multiple downtowns, many travel to their nearby areas for works or schools; unlike other cities where everyone “need” to go do downtown. In this regard, the traffic is actually not too bad for local travelling.

2. LA is an interesting place, people associate LA with Hollywood, shopping (great shopping experience..really). LA actually has many great attractions, The Paul Getty Center is a world-class gallery which I visited many times, The Californa Science Center is an excellent place for family; and there are tons of entertainment and cultural events throught the year.

3. Nice beaches - I came from Sydney, where you can see nice beaches, but beaches in LA are also quite good and with much more activities for families as well.

4. It is close to everything & competition. Great competition means cheaper price for consumers, it’s hard to rip off a customer in LA as there are just too much competition!

Living cost is not really that high compared to most global cities, yes, it is high in American standard, but American standard is low compared to global standard! You can live in Orange County in California if you are from Europe, Asia and Australia, the housing price there is still affordable in global standard, and Orange County is really a nice place to raise family.

I don’t why people like to associate LA with garbage filled city, gunshots every minute; those are confined to certain neigbourhoods just like any other city. So next time you are in LA, throw away your prejudice and general perceptions, stay away from the usual tourist areas; then you will find it is a very interesting city to be in.

Brisbane and Melbourne “pair” offers an interesting comparison, one is located at the north while the other in the far south. Needless to say, the weather is completely different.

Brisbane is better because…

1. Warmer weather if you like warmer weather (not for me)..I feel summer is way too hot in QLD, but then some people really love it.

2. Beautiful beaches, have to admit that the beaches are better in QLD, even better than Sydney, I found best time to visit beaches is actually winter…summer is scorching and you can get heat stress very easily.

3. They said it’s better for families, not sure why, but there is a general perception that Brisbane is easier to raise families..but living cost has climbed a lot there, at much faster rate than other Aussie cities.

4. Easy to drive around, although Brissies may disagree. The roads there are newer and better organized, it is very much “North American” style with freeways connecting suburbs..I think it’s less confusing.

5. What else, well, more sunshine, so good for older people or those who dislike wet conditions.

Melbourne is better because:

1. Much more culturally diverse, similar to Sydney, it is a very multicultural city.

2. Better living cost - believe it or not, Brisbane is becoming the 2nd most expensive city ..just behind Perth (that’s right, not Sydney), I am referring to non-housing items. Food is expensive in QLD, and their fuel subsidy has been abolished, which means they are paying the same petrol (gas) cost now.

3. More jobs, definitely more jobs in Melbourne because of more industries, more headquarters.

4. More cultural activities: There are more galleries, museums and more heritage buildings. More fashion shopping malls; hey..and Costco is in Melbourne but very far away…there is also a nice zoo in Melbourne CBD.

5. Easier to travel, although it is way down..because of the population concentration, there are more flights coming out from Melbourne. It’s absolutely ridiculous how many times I have to fly from Brisbane to Sydney or Melbourne first to fly out to North America, Europe or Asia..completely waste of up to 6 hours sitting around the plane and airports.

So, that’s that…hope ths is an interesting post for those looking to move to Melbourne and Brisbane.

For me, I am shopping for my ski jackets and snow boots in Australia; looks like it’s going to be very hard to find them in OZ…better buy them in Toronto, I guess…and see what the locals are wearing..

GST vs HST

1. When GST was introduced, the Government was too naieve to think every Australian merchants are honest merchants..well, they weren’t. The average inflation as the result was way over 10% set in GST, in some cases, as high as 19%, which was way out of control. The Government realized a year later and it was too late. The local carpark I went to was charging $13.00 per day, it jumped to $15.00 per day, and jumped to $17.00 per day within 12 months. On average, merchants had put on 13% inflation when GST was introduced.

2. The HST while, for some newly arrived immigrants find it annoying to work the actual amount, it is a more transparent system and requires merchants to disclose their tax. I noticed there has been almost nil impact on underlying price, fair enough, we all know we need to add 13% instead of 12% tax on top of what we have paid; which is 1% extra more than before HST was introduced.

3. Since GST was introduced, there was no control over price set by merchants; in Australia, it now becomes a practice for merchants to add cost on “as they like” basis. The best way to notice this is at local coffee shops, where they have hiked the price almost every quarter, and moved from $2.70 per cup to $3.50 per cup, you don’t notice it, but it will get you gradually.

3. The environmental tax in Canada, I think is a good idea in the way, although it had added some cost. This relates to items such as electronics, which are hard to manage and dispose, it is a way to secure funds to manage waste management. The Australian way is to have high fees if you want to dispose your electronics at local council waste points, they charge you on per entry which is quite high, some also charge you based on per item or even by weight.

This has an adverse impact, you actually see many families try to get away by saving the costs and dump printers and computers around charity collection points. and let charity people to worry about them!! It is becoming an issue, one way to solve this is probably have an annual electronic waste collection day or maybe giving out stickers or vouchers, or perhaps introduce a little levy on households (people are going to hate me for this..)

I laughted when Canadians rushed off to buy properties before the HST, I can understand if you are buying brand new homes which are subject to HST, but most of transactions are related to resale homes…in reality, the real saving they can achieve before HST is around $1,000 to $1,200, mainly tax on some fees, and much likely much less..so you spend $10,000 more to get $1,000 savings!!!

The stamp duty or equivalent in Toronto is very low or should I say, non-existent at all. I could be wrong, but when I was doing research, the only fee payable there is the land transfer fee which is around CAD$6,000, this is nothing compares to Australia that in some states, the stamp duties can add to $50,000 on property purchase, or one person’s annual salary just gone like that…

So, that’s my observation about GST vs HST, and some other taxes. will continue to report on differences between these 2 great countries.

Toronto has edge over Sydney in the following ways:

1. Very affordable housing price (both to buy or to rent), by moving from Sydney to Toronto, we can save around $3,000 a month just in accomodation, that’s MASSIVE saving!

Why? Good properties in Toronto will be range around $500K to $600K, there are some $1 million+ areas, but those areas in Sydney will be over $2.5 million. Rental is very cheap in Toronto, you can rent a house for less than $2,000 a month (as opposed to $3,500 to $5000 in Sydney a month) in a good area.

Interest rate in Toronto is currently around 2% (variable) or 4.5% (fixed rate); both are around 4% to 5% less than what we are paying in Sydney.

2. A lot of job prospects in Toronto: Being in the East Coast, and close to New York, Michigan, and most of major economies. Toronto has a very large economy; in particular, some industries it has more jobs & business opportunities than Sydney are: Finance, IT, Media, Graphic Designers, Software Development, Cleantech, Oil & Gas sectors; and transportation industries.

3. Very Very Culturally Diverse and Integrated. Sydney is also culturally diverse but is still less “integrated” than Canada and USA. What do I mean by “integration”? This means “visible minorities” as they call it in North America are truely in every part of the society. In Canada & USA, you can see Chinese, Indian reporters very often on TV, some TV programs are also being hosted by Indian or Chinese (and other Asian) journalists. You can see bank managers, directors, politicians that are Indians, Asians or other minorities.

This is also catching up in Australia, but immigration in Australia only started back in the 1980s, so it is still less “integrated” in the way. It’s still not easy for an aspiring Asian looking journalist or actor to succeed in Australia today due to lack of opportunities.

4. Cost of living is very low in Toronto. Food is around 30% cheaper, gas (petrol) is also 30% cheaper, clothing, electronics are also cheaper, tuition fees (if you go to private schools) is also around 30% cheaper. It is amazing to see such a low cost in a huge city like Toronto. Cars are also very cheap in Toronto, and most people like to change their cars every 3 years.

5. Happy Children: Hey they are smiling, lots of people are smiling. I asked the people around, taxi drivers, plumbers, small kiosk, cargo transporter…those hardworking people..and they are all happy about living in Toronto. I have not met a “happy Taxi driver” in Sydney for a very long time…

Childeren are very happy here; and most adapt the season changes very well - it’s a lovely place to raise family.

Things that Sydney is better than Toronto

1. Winter, what winter? The winter in Sydney is absolutely a joke, even this year when it reaches 0c..there is no winter in Sydney according to Canadian standard. But, the summers in Sydney are intolerable and very long…which is the downside. Summers in Toronto are also very hot and humid but really lasts 1 1/2 month of “bitter-Australia like summer condition”

2. Sydney Harbour is very beautiful. Toronto has its own waterfronts, Vancouver has its own waterfronts. It is indisputable Sydney Harbour beats both 2, and in close rank as to New York City and San Francisco, I think the 3 cities have the best harbour views in the world.

3. Ferries and Water-Taxis, one advantage Sydney has utilizes its the use of its water-ways..although, this is a rather unfair statement for Toronto; as it also has sub-ways, streetcars and other systems. However, a better use of ferries can relieve some traffic congestions in Toronto.

4. Sydney is more green and has some hills and mountains. Vancouver is prettier in this sense as it is surrounded by the moutains & oceans. Toronto is very much flat, some mountains will be nice, but that’s God’s work.

5. Bigger gardens in Sydney (but smaller houses). Very strange combination: Most of houses in Toronto are 2-storeys with basement, if you furnish them, they become 3 stories of livable space. So average “living area” in Toronto is between 250sqm to 350 sqm, much bigger than Sydney which is around 200sqm. However, land lots in Toronto are usually under 500 sqm, this means, no front garden, only a backyard lawn.

If you love gardens, or maybe you are a landscape designer, then, there is not much garden for you to do in Toronto…personally…I don’t give rats about gardens, they are a burden to me..but some people must live with gardens, so I can understand the difference.

So, that’s my summary. Living Cost wide, business wise, education and choice wise, Toronto offers many aspects that Sydney does not offer…but as many people in Sydney said” We have Sydney Harbour”

It depends what’s more important for you. Living Cost, Job Opportunities or Ambience.

The social media marketing in Asian markets are completely different; and in fact, even amongst the Chinese speaking markets; they are completely different.

The major Chinese speaking markets are: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

China: The Social Media marketing market is massive and extremely fragmented, in fact, finding information in China is always frustrating as they are often loosely constructed. Social Media forums get monitored by the Government and are closed on frequently basis, there is no such as thing as Internet Freedom in China, they are governed by thousands of Government employees monitoring each day. To play safe, the best way is to join forums that belong to popular Chinese search engines, or ISPs or some of the nation’s major media companies; The first (search engines) seems to be the best strategy; and they often have very large number of users as well.

Taiwan: Democratic country, Internet censorship is basically non-existent, in fact, it maybe too “free” which also means quite annoying sometimes as too many people post non-relevant junks on social media forums. Facebook is very popular in Taiwan, business networks such as LinkedIn is also becoming popular there. One important strategy is to post information on Taiwanese & Hong Kong forums; as they do get read by Chinese consumers as well for information, so it’s an indirect way to reach Chinese consumers.

Hong Kong & Singapore: Both also good and open markets; but Hong Kong’s websites have been under Chinese influence and monitoring frequently; but not as bad as in the mainland China. Both Hong Kong & Singapore have many business & finance forums; these are good places if you have an investment product or strategy (maybe you are a FX company) to post commentaries or contents.

Like other markets; the social media strategy is very much contents-driven in Chinese speaking markets; straigh-advertisements often only have very limited use. Editorials, especially regular “series like” column is highly recommended. A column like “10 FX Trading Strategies for July” or “10 Tips for International Students in Australia”, 10 Best Areas to Buy in Toronto…always server better than a direct advertisements.

We have done many international marketing programs for clients from various industries, please send me an e-mail if you want to know more.

My first impression about Toronto Downtown is, this is like New York City; very big, spread-out, and very tiring to walk around…

Then I hopped onto a Streetcar, and told myself, this is like Melbourne and San Francisco, it’s better than the cable car in Toronto; although SF’s cable car is more fun because of the hills…it’s like Melborune’s tram apart from it is actually a car on wheels.

Then I took the subway to the theatre and entertainment district, and it hit me immediately just like London; the scenearies, and the buildings just keep changing.

I wrapped up by going to the Harbourfront, and it feels like Darlingharbour in Sydney but with much bigger water front, Great Lakes are called Great lakes for obvious reason, it’s like an ocean!

I love it, if to compare properly, I think it’s definitely like NYC, because NYC is also pockets of different world cities together. Toronto, however, is defeinitely much better to get around and there are far less people than NYC; traffic is actually quite good in downtown, I don’t know why people are complaining about, maybe I was lucky.,,I found the traffic in Toronto Downtown better than Melbourne or Sydney, and there are close to 3 million people just in Toronto not including the GTA…the roads here are much wider, and I don’t see any street parkings; maybe that’s why. There are plenty of underground carparks, and a subway is really a superb idea to get rid off unnecessary traffic just going from one end to another end.

The subway goes north-south & east-west, and it takes us around 10 minutes from galleries to Union station where we just hop off and connect our GO Train, very efficient system, Australia should have subways like this, at least in the downtown areas; have more stations is the way to go; also very cheap to ride around, costs less than $2.00 for a ride.

It’s really fun to see so many cultures in one place…

1. Australian real estate price is very cheap compared to most of Asian economies - but you should not justify this for having a high real estate cost. In fact, Asian properties are expensive for a simple reason, they don’t have land, so it is totally incomparable.

2. We should also not to compare Australian real estate to US, even though, obviously, US real estate price looks so cheap (even before the recession), one has to understand: US is a much more populated nation (370 million and rising); therefore, in terms of urban density, they are in much better position than Australia. What does urban density mean? Well, 90% of US land have residents, and fairly spread-out, as opposed to Australia’s 90% of population are concentrated in 10% of the land, so it’s the total opposite.

in another word, Australia is under-populated.

3. A good comparison can be drawn between Australia and Canada, similar size, but Canada has over 37 million people; and a much bigger economy. However, if Australia has the similar population as in Canada, maybe the property price will be better? Why? As Australia will have more cities, and not just concentrating in the coastal cities.

Now, those are economic equations, which I think are irrelevant as each market is different and different population. However, a better model as many analysts are using is the Affordability Index.

Analysts say, the average benchmark should be 8.0, this means it takes 8 years for a family to pay off their mortgage to own their own homes, anything above 8 is considered unaffordable.

Sadly, this is actually a very accurate index, and sadly, this has placed Australia as one of the most expensive real estate markets. Forget about Asia, as it is always unaffordable, but Australia is catching up dangerously to some European markets, in fact, some UK property markets are actually more affordable than Australia already.

If we take Sydney for instance, a decent house will be at least $750,000, you take a mortgage of $600,000, average household income is around $75,000 net (after tax, super), so it still takes around 10 years just to pay off without even considering the interest ! With interest added on, it can be stretched to 15 years easily.

Brisbane and Perth are even worse; because their net household income are much less; and yet the property price is comparable to that in Sydney.

Outside Australia, you can argue New York. A semi house is around US$500,000 in New York City, it’s not a great house, then again, it’s not bad. A loan of US$400,000 will only take less than 4 years to pay off, as the average household income for professionals in NYC is much higher.

If you look at Toronto, average house (4 bedrooms) in northern areas is around $550,000, household income is around $80,000 there, again, this would take much shorter time.

The equation becomes ridiculous once you are in the southern states like North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, they become like 3 or 4.

Obviously, we keep saying (and making good excuses), ah, that’s because we have a good economy..do we really have a good economy that to justify such as high property price, high interest rate and high living cost.

The fundamental problem still relates to under-population; to resolve this, more skilled migrants are needed; and a strategy to focus in developing 2 more “new cities” are necessary. This is a 20 year vision, Brisbane was a sleepy town back in the 1970s, and good strategy had added Brisbane as a city; so the same strategy should be implemented again.

There are some very good “candidates” for cities already: Eg. Newcastle, Geelong, Sunshine Coast can be further developed into new “cities” or Gosford; if there are sufficient economies - Adelaide can also be further developed.

The trick is to build up a local economy. I am not saying US is the best model, but we should take some of their lessons: Build Florida into a Tourism State (hence tourism professionals relocate there), Seattle into Hi-Tech, and they are now building Portland (Oregon), San Diego into Green Cities…If Australia can build several solar plants in Geelong for instance, that will be a very good starting point.

I think if we have added even just 1 more Brisbane-sized like city, it will really resolve this property crisis.

I always ask these questions everytime I travel, why all the civilizations are in Northern Hemisphere, and travelling from Australia is a min 8 hours trip to anywhere interesting (sorry New Zealand and Fiji).

This trip, I had enjoyed USA and Canada once a lot; the feeling was the same everytime I travelled there; which are now more than 10 times. Took kids to California Science Centre to see Mummies of the World; very scary but very informative, if you are going to California soon, this is actually not a bad exhibition..but those Pervian and South American mummies are really scary, as they remain in their original posture; which means, you will go into a room with 4 sitting mummies (with baby mummies in their hands) looking at you through hollow eyes….

Stope over in LA is never enough as it is a huge city, I did spend sometime in Culver City just to do some shopping and killed the time. I booked Virgin America to Toronto which is 11:30pm, it is a great airline, but in hindsight, for the sake of 4 hours flight, I should just book any other airline; by 8pm, I was completely exhaused at LA airport, and it is the most boring place - I never know why, but LAX is really a boring airport, surely they can improve it with more shops, I am sure that will bring millions of new revenue each year.

Toronto is a nice and quite a new airport. One lesson for those travelling without another spouse; as the new rules between Canada & USA have very strict rules due to increasing number of child abductions. Make sure you bring a consent letter from another spouse or you maybe denied entry. I was questioned both in USA and Canada as I have no idea about this requirement.

I printed a copy on the way back to USA, and it was a breeze, like 4 seconds; instead of 30 minutes of questionning. How can I prove my daughter is my daughter?? Good question, it does not say so in your passport, so she can be anyone’s daughter! So, bring a copy of birth certificate just in case.

Anyway, I was cleared and my taxi driver probably had fallen asleep aleady…it’s a huge airport, and it’s quite daunting for first time visitors to move around and find where the signs..and I’ve been to many big airports like London, Sydney, LA, SF, New York; but Toronto Airport is different in the way, as it was built as a multiple level structure or maybe I was simply too tired…

More to come..