gold, page-131779

Hi Skol,

Seeing how you are such a fan of real estate and prefer owning it instead of holding Gold.

I offer you this following example.

Early in 2021 I attended an auction of a Brisbane city apartment I was interested in. I thought the place was worth around AUD $1,000,000.00. I came very close to bidding at the auction; however, as there where no bids at all from the sixty or so in attendance I refrained.

As it happened here in Brisbane although there were no bids the auctioneer called out an alleged vendor bid of AUD $1,500,000.00. The local paper reported that the apartment had been passed in at $1.5M. This is par for the course in the dodgy world of real estate in Queensland.

The apartment is currently on the market (2025) asking for offers over one million. I am not sure if it changed hands in the interim.

Had I wanted to raise $1M in 2021 I would have needed to sell some of my Gold holding.

Gold at AUD$2,250.00 per ounce I would have had to sell 444 ounces of Gold to raise $1M.

I am still interested in the apartment; however, for the moment I will continue to hold on to the Gold.

By the way to raise $1M at todays price of Gold I would only need to sell 208 ounces of Gold.

True enough I made no interest on my Gold I have small annual fee for secure storage that lets me sleep easy.

As I have said often, I hold Gold as insurance and protection of my future purchasing power. Has this worked for me you may ask.

As the conversion from physical Gold to AUD$1,000,000.00 has reduced by over 50% between 2021 and 2025 I would say yes.

I guess bricks and mortar have been a great investment over time; however, something you may need to heed of,here in Australia it is growing out of reach for the current generation of home buyers.

This then begs the question if the boomers like me and I suspect you if the current generation cannot buy our $1M homes who do we sell them to?

I the UK (I spend half my time there) things are getting even harder for the next generation of British home buyers.

“Lloyds plans big move into UKrental market with 50,000 homes.”

Lloyds plans big move into UK rental market with 50,000 homes |Lloyds Banking Group | The Guardian

Lloyds Bank's private landlord arm buys over 150 more houses

Unfortunately for the current UK home buying generation, they will find it difficult to enter the property market.

Especially if you consider they are competing with big banks on far from a level playing field. The bank has access to money under 2% and the current potential buyers need to pay around 8%

Below is from the Lloyds Bank website.

Bank of England Base Rate – useful Information

On 06 February 2025 the Bank of England Base Rate went down by 0.25% from 4.75% to 4.5%.

So, from 01 March 2025 we’re changing our lender variable rates.

o Lloyds Bank Homeowner Variable Rate will go from 8.24% to 7.99%

o Lloyds Standard Variable Rate will go from 6.75% to 6.50%

o Lloyds Buy to let Variable Rate will go from 9.09% to 8.84%

When I talk to people in the UK some say the banks buying single dwelling homes is just good business personally, I feel it is wrong on so many levels I would go so far as to say I believe it is immoral.

10Year Gold Price History in Australian Dollars per Ounce

Cheers.