Luxury Real Estate

By Michael Marquette
From his blog: Donald Trump Provides the Future for Sydney!

Donald Trump is moving his focus to Australia with Sydney as the city set to benefit.

Having just released his Palm Beach property from his book, he is planning to move by the end of the year and real estate throughout the Harbour city is set to be changed forever. Sydney is set to lead the world in innovative luxury property, and those looking to rent or buy will benefit.

Trump Tower Sydney will be the most luxurious real estate in the country with 24-hour Luxury Concierge and apartments that resemble luxury penthouses. With the recent examples of the world’s tallest buildings in the world produced from forward-thinking economies such as Dubai and Qatar, could Sydney truly reach such levels?

The serious question, however, is whether Trump will really leave New York and help turn Sydney into the next Capital of the World?

Is this a dream or is this true?

The answer, unfortunately, is no.

All the hype and all the excitement spoken about above is all just that – HYPE!

If only Sydney was heading toward construction of the tallest or most luxurious property in the world. If only we were looking at world leading eco-friendly buildings which are self sufficient and utilizing both the sun and wind to power the building. The development at Frasers Broadway in Sydney is certainly progress in the right direction.

A city, however, with so much belief in itself has the opportunity to prove so much more.

Why is Sydney not developing this thought process or anything similar? The state government of New South Wales, so caught up in its own misery, in-fighting and lack of focus, is ultimately full of talk and very little action

A wise friend once told me that opportunity is like a $100 note – very few people reach out and grab it when it floats in front of them.

Sydney has every opportunity to be a global city – it would be such a shame to see such a chance float by.


Editor’s Note:
Michael Marquette is the co-Founder and Director of Marquette Turner Luxury Homes, a member of Luxury Real Estate in East Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded on Australia Day 2007 by Marquette and Simon Turner, Marquette Turner is a property consultancy company covering the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria. Marquette has a background in medicine and a large retail and wholesale business. So, so true. Seize the day! The photo above is from www.flickr.com/photos/gradin/138770077 and it is the copyright of Olaf.

By Robert Lockard

Nick Antonicello, Director of Sales for Unique Homes, pointed out an interesting story to me last week in the Los Angeles Times Blog. You might have already heard about it, but I just want to put in my two cents about the whole affair.

Peter Viles, Senior Producer for Real Estate at LATimes.com, wrote in his blog entry that Donald Trump, possibly the best-known real-estate developer in the world, is seeking to buy Ed McMahon’s mansion to save him from foreclosure.

In an even more bizarre turn of events, Mr. Trump now might be having some competition for buying Mr. McMahon’s luxury home. That’s according to a new blog post today by Ann Brenoff, author of the Los Angeles Times’ weekly “Hot Property” feature.

As Mr. Spock would say, “Fascinating.”

To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of this story. I mean, Mr. McMahon certainly seems like a good man who simply let his finances get out of control until he went from delivering oversized million-dollar checks to being unable to pay for his multimillion-dollar luxury property. His story just seems remarkable and bitterly ironic.

Since he went public with his mortgage troubles, it appears that Mr. McMahon will now be able to make it through this difficult experience fairly well. Competing offers on a house that’s about to be short sold is pretty impressive, I think.

I guess, in the end, my point is: Is this justice? I mean, not everyone can be helped like this. Is Ed McMahon’s celebrity status the main reason why he is receiving this attention and assistance? I’m uncertain of the answer to these questions. I hate to see anyone suffer, but is some suffering just while other suffering should be alleviated, and how do we judge that?

I believe that life is generally good, although it is difficult and filled with perils. Mr. McMahon seems to have had a very good life, gaining much more success and fame than most people will ever know. I feel bad that he is facing failure near the end of his life, but perhaps that is a lesson he needed to learn. I am sure we all must face failure and seek to succeed afterwards. Hopefully we will learn to be better people in the process.


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. I was really tempted to call this blog entry “Wake up with the King” Luckily, I refrained. You can share your blog entries on the Luxury Real Estate Blog by emailing them to me. By the way, ordinarily I would link to the two blog entries above via their TrackBack links, but they don’t appear to be working, so I just used their regular links. The photo of Mr. Spock is from www.flickr.com/photos/cultureculte/2306916969 and it is the copyright of culture.culte.