A Year of Two Perspectives

When I moved from Year 6 at Hernani Primary School (which had an enrolment of about 2 dozen students) many, many years ago to Year 7 secondary boarding school I found myself a little out of my comfort zone. This was amplified in my first English class where our teacher handed us copies of Charles Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities”. The novel was about two inches thicker than anything I had ever seen before, and it suffices to say I never did finish it. I do, however, remember the beginning of the opening paragraph,

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

Apparently, this refers to the differences between London and Paris during the lead up to the French Revolution. To my mind, it equally sums up Australia 2021 to a Tee.

It seems that the positivity in the economy and season is often countered by the dreaded pandemic and society’s reaction to it, plus a few international relations issues.

Well, not around here! The grass is green, the rain is falling, commodities buoyant and commercial & lifestyle rural properties are proving to be popular investments. It is a great time to be involved in rural property.

The pandemic will, one day, dissipate and people will continue to need to be fed and to seek the benefits of rural living.

My family is fortunate enough to be able to be together for Christmas this year and I hope yours is, too. 2022 is set to begin with a wonderful season and continued healthy markets. Amongst the gloom, there’s a lot to be grateful for and happy about.

I wish you all the very best for Christmas and I look forward to helping you on your rural property journey in 2022; hopefully, a year when the world will be less at odds with itself.

Onwards!

Graham MacDougall