Transcript of “Borders Opened”

Episode: EP107
Show Title: Tassie's Borders Opening to Rest of the Country
Cast: Aaron Horne, John McGregor, & Andrew Leggett
Show Length: 25 minutes 27 seconds

Aaron: The God of Thunder himself, he's looking into some property down here in Tassie--it was all over the news. The funny bit was the day that it came into the news last week was the day there was that massive storm--that was kind of an uncharacteristic storm that...

[into music]
Going once... going twice... SOLD! You're listening to The Property Pod!

Aaron: All right all right! Welcome back to The Property Pod, your weekly engagement into real estate here in the hobart marketplace. I'm your host, Aaron Horne, and it gives me great pleasure to be back on the mic. I'm here with two superstars of radio-- well it's not radio, it's podcast.

John: I'm gonna roll with that, why not? Yeah yeah, radio and podcast. Put us on the radio and we'll be superstars, sure.

Andrew: We'll take that.

Aaron: Yeah, you'll take that. Yeah no look, you've heard the voice of Andrew Leggett and John McGregor. Last week, Andrew just dug his heels in. He said, "look, I'm not gonna sponsor the show if you're not gonna have me on it. I'm here, I'm throwing money at you. You promised me a key..." And yeah, you got bumped. [laughter] So, we apologize for the bumping, mate, but it's so good to have you back in the studio.

Andrew: Oh it's good. It's good to be back. But yeah, wasn't impressed last week, guys. Come on.

John: I woke up to the world of real estate, mates. Rejection on a daily basis--you just gotta get back up.

Andrew: Yeah, keep moving.

Aaron: That's it, yeah. Just keep bounce back and yeah, jump straight in. So no, it's very good to have you back, mate, and we do apologize. I must say it was a cracking episode last week if you-- you probably were too sad to listen along.

Andrew: I was...

Aaron: But yeah, no it was a really good one with Suz and Laura coming in and just talking about how crazy their little three-month stint with us has been so far and just the projections of what's coming is very exciting.

Andrew: It is. Certainly is.

John: I reckon one thing to say on that. I'm really grateful for this business for them to feel nurtured because I think in one's sense, they feel like they can just... the business is getting out of their way but supporting them to do great work which is just meant to be able to become even more successful in this industry. [Andrew agrees] And to me, like that's the whole mark of a great business where it's just supporting that individual person's capacity to grow and do great work while at the same token, too, they've got them, you know, the business has got you back
if something goes wrong.

Andrew: Yeah, that's exactly right. You know it's like... and for example, she's ignited the rocket, we've given her a push, and we'll just sit back and watch where it goes and if it decides to come back down, we'll pop it back up. [John agrees] and speaking of Suz and Laura, they've like been doing a bit of work together, haven't they? They've kind of been doing open homes and crossing paths that way and so it's kind of yeah, joining your super team together make a Megazord.

John: Yeah, I know... we know who Angie's not just quickly describing her story?

Andrew: Yeah, so Anj came on with us just over 12 months ago in a business support role. Expressed the will to want to write home loans, went and got herself accredited did a certificate four in Finance Broking, and said basically this is what i'm going to do, so it didn't really leave us with many options.

John: Just get out of the way. [laughter]

Andrew: Yeah yeah. I'll just step aside and let you do your thing and she's just absolutely set the world on fire. So, she's hanging with the big boys which is so good to see.

Aaron: Isn't it amazing when you get someone that with passion, drive, and skill or even being willing to scale themselves up and just be like, "I know that I can really make a move here, I'm gonna go for it" and then it's yeah, almost like jump on their coattails and ride it all the way home and yeah, as you're saying, provide a workplace that supports that person and makes them become the best version of themselves. You guys are doing that at RAMS with Anj.

Andrew: Yeah, whatever she needs, we'll throw it at her.

John: Well I know what was it like, mate, because I was just thinking at the moment I'm learning--I'm starting to learn another language. So my partner's from the Philippines, their language that speaks Tagalog and lucky enough, one of my brothers, he can speak well--he learned two other languages along with English. So he was able to help me just say, "well look, here's a good way to start so and a way to learn that will get you there faster" but it's that...

I'm in that mode again where it's like I am so out of my depth where I know nothing about this and it's like I had my little safe little bubble where I
knew my things; I am an expert and boom new language! And like I'm just [sound] it's like you're back at school again from prep.

Aaron: Can you give us some Tagalog?

John: Yeah, because there's a mix of Spanish in there as well so I think they'll say is... and she's gonna... I'm gonna butcher this but you will say "Kumusta?" so but then , "Ok lang" which is you know, "okay good" I learned the other day it was... Someone's phone's ringing... It was...

Aaron: And who is that though?

John: I don't know.

Andrew: Not me.

Aaron: Not me.

John: Oh, there you go. It's Laurie. [laughter] no what it was...

Aaron: It sounded like it was in the studio.

John: It was, it was. They knew I was going to get this so bad. There was a sign to pull out, you know, stop, stop.

Aaron: Eject.

John: I think it was "mahal" which is my lover wife, there's "Magandang--" I'm gonna stop there. I've got notes. [laughter]

Maybe each week I'll bring something new to the pod and just like, this is my little sentence.

Aaron: Yeah, I like that. Well, Niño, he does the show notes and the content writing for us. He was from the Philippines and would yeah, so he'll be able to listen in.

John: Exactly.

Aaron: And he can say like, "you did well, you did bad" and we'll get a report back.

John: Can you remember, mate, what was like make from day one doing the media like picking up the camera, jumping on board, getting ready for the property like doing property photos.

Aaron: Oh yeah. With anything, it's like that you'll know who it is the ten thousand hours guy, who's that? that's um…

John: Yeah um...I mean the book yeah, Ten Thousand Hours of Mastering.

Aaron: Basically of mastering anything, so I think like the more you do it, the better you get in anything. It's the same with real estate, it's the same with brokering, it's the same with the language, it's kind of yeah no, so that well, you go back to episode one of the podcast and then you come to this episode and yeah it's a completely different show and it's come up a thousand miles or ten thousand hours not that many but we're…

John: Oh it would be great. [Aaron agress]

Andrew: No, good. Good on you, John! It's something I've always wanted to do is pick up another language but just can't absorb.

John: Well, I think the other thing is you need a real motivation and reason because now, at least then there's a real connected purpose as to why I'm going to learn this specific new language so
yeah, it'll be interesting to see how we go in the coming months, that's for sure.

Aaron: Yeah, well learning a language is a perfect way to segue into what we were kind of talking about today. Today, they've recorded as the 15th of December, 2021,the borders of Tasmania are back open today. So, they're opening back up to the rest of Australia. I think for the last two years, it's kind of been on again, off again [John agrees] situation, so yeah, borders openings before Christmas mean a lot of things--there's a lot of nervous energy in the air, there's a lot of excitement depending on kind of where you are and what it could mean for Tasmania, Australia and the world [John agrees] going forward. Do we want to talk to the idea of the borders opening, what do we feel it could mean for us moving forward?

John: My feeling's always been that we've done everything we can in terms of myself, like with the vaccinations and prepping and all that kind of stuff and then to me, it feels like this has to be a point where we've got to go allow ourselves to go back to a point where we can live freely and allow that capacity to just go back to doing the things that you want to do. So, hopefully this is this first step in the right direction of being able to connect with people from all the different states and overseas because it'd be nice to have that connection again and allow that capacity to go and travel and see and do and have everyone from interstate visit this beautiful place, be able to leave this place as well. So for me, it just really comes down now is it there's been so much pent up, I suppose, people wanting to travel and experience and buy. From a real estate perspective, I think there's going to be a huge new excitement coming back into the state as people finally get to come here and re-experience it. So, I hope that that translates both to--I mean tough, obviously, because for all these other reasons of lack of housing support etcetera but obviously, too, though I'm excited for the tourism industry more than anything. Luckily enough, it's been able to survive to a smaller degree just locally but being able to reopen, we'll hopefully then just re-energize those businesses that have had a really hard time the last couple years.

Andrew: Yeah, let's get it firing again.

Aaron: Yeah, it's interesting kind of moving forward. It's that really interesting idea of we've lived kind of down here for a while pretty COVID-free on our tiny little island--it's a bit of a paradise. Most people seem to have done the right thing-- we've had that little incident recently where we had our little mini lock down which kind of everybody lost their mind over, but if you think about the people of Victoria, New South Wales, or other parts of the world have had it completely--

Andrew: --they've had it; they've had it so rough.

Aaron: Yeah, can't fathom kind of what it would have been like doing all that especially you spend a few little days here like even mass mandates and stuff like that, we've kind of dodged a whole lot of it. So COVID really hasn't affected us other than this kind of being able to leave the island or have family members. I know lots of people are really excited for family members to be coming back for Christmas or just even kind of I know a bunch of people who are kind of today's the day that the borders are opening, they're coming over today, I think there's like 45 flights coming into Tassie like I think, for the last six or seven months, there's been like seven flights and 45 coming in today. I think they're saying five thousand people...

Andrew: ...into the states.

Aaron: Yeah, but they're coming in just to see a loved one and they'll go home tomorrow the next day and not even planning coming back for a long time, it's just like I haven't been able to see a loved one. [John agrees] So yeah, it's another one of those things where you can't really imagine spending all this time apart and just that human need for kind of a hug…

John: No, 100 percent! And I guess, we're lucky that we've got our family here because my partner,

all her real immediate families in the Philippines, it's been six years since she's been able to go back and then where she was going to be planning on two years ago, got taken away again so it made it even even harder.

Andrew: Yeah, I had a mate that transferred his job over to Melbourne in April. He's not been back--he knows no one over there just, you know, he's the new work team but no real friends, no human connection like face to face sort of stuff, so I feel for him and he's coming back soon so it'll be good to catch up with him.

John: Yeah and I guess that's such an unmeasured consequence of being contained to one little area just on our mental health, [Andrew agrees] so that's what I guess then the lifting of all this being able to re-travel and connect will just allow people to have that moment like the hug and that nice conversation--it's not through a computer screen. Because it's just something so different being able to be in person like we can't measure.

Aaron: No yeah, unmeasurable. One thing that we can measure is that Tassie's vaccination program is going quite successfully and it's stating that we're one of the most vaccinated places on the planet. Over 16's, first dose rate is at 96 percent, second dose rate is at 90 percent. So yeah, 90 percent of the population here in Tassie double dosed which is a very good thing for kind of the healthcare system. Hopefully won't be overloaded with this new Omicron and all this other stuff that's kind of scaring us. It feels like at the start of this, it was perhaps maybe… hopefully we can get back to a point where COVID isn't a thing anymore that we have to do with but now it kind of feels like it's something we're going to live with. [John agrees] And we just have to, now, get to the other side of it.

John: Yeah, I guess there's no means of elimination like that's just not realistic, however, obviously, what these... from my understanding, what the vaccinations do is it seriously reduces hospitalization, so you'll still attract, you'll still get it every single time but it's going to significantly increase your chances of overrate and then significantly reduce hospitalization, so that's a great thing. [Andrew agrees]

Aaron: So one place I was thinking that this would then lead us was that yeah, we've lived in a really safe place. It might then encourage people or people know about how amazing it is down here, that it then might even kick the market into overdrive again. There's always talk of mainlanders like, "oh loads bloody mainlanders come in and steal all our properties" and stuff like that. Like is that a feasible option that now everyone's gonna be like, "oh let's go to that paradise down there" in embodied?

John: How's it has to be? I mean, Hemsworth, come on. [Andrew agrees] It's gotta be true, doesn't it?

Andrew: ...property on the coast. [laughter]

Aaron: Mate, well, I did want to spin on to the Hemsworth. [laughter] The god of thunder himself is looking into some property down here in Tassie-- it was all over the news. The funny bit was the day that it came into the news last week was the day there was that massive storm--that was kind of uncharacteristic storm that hit. The god of thunder himself may have been visiting, maybe it's not pretend, maybe he just kind of decided like, "oh, I'm going to go check out the east coast and see what it's like I'm just going to throw a bit" or he was angry--
John: He was angry the room has been removed it's like, "come on, just let me have some peace for a day" Which so, in my mind, it has to be the connection. He caused the storm because science, that's just... that's it. [Aaron agrees] there's no doubt, you can't argue against that. Not at all.

Aaron: So, it's amazing that this guy from home and away, this spunk that used to be in dolly magazine, has taken over the world is kind of this [John: it's awesome] and this superstar now, it's massive news that him and his brother want to bring their posse down here to the piano coves?

John: I can't quite remember exactly.

Andrew: Never heard the term.

Aaron: No well, I didn't know anything about it and I was like oh what's going on here so like, I'll just pull this up, hold on a sec. The Hollywood superstar is to buy the stunning piano cove site in the northeast of Tasmania which boasts around three kilometers of ocean frontage including numerous beaches and coves. According to the listing, the property is vast rare, has significant ocean front, and a blank canvas on which you can create kind of any world-class facility. I don't know if you, guys, have seen, he's got the facility in Byron Bay. He's kind of moved in there and so it's almost like he's like, "oh this will be my holiday home" which would be worth 20 million dollars down here in Tassie.

John: Apparently, it's like when I can't remember why we're looking this up but it was like the top 10 highest paid actors in the world, I think Hemsworth is in the top 10 at this point. So, you know, which is great. Aussie boy done well and at least then, he can obviously build himself a holiday spot down in Tassie. To me as well, having how many kilomtres did it say?

Aaron: Three--

John: Three kilometres. I mean how cool would that be? In my mind, it's really about having that exclusivity, isn't it? Just a little bit of privacy. So that obviously, if you have a huge posse that comes down, they feel like they're in their own little isolated piece of the world just to disappear, phones off, no distractions--just to enjoy it.

Andrew: Yeah, just hit the shack in Tassie.

John: Yeah, exactly. Well, I was thinking about though like if all of a sudden, you start to get a couple of big celebrity means like, "why are you living there?" Just like New Zealand. That happened in New Zealand well the huge huge stretches of areas where they were selling to opening up to international buyers and they were buying huge houses and land in exclusive river front sections, it wouldn't surprise me if Tassie ended up becoming the same. Obviously, Australia's got different restrictions but in terms of again, like it's beautiful space to look at, things are just getting better and better and better by the day, so you just throw in like one of the most famous people on the planet going, "I'm buying here" It's gonna trigger something yeah well see I don't know like if it's just that he's got like a really good marketing um team behind him but he just does seem like a really genuine down-to-earth fella who was just like oh yeah i've got the means to go create a shack essentially down in this beautiful part of the world. I know he loves surfing, he's into mountain biking, and all this stuff like that, so you know, it's close to Derby so you could quite easily be cruising around Derby and there's Chris Hemsworth just making you feel like you normally, you know, like a six or a seven. You look over there's a 10 over there [laughter]
and then you're just like, "man, I'm a two"

Andrew: It's like I'm going to leave now.

John: It's just like you just double check the rings on it you know, "all right, yeah, now we're all
good." [Aaron agrees] But what what are you gonna do? I think when you're out class to that level, you're not even jealous anymore it's like, "yeah, you can have your whole past honey" [laughter]

Andrew: You're gonna have that.

John: Yeah, inside it's fine. I'll high five you the way. It's funny that it's a rumor but I'm not going to be surprised if it starts to become true and true over the coming years because I mean Tassie's a beautiful spot and I think, the only challenge obviously for celebrities and entertainers and all that kind of stuff is the capacity to earn money down here just doesn't exist and all the connections and everything has to be in the larger cities but if they're happy to travel ,well then you know...

Andrew: It's a prime spot for a getaway we know that the celebs, they come here. You hear it in the news all the time. So, you know J Biebs has been here...

Aaron: I had a really good joke years ago with my cousin when she was maybe 10 or 11 that I was dating Katy Perry, I don't know she was going to a Katy Perry concert and I said, "ah Katy Perry is my girlfriend" and then she was like, "hahaha" "no, no, no, legit. Like me and Katy Perry, you can't tell anyone that she's my girlfriend." And then within like two or three weeks of coming up with that joke, Katy Perry was down here eating at Smolt.

John: Are you kidding?

Aaron: And I called her up and I said, "I can't talk right now but i'm on a date with Katy, you'll see it in the newspaper tomorrow." So, the next day, there's actually Sebastian who works here his sister, so the joke was that I dated Katy Perry and yeah, she was very lovely by the way.

Andrew: Oh, that's good.

Aaron: But it's just one of those opportunities where Katy Perry was down so…

John: Yeah, yeah, yeah, took that.

Aaron: Took that opportunity…

John: We didn't, do Bill Murray do a random visit to as well at some point? Yeah and then there was, obviously the best one didn't red man perform at The Granada, was it Redman or someone like that?

Aaron: No, exhibit or something…

John: Yeah, just some random actor like yeah, you had it added that happened but yeah, impressive.

Andrew: It is.

John: They thought they were performing at MONA but they're soon discovered differently.

Andrew: Gordon Ramsay, how he shot one of his TV shows down here…

John: Did he really? [Andrew confrims] Yeah right, I mean again, I'm surprised--I shouldn't say I'm surprised but it's kind of cool.

Andrew: It is, yeah.

John: Yeah, just to me, it just seems it'll start to get more. It'll happen more and more and more.

Aaron: No, look. It's very interesting. We've got like a beautiful part of the world. We're constantly banging on about how beautiful Tasmania is and it's only going to be a surprise for a while, the world is getting smaller with the way people can travel now so…

John: Oh yeah. Okay and as they arriv,e we'll take this podcast mobile and we're getting obviously the most famous celebrities' opinions on there.

Aaron: Oh yeah, watch this space. Last year's Christmas episode was with Luke McGregor, next year this year's Christmas episode, Hemsworth, himself, Thor's in the studio.

John: Yeah exactly! Yeah yeah hear the lighting. [laughter]

Aaron: All right. A bit of fun there, we probably need to wrap up pretty soon. It's not really real estate-related but it is Hobart-related. Water restrictions came into place just this week. So, normally, you kind of get deep into January maybe February when and water restrictions kind of come into place...

Andrew: They won't be going in deep.
Aaron: They won't..
.
Andrew: You said water... [laughter]

Aaron: No, so the thing I found really interesting was it's not based on drought. Normally, I would assume that weather restrictions are kind of based on there not being enough water but it's actually been the wettest--one of the fourth wettest winters on record.

John: Is it really?

Aaron: It's just that there's so much sediment in the water that they can't treat it. [John: uh okay] and use it, so yeah water restrictions have come into place in Hobart in a bunch of suburbs and they're likely to stay until the end of February...

John: Just right through summer?

Aaron: Yeah, right through summer. Even with this La Niña that they're anticipating, so another wet summer as well.

John: That's interesting then, isn't it? That, yeah obviously, rain is great but once it gets too heavy, there's too much for the dams to be able to or the the systems to filter it properly that's like, "hey hey, just slow it down a bit so it can catch up."

Andrew: We need to talk to Thor.

John: Yeah yeah [laughter] It's your fault, mate [referring to Aaron] [laughter]

Aaron: Now look, so the areas of the city that are under restrictions at the moment are Hobart, Glenorchy, Brighton, New Norfolk, Kingston, Sorrell, Kempton, Colebrook, and the surrounding suburbs. It affects things like water in your garden, washing your car, filling your pool.

John: A lot of suburban areas.

Aaron: Well, it's just funny you, guys, were talking about what do you call it? Hay fever. It's been affecting you really badly-- it's been affecting my partner, Sarah. It's been affecting heaps of people this season. I'm just wondering if it's got anything to do with kind of all this sediment and the water. You were talking about your friend, Joel, who move...

John: Yeah, I don't know exactly how to describe it properly but when Melbourne had a really heavy downpour once, it just uplifted all the the pollen and he nearly had to go to hospital. It hit him so hard, he couldn't escape it even side locked sealed windows everything, so there must be something to it where the rain's dispersing all of it--

I'm sure that's its purpose, obviously. But the heavier it is, well, the harder it is on those with the capacity to get hay fever.

Aaron: Yeah no, it's interesting. We probably need to call Dr Carl about it and ask him. He'd probably be able to give us some more info on it but yeah no, it's very interesting that that's kind of just as you, guys, were talking about I was like oh talking about water restrictions today. Maybe that's got something to do with...

John: Absolutely. It's always frustrating for people trying to come to our homes on a Saturday... It's like, "no no, I've just got the hay fever all right. [Andrew agrees]

Aaron: Well yeah.

John: Yeah it couldn't be worth the time; everyone's freaking out. Yeah no, it's not covered I've got hay fever--damn it.

Aaron: Yeah no, very true. The other thing I just wanted to touch on before we sign off today was the ashes are coming. I don't know if you're into the cricket but very excited that the fifth test is

coming our way: massive for tourism, massive for cricket Tasmania and the other side of sporting things is jack jumpers, have you been to a game yet?
Andrew: I have, yeah.

Aaron: So you're a big basketball boy. It's funny that you're allergic to jack jumpers and yeah, that's the name of our team.

Andrew: Yeah, exactly.

Aaron: Yeah but that's been getting a really really, the bolstered support and we've been kind of we won the first one in a very tight game. Haven't had as much success since then but still, putting in a valiant effort and yeah, it seems to be a massive thing for Glenorchy and Hobart and Tassie and all the things that are in that suburb. My state arena has been pumping.

John: Oh yeah, it'd be cool to see all the sports fields just completely packed again.

Andrew: [agrees] And what they've done at my my state arena, it's just it's magic,

Aaron: Yeah I know so many people have been saying like, "oh yeah, it's amazing." I'm just like it doesn't look like okay, how can it be that different? But everyone's just been raving about the yeah, the upscale that they've done.

John: I guess it's always compared to what we had. If you try and compare it to some of the best in the world, yeah, we might not be there yet, but compared to what we have, I'll take it. Every day of the week.
Aaron: Yes well, that is The Property Pod for this week, guys. Thank you for coming in, Andrew, and supporting us with RAMS home loans. We're so happy to have you on board and we do apologize for last week's mishap. If you ever want to put the foot down and just say no, I'm in [laughter] just get a stamp inside of the room anyway with a microphone or like a blaster... [laughter]

Andrew: I'm still waiting for the key. I'll just let myself fit. [laughter]

Aaron: Imagine him just lurking in the corner, just trying to get a word in over, John.

Andrew: John, shut up.

Aaron: Let me talk. Nice! That's perfect, guys! That is the property pod for this week; we'll be back next week for our Christmas episode and I believe we'll then go on hiatus for a little period of time over the break. Hamish and Andy call it their government mandated three-month break--I don't think we government…

John: I don't think we'll get the three months either, unfortunately.

Aaron: No, I think we'll be back in the studio away before they--I've lost all my words right at the end...

John: It's nice to be loose and fast and every now and again. [laughter]

Andrew: Yeah, we'll be back. I'll be back in sometime in January.

John: Exactly!

Aaron: Excellent! Sounds beautiful. Thank you, boys, we will talk to you soon--all right! John: My pleasure, lads.

[extro & disclaimer]
You have been listening to The Property Pod, recorded and edited by 4one4 Media House in conjunction with 4one4 Property Co. This podcast is general information only and the thoughts and views expressed are the opinion of our panel and listeners should always seek to use their
own investigation into any topic we discussed to ensure they fully understand their own situation. It does not constitute and should not be relied on as purchasing, selling, financial, or investment advice or recommendations, expressed or implied, and it should not be used as an invitation to take up any agent or investment services. No investment decision or activity should be undertaken on
the basis of this information without first seeking qualified and professional advice.

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