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Territory housing market hits snags

Territory housing market hits snags Big rises in construction costs have lead to Territorians taking out fewer, but bigger, home loans, industry experts say.

The Northern Territory Mortgage and Finance Association says there has been a dramatic drop in the number of people buying and selling homes in the past few months.

The association's Tony Schelling says the high returns from the rental market(from:
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He says the fall in the number of people taking out home loans is quite significant, and the lack of confidence in the market is surprising considering the current boom.

"[There's been] as much as 10 per cent fall in the numbers [of loans] in the last couple of months and probably a similar 10 per cent in numbers in the last six months.

"Most recently there's been a bigger down turn, but the real impact of that hasn't been seen yet.

"And conveyances(from:
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The Northern Territory Construction Association's Graham Kemp says the global demand for resources has pushed up the cost of building a home.

Steel has risen by 60 per cent this year, and combined with the rising cost of fuel and other materials, Mr Kemp says building costs will continue to grow.

"Steel is just one component that we are seeing fogging up.

"We're seeing concrete going up, we're seeing plasterboard prices going up - literally all the components that go into building a house [are going up].

"The insidious one is what fuel prices will do."

The owner of a Northern Territory building company(from:
http://www.building-materials-china.com/companies/) says new occupational health and safety regulations mean the cost of building a home in the Territory will jump by an another ten percent.

"We've gone through the recommendations and they've had a lot of quotes by installers and suppliers and it could have the potential to add another $40,000 to a good size block constructed single storey house," says Dominic Papalado.

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Mainframe Sales, Strong Overseas Market Buoy IBM Earnings

Mainframe Sales, Strong Overseas Market Buoy IBM Earnings

IBM (from:http://www.china-computer-accessories.com/buy-IBM/)reported strong second-quarter earnings Thursday, beating analyst expectations and buoyed in part by sales of its new high-end mainframe computer and continued strong performance overseas.

Diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $1.98 on revenue of $26.8 billion, a 13 percent revenue increase over last year, or 6 percent when adjusted for currency valuations.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had on average predicted $1.82 per share and $25.9 billion in revenue.

Mark fromhttp://www.china-computer-accessories.com/buy-Mark/ Loughridge, IBM's chief financial officer, crowed over the results during a conference call Thursday. "This is one of the best quarters I've ever seen. ... These are truly powerful results," he said.

Like that of its rivals Oracle and SAP, IBM's financial results are increasingly seen as a bellwether for the economy as the world goes through an economic slowdown.

Sales in the Americas region stood at $10.9 billion, an increase of 6 percent when adjusted for currency effects. Revenue from the Europe, Middle East and Africa region was $9.8 billion, up 7 percent, and Asia Pacific revenue was $5.3 billion, a 6 percent jump, both on a currency-adjusted basis.

IBM's System z mainframe sales grew by 32 percent over the previous year. System z "has been extremely well-received in the marketplace," Loughridge said. "We entered the quarter with a strong deal pipeline, and this quarter, frankly, we were sold out."

System p sales also grew, by 29 percent over last year.

It was a different story for IBM's other hardware lines, however: System x sales fell by 5 percent, and System i by 47 percent. Loughridge associated that decline with IBM's ongoing efforts to move its legacy System i customer base to the newer Power platform.

Another weak spot was the Systems and Technology segment, which fell 3 percent when adjusted for currency, on $5.2 billion in revenue.

Meanwhile, Global Technology Services revenue rose 8 percent on an adjusted basis to $10.1 billion; and Global Business fromhttp://www.china-computer-accessories.com Services sales were up 9 percent to $5.1 billion.

IBM raised its profit forecast for all of 2008 to at least $8.75 per share, up from $8.50. The company has a 2010 target of $10 to $11 per share.

Without naming any potential target areas, Loughridge suggested IBM is looking to make further acquisitions even as it comes off large deals, such as its purchase of BI (business intelligence) vendor Cognos. "At today's prices there are some very attractive candidates out there," he said.

 
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