Are estimated prices too high?

We're getting started with Day 3 of this group of hearings. Yesterday, they got going at 9 a.m. to ensure that they'd be able to get through everything, but today they pushed it back to 10 a.m. Not that it matters to me much, because I have to be at work at 6:30 or 7 a.m. each day to write up stories and put the paper together, but it makes my mornings a little more leisurely when I can get here at 10 a.m.

Yesterday, one of the big discussions was about the pricing that the developers were projecting for their properties. It reminded me of this article I found the other day.

Here's the passage I'm thinking about:

"Musha’s general manager, Tom Lawson, was recounting how he and wife Susan got into the top-end business. 'Some years back, we decided to offer another island for rent. We worked out it would cost $17,000 a week, organised a real fancy brochure and mailed it to a list of rich people. We waited by the phones. No calls.

'Two weeks later, we thought "What the hell", sent out the same brochure, same terms, this time with a $34,000 price tag. The phones rang and rang. Soon after, we increased it to $50,000 — the phones rang even more.' Lawson shrugged in reply to my accusatory raised eyebrow. 'We used to laugh about it with the guests when they came to stay.' This is when I realised how different the rich are."

What do you think?

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