Another voice of doom from across the Atlantic. Wish they'd stick to what's happening in the US instead of belching forth scare mongering c**p.

There is no chance of a Home price crash in the 3 Eastern Cities in Australia.  We have been building less than 2/3rds or less, of our minimum needs for over 10 years.  The boom finished off in the first 2 weeks of December 2015, then took off again in third week of January.  Auction closing rates are equaling the boom figures, although stock is way down.  The place to watch is the Off Plan unit market in Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane.  Depending on the background of the developer, the Banks have required anything from 40% to 60% off plan exchanged sales.  Most of these sales have been made to the Chinese market & for a number of reasons, very few will complete.  The Chinese will lose their deposits & walk away. There will be a number of Mortgagee in possession, fire sales within the next 9 months.  Wise investers will avoid, like poison, all new units in Rhodes, Sydney, Docklands, the CBD & Southbank, Melbourne & all new unit sales in Kangaroo Point, Railway Terrace Milton as well as Merrivale Street & especially The New World Tower in Cordilia Street South Brisbane.  The wise investers will snap these up at a discount of 15 to 20% in about 9 months time.  Be very wary of touching anything with a guaranteed rental return for 1 or 2 years, especially in Melbourne.  It is a con.

I agree Innes...the off the plan is the real worry. Where I live we have been keeping a count of the number of homes on the market and there are more and more all the time.

With the end of the mining boom here in WA people are stretched to the limit and many are living on credit.

We have International customers that are interested in the 3 Eastern Capitals Radish.  I have never had the time to worry about Perth & of course, Tassie, SA & NT are not of a big eneough market to make it worthwhile.

If the interest rates go up like they did in the 80s and early 90s -- there will be a LOT losing their homes -- interest rates were from 18% to 25% then -- great for investments NOT for mortgages

I think it would take a calamity of global proportions to see interest rates return to those levels again.

"Australia’s richest man, billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff, warned that a “very significant” number of Chinese buyers were nowfailing to settle their off-the-plan units and urgent action was needed."

This comment by Mr Tribuboff is concerning...he would know what is going on.

There is always a trickle down effect when things take a downward turn in the building industry.

the reason prices wont crash is the massive number of immigrants that are on their way to australia.

sydney has the problem of working out where to build housing for the 2 million migrants they are expecting in the next 5 years. foreign investors are continuing to take advantage of this by buying up as much property as they can. chinese investors are getting interest free loans from the chinese govt, so there is no shortage of paper to exchange for these properties.

same applies to other cities but on a smaller scale.

obviously if you want affordable housing, you need to eliminate the excessive demand. that means abolishing immigration and letting the building trade overcome the housing shortage. but with the obsession by the australian government to overpopulate,  this problem will be ongoing and will continue long after most of us are dead, as the govt will bring in vastly more immigrants than available housing. spare a thought for our descendents who will have to compete for affordable accommodation.