The Flintstones

"House prices in Australia are expected to fall moderately over the next year, with the biggest declines to be recorded in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, according to a country-wide survey by National Australia Bank."

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/busi...125-1a3ho.html

Amazulu

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz - that's the hornets waking from their nest.......

Expat Kiwi

I know someone who tried to sell their home two years ago and couldn't get a buyer so they rented it out instead.

Now they need to sell up and have put it on the market for $90,000 less ($669,000) and that's $20,000 above what their agent valued it at.

Kim67

Where is the house?

Expat Kiwi

Benowa / Carrara area.

The agent told her that there are lots of people wanting to buy but not many of them can proceed with purchases because lenders are tightening up on loan criteria - 20% deposits etc. Self employed people, eg. tradies are also having problems because their income fluctuates so much that some banks see them as a poor risk.

hevs

I'm gonna guess...... WA?

Property is only worth what someone will pay. I think that when theres a surplus of same looking 4x2 built around the same time, theres no competition and then its a buyers market. The market where we live in Melbourne is definately cooling and prices are coming down by $10/ $20 k for properties that have been sat around for a while...

Expat Kiwi

Benowa is south of Brisbane on the gold coast (Queensland)

Steve2009

Damn those blasted banks and their new found prudence.

Kim67

Gold Coast, don't really watch the market down there so will be interesting to see if your friend manages to get a buyer.

Kim67

The new housing estates all over the country that are all the same, a way out of the city will suffer, but will be good for buyers wanting that kind of area to live. We have an auction in our street on Saturday - I'll walk down just to check out how things are moving and for what price around here.

DownUnderPaddy

"National house prices are likely to decline 0.5 per cent over the next 12 months, according to the poll of 237 property professionals"

.5% is 'moderate' ???!!
That is insignifigant !

I own a house, bought 5 years ago.
I would consider a minor fall to be up to 10% and a moderate fall to be between 11-20%, given the current overvalued prices.

Steve2009

While 0.5% is tiny, any correction would be unlikely to happen in one year. In Ireland when they set up NAMA they said that downturns last on average 7 years. I'm not sure what their basis for saying that was but that was their prediction.

DownUnderPaddy

Based on bust lasting about same time as boom I believe Steve.
http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ireland/ho...ars-54110.html
‘‘Deleveraging cycles tend to take about six to seven years, which would fit in with the length of the bubble cycle for Ireland, from 2001 to 2008."

Ireland house prices nationally are now 38% below their peak from 2007, and still dropping...
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0118/houses.html

Because I am acutely aware of how big the property bubble was in Ireland, and just how badly it burst, that is why I scoff at any drop in price of less than 20% here in Aus, given the ridiculous level that 'values' are curently at.

When we bought in 2005, we bought at a peak and were really depressed about it. However, the 'value' of houses in our area has almost doubled again since then. It would not bother me a jot now if 30% came off the current 'values' as our house would still be valued higher than what we paid for it, but more importantly, our outstanding mortgage is only half of what it was 5 years ago and our monthly repayment is now far, far less than what we would pay if we were renting a 3 bed house in our area.

Personally, I believe the country needs a signifigant correction in order to overcome the growing divide between the haves and havenots. I would be all for it, and I am speaking as a property owner !

asprilla

This phrase gets used fairly often. But is it really true?

Kelli28

I'm currently looking at buying and a few people have told me to start at 100k less than the asking price as most houses are way overpriced.