Australian Property Bubble

This is blog about the sharemarket and in particular stocks and trading methods. No I have not gone off the rockers in writing this blog article about the Australian property market. So why am I writing about the property market? Few reasons are:
- the Australian economy is partly sustained by the booming property market, not just the resources sector.
- the Australian banks with huge exposures to property market are highly vulnerable if there is a bursting of the property bubble. If the banks suffer, the rest of the economy will follow.
- Usually the property market lags the sharemarket, so why bother with predicting a property market crash? The fact is that is already happening. The sharemarket seems to be highly volatile and can fall significantly any day now. Throughout this time, the property market data has shown signs of easing and more commentators have begun to write about this. Although the sharemarket may fall first, the downturn momentum pulling the property market with it (like being tied with a rock thrown into the sea) will mean the effect on the Australian economy will be so much worse before it can get better.

There are many more people who are more qualified in commenting on the property market and the economic drivers than me. The main goal of this blog article is to collect news articles regarding the slowing property market and general economy. The number of articles have increased recently.


Housing starts up in smoke
Peter Martin  May 17, 2011
HOUSING approvals have collapsed to a 10-year low, falling 12 per cent between December and March and sliding 9 per cent in Victoria.
While the Queensland floods contributed to the fall, Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday show that, excluding Queensland, nationwide approvals fell 11 per cent.

Real estate slump will leave banks in pain, too

May 17, 2011

More an orderly retreat than a rout. Australian real estate, long the subject of global concern, bears all the symptoms of a market that simply has run out of puff.

Ever since America's housing bubble burst in 2007, setting off a chain reaction in Britain and across Europe - which then infected the global financial system - international pundits have been warning of a similar catastrophe here.

Endless boom a shaky theory and China's economy is likely to stall
The Australian May 16, 2011 12:00AM
A MEMBER of the Coalition's leadership team says China's economy will stall in the next year and the resulting commodity price plunge will push the budget deficit back to $30 billion or more.


Housing finance falls to 10-year low
AAP May 16, 2011 12:26PM
THE number of home loans approved in March fell to a 10-year low, dragged down by the Queensland floods and by the November rate hike. The number of home loans approved in March fell 1.5 per cent, to a seasonally adjusted 44,968, its lowest level since February 2001. Economists' forecasts had centred on a 2.0 per cent rise in housing finance commitments for the month.