Your question - Is Australian property immune? I don't think it is. I have sold a cheap house recently and my first "buyer" fell threw. He had a verbal agreement with a large bank and when he went to finalise the finance they turned him down.
The house was only $250k and he had a deposit of $88k.
The second buyer had $150k in equity on another house and still had a little trouble getting finance.
My agent told me this has been quite a regular pattern of late.
What does this tell us? Are banks no longer willing to hand out large amounts of money? Are no deposits a thing of the past? How will this effect houses in the $500k+ range?
I know many people with large loan and small wages. Would they get that loan today? Not a chance in my opinion.
It doesn't paint a good picture. On top of a slowing economy, job losses and fear. I can only speak for my lowly priced property and there is still quite a high demand for cheap housing. However, whats the demand for the rest?
While Steve Keen's prediction of 40% losses on house prices may not happen, you would have to think a minimum of 10% should be a given. On higher priced houses, probably more.
You only need to look at how fast this financial crisis is unwinding. 12 months ago - Australia will be booming for another decade 6 months ago - Australia will be ok because of China's demand. 3 months ago - Australia will probably have a little slowdown Now - Australia is slowing rapidly but no recession 3 months later - Recession 6 months later - Bloody hell 12 months time - Tin food, bomb shelter
Ok, Ok, I got carried away. :)
But I do believe we will all remember the 2008 "financial crisis" for the rest of our short lives. That goes without saying.
