While it's impossible to put the decline down to one reason,...

While it's impossible to put the decline down to one reason, apart from the interest rate concerns I referred to above, there was an article in the excellent 'The Australian' - always worth subscribing to - by Wealth Editor James Kirby that questioned whether we were in for a 'soft' year in property sales.

Again, while one swallow does not make a summer, and auctions are always a minority of property sales even in Melbourne (the auction capital of Oz), clearance rates at the weekend were down.

Many of the permanent and temporary migrants flooding in to Australia under Labor/Greens/Teals (despite the majority of Australians believing too many) are initially renters, so they don't necessarily immediately increase the volume of residential property transfers. Foreigners undertaking university studies often reside in student housing apartments.