The problem in Australia is infintely worse than the US...

The problem in Australia is infintely worse than the US experience in that our recourse loans allow the banks and lenders to take away everything (including any other assets you have) to get their money back.

The negative impact to the economy is much worse when our bubble burst because many will lose the lot.

Emotional attachment is besides the point. When one can no longer service a mortgage, you lose it no matter how hard to try to hold on. This has a cascading domino effect.

I suspect when the defaults and REPO waves start to worsen, the banks will rapidly narrow the grace period for hardship consideration (given the impact on bad debt with more price falls over time).

Fujitsu should focus on their core business (that is selling air conditioners). They need to go back to reassess the level of mortgage stress and not underestimate the problem.