"The anti-property voices in the community not only wish for a big devaluation of our homes but are lobbying government to make it happen."
I think the problem is much bigger than just devaluation of homes. You just have to look at the U.S., U.K. Spain, Ireland, Greece etc.
It's about extremely high and unsustainable household debt. When it can't be repaid, banks collapse. When bank collapse, governments bail them out. When governments collapse, hopefully you share your currency with someone else and they can bail you out in the interest of the currency.
If housing was such an isolated issue, why has retail collapsed? If you say its the Aussie, and everyone is buying overseas, then I ask you why the net savings ratio is now over ten percent? Australian can't afford any more debt, and are deleveraging. Why are people losing their jobs?
Essentially, we have quadrupled our household debt over the past 30 years. In Terry's case, it's just unfortunate 90% of the debt is in residential property. The problem is the unsustainable debt binge in our economy, the housing bubble was just the side effect.
