Mainland Chinese have dominated the purchases of inner Sydney apartments and, to a lesser extent, Melbourne apartments. In the last month or so the Chinese have halved their buying of apartments and if that accelerates, it will push down the prices of apartments in our two major cities (primarily in Sydney). We could be looking at a 10 per cent fall. In turn, that will spread to apartment blocks outside the inner city and ordinary houses. But again the effect is manageable.
The greatest danger is that a sizeable proportion of the multitude of inner Sydney and Melbourne apartments that have been bought off the plan by mainland Chinese are not consummated and the Chinese simply walk away and accept the loss of their deposit.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Australian-housing-property-real-estate-house-pric-pd20111222-PS5SF?OpenDocument&src=is
Here is full articial if you don't want reg.
One of the biggest question marks facing Australia in 2012 is whether global banking turbulence will affect Australian property prices. The international bears say we are very vulnerable. For example, the International Monetary Fund says that Australian house prices are overvalued by between 10 and 15 per cent. The Economist magazine reckons the overvaluation is closer to 50 per cent. By contrast, Business Spectator columnist Christopher Joye from Rismark believes our dwellings are not overpriced (Disposable house price myths, December 20).
The last word we got from 2011 was RP Data-Rismark November capital city home value index, showing a rise of 0.1 per cent in November – its first lift in 11 months.