A report from the Australian Financial Review. "Apartments in Melbourne's Docklands, CBD and Southbank are being resold up to 24 per cent below their previous off-the-plan purchase price, catching out vendors, many of whom bought them from investment companies or spruikers. AFR Weekend has found numerous examples of such apartments, most of which are small studio or one-bedders, acquired after the global financial crisis. The revelations come as concerns build about an oversupply of apartments, as a record number of completions loom, and following Macquarie Bank tightening its lending to high-rise apartment postcodes, including in Docklands, the CBD and Southbank."

"In one example, a one-bedroom apartment measuring 56 square metres in the Site One Complex at 757 Bourke Street has an asking price of $290,000 to $319,000, having been bought off-the-plan for $380,000 in 2009."

"Evidence of falling apartment values was identified broadly by valuation firm WBP Property Group last year. The study found that half of all off-the-plan properties were valued at a minimum of $1000 less than the purchase price with the average loss being $40,000 or 9.4 per cent. In Central Melbourne, the fall was greater at 11.5 per cent. In one extreme example, a two-bedroom apartment in Abbotsford suffered a loss of $623,000, a decline of 46 per cent. 'In real terms, this loss equates to the cost of a typical deposit, which most people take several years to save,' said WBP Property Group chairman Greville Pabst."

The Canberra Times. "Real Estate Institute of the ACT board member Michael Kumm, speaking personally, said Canberrans were conservative borrowers who posed no risks to banks, but there was a clear oversupply of units in the city and the government should be told it was releasing too many. 'On Allhomes now 70 per cent of properties [for sale] are units, and some of those might represent a development so we could be getting up to 80 per cent units,' he said. 'We don't have to hit the panic button, but the warning signs are there that they want to give it some consideration. The units are selling, the sellers just have to meet the market.'"

The Daily Mail. "Developers are reportedly getting cold feet on Australia's once booming property industry as the value of projects taken off the table nears $5billion. Property construction is slowing across the country as the cost of labour rises and an oversupply of apartments means there is less money to be made in new building projects. In Sydney, the Brookfield Multiplex construction company has reportedly withdrawn from its contract to build the Greenland City Centre, billed as the tallest apartment block in the city. Almost all the apartments in the $700m tower have already been sold off the blueprints, but Brookfield reportedly could not see a way to make money from the project."

"In Brisbane, the construction of a $1bn apartment tower at 545 Queen Street has reportedly slowed as developers keep an eye on property forecasts which predict a glut of apartments in the city. On Tuesday developer Mirvac reportedly ceased an agreement to build the $3bn Perth City Link, which would have seen 1,200 apartments built in the city centre. And in Melbourne cost comparisons show drastic falls in the asking price of luxury city apartments as the supply of property outstrips demand."

"On Friday property lender Firstmac reportedly announced it was cutting the amount it was prepared to lend to city apartment builders. The same day Westpac Bank announced it was stopping all lending to foreign property buyers looking to build apartments. Firstmac chief executive Kim Cannon said: 'It is quite obvious there is going to be a problem in the future.'"

The Australian. "Up to 30 per cent of foreign-owned city apartments are likely to be left empty after a splurge by mainly Chinese investors, says National Australia Bank chief economist Alan Oster. Mr Oster estimates more than 60 per cent of off-the-plan apartment purchases in the Melbourne CBD and half in Sydney are being financed outside the big four banks, likely through offshore institutions and cash."

"The offshore buying spree — which is compromising the banking regulator’s tough standards on risky investor lending — has led to the Melbourne CBD apartment market being three times oversupplied, while Sydney is two times overbuilt. Offshore investors are increasingly using alternative funding because the major banks are limiting lending in inner-city apartment markets due to fears of overheating."

"'With up to 60 or 70 per cent of the apartments in Melbourne (CBD) we do not know who is ­financing them,' Mr Oster told The Weekend Australian. 'We just don’t know if they are going to use cash, whether they have got a foreign bank ­account somewhere within China, if they have an account somewhere in Hong Kong or somewhere else.'"

"Melbourne-based Jerry Pan co-owns a Chinese-backed development and apartment sales company, Monolith International, which sells units locally and to Chinese investors. Mr Pan said many Chinese investors were forced to delay settlement of their apartments as they could not get funding from stringent Australian banks."

The Daily Telegraph. "Let's not beat around the bush. Broken Hill has the cheapest real estate in NSW with houses going for the price of a car. The mining boom turned house prices to gold but its end has seen them turn to dust. Investors who snapped up properties at the start of the mining boom more than a decade ago are now offloading houses for rock-bottom prices. For the price of a standard car, homebuyers can purchase a two-bedroom house. Just $35,000 will get the house and, for an extra $6000, you get the land next door."

"Broken Hill Real Estate director Cliff Wren, who has been in business for 20 years and has the cheapest properties in NSW, said investors flocked to the outback town in 2003 because they could get a great rental return of $180 every week. But now, with mining in a slump, he said investors running for the hills were flooding the market. 'We are used to that cycle every seven years and what goes down must come up again,' Mr Wren said."