A report from the National Post in Canada. "Since housing supply was a challenge in Fort McMurray long before the fires destroyed more than 2,400 buildings in what had been an overpopulated city, and since thousands returned after the fire to find their homes damaged beyond repair, you would expect housing to still be an urgent concern in the Alberta oil-sands capital. But the city was strangely prepared for an emergency like this after solving that 20-year-long housing crunch, and everyone in Fort McMurray is celebrating the holidays this year with a roof over their head."

"By 2014 with the oil industry beginning to suffer, local urban development plans were put on hold. In the months before the fire, the downturn in oil prices left Fort McMurray with a new problem: the city actually had too much housing. 'With the economic downturn, you have areas where houses are just sitting empty,' says Tim Gensey senior public affairs adviser of the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. 'Homes that were selling for $800,000 dropped to $650,000.'"

The Australian. "In Lamington, a country area of Western Australia covering mining towns such as Kalgoorlie, 2600 households are suffering 'mortgage stress.' The pain is more severe in Harris­town in Queensland, about 130km west of Brisbane, where more than 4500 households are in difficulty. Research covering the top 20 postcodes with the greatest mortgage stress features many country areas but Melbourne’s Essendon and Preston each have around 2500 households in difficulty, as does western Sydney’s Bossley Park."

"Despite record low interest rates and unemployment below 6 per cent, Standard & Poor’s said arrears ticked higher in October and the proportion of 'non-conforming' borrowers behind on payments was near record levels. Former Commonwealth Bank chief David Murray this month said all the signs of a housing 'bubble' were prevalent, such as 'people’s behaviour ... and ­defensiveness about any correction.' Mr Murray told Sky Business that investors owning multiple properties that were cross-collateralised who could become forced sellers were the 'risk to the system.'"

The Borneo Post on Malaysia. "In an economic climate as testy as Malaysia’s now, it comes as no surprise that less and less homeowners are buying properties. According to PropertyGuru Malaysia country manager Sheldon Fernandez, the residential property market to date has seen a decline in transaction volumes in tandem with the market slowdown. 'It is typically a buyers’ market as buyers have more choices now, taking their time to find the best deals,' Fernandez observed. 'Horror stories on buying first home properties occur because many are not aware of the steps one should take or check before purchasing a home.'"

"Second-hand units are common in the scene, but as Daniel Hii Jun Chung discovered, things can go wrong just as easily. 'My first home was a second-hand unit. The owner was always away during the daytime so I had to view the home at nights. This was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made,' he explained. 'At night, any stain — be it water marks or uneven paint colouring and wall tiles expansion — are very hard to notice. Furthermore, with artificial lighting, there are shadows everywhere so many imperfections were hidden.'"

From Frontier Myanmar. "It is not unusual to hear the word 'weak' used in connection with the high end of the real estate market in Myanmar. The market has been squeezed since 2014 and the consensus is that sales are unlikely to improve anytime soon. If realtors are saying the general condition of the real estate market is not good, you can be sure that the high-end situation is grim. That’s certainly reflected in the Colliers figures, showing that luxury and high-end units – with an average contract price of US$784,000 and $535,000, respectively – account for 62 percent of total pre-sales stock."

"'The market right now is focusing on the high-end; I don’t think that’s the market,' said Mr Melvyn Pun, chief executive of Yoma Strategic Holdings, a big player in the real estate sector. 'Very few people can afford them and that’s not the general direction of the country,' he told journalists. 'Now the prices are higher than Malaysia, even Thailand. We need real innovation, real thinking to bring prices down.'"

The Diplomat on South Korea. "A notable beneficiary of corporate lending for the last three decades has been the Korean real estate market. A popular outlet for capital accrued in better times, Korea’s property market has witnessed the construction of hundreds of new apartment complexes, resorts, and luxury hotels. Companies like Lotte, SKT, and Hyundai, which traditionally had nothing to do with real estate, invested heavily in new property. This investment has continued in 2015 at a record pace, despite the fact there has been a serious housing glut in recent years with tens of thousands of apartment units remaining empty, prompting concerns about the inevitability of a substantial property bubble."

"In the last decade, average Koreans have been engaged in what can only be described as a borrowing binge. At the start of 2015, South Korea was one of only seven countries named by the McKinsey consulting firm to have unsustainable household debt. These reports, unfortunately, have fallen on deaf ears as Korea’s household debt has continued to balloon. When watching the current political scandals, one can only imagine how much incompetence and corruption might have been complicit in creating the various economic dangers outlined above. Taken together, the informed observer can only face the future with trepidation as it looks like a long series of dominoes have already been lined up, just waiting to fall."