It's been said for a few years running: Australia is in the midst of a property bubble. Especially in the capital cities. of those; especially Sydney and Melbourne.
Well, if this year's banks' reports on WA and QLD home loan defaults are anything to go by, it looks as if we're on the precipice of that bubble imploding. The wind up of the mining boom is what has been blamed for these defaults outpacing the country's average, while the negative media around negative gearing along with it's uncertain future is putting people off buying "for now". Let's all of us just sit back and wait to see what happens, because surely we'll all be able to pick up our own little 1/4 acre at a 1/4 of the price - cheap at the cost of someone else's expense. Here lies the problem: when everyone puts their spending on pause, there is no one left to move things forward. We slow down. We stop. We start rolling backwards.
People in the know are predicting this recession to hit soon and for it to last a long time. Dr Stephen Anthony for example, chief economist for Industry Super Australia has been quoted giving a higher than 30% chance of this happening this year and all of this is tied to China's downturn and how severe it will be moving forward.
This is staring us in the face. Why are more people not talking about it? Time to open the discussion.