[jbarham]

I work in Melbourne's Docklands area and the situation here is similar with many of the local RE offices obviously catering to the overseas Chinese market. From my office window I can see a nearby condo where 2 bedroom units sell for $550k+ but the ground floor commercial units are almost all vacant. And another building is going up next-door. In the other direction I can see a massive new tower going up next to the Crown casino in Southbank.

A month ago my neighbour sold her old 3 bedroom house for $650k whereas the same sized house I rent with a much nicer backyard costs me only $21k/year.

Australians are in for a shock when economic reality kicks in and the consequences of a speculative real estate bubble become apparent...