Two reports from the Daily Telegraph on Australia. "Sydney’s cooling real estate market is delivering buyers hefty discounts that would have been hard to believe even six months ago. A string of properties across the northern beaches, eastern suburbs and north shore are currently listed at up to $1 million below their original prices after languishing on the market unsold for months."

"Compounding this, Sydney’s existing pipeline of new housing projects is forecast to increase the current supply of housing by 9.5 per cent over the next two years. And it’s all at a time when buyer demand is falling as purchasers struggle to get financing from increasingly cagey lenders."

"PK Property Buyers Agents director Peter Kelaher said Christmas would likely present even more opportunities for buyers to get a good deal because agents would be open to accepting low ball offers."

"'Agents will be dying to get rid of their properties and will help push through sales very hard,' Mr Kelaher said. 'There will also be vendors with larger blocks who want to sell before the New Year for tax reasons or just to get the property off their hands so they can enjoy their Christmas … the market is down and vendors know it.'"

"Desperate landlords are offering tenants up to four weeks free rent just for signing new leases amid a rise in vacancies and drop in rental prices. The offers have followed a surge in new housing construction that oversupplied parts of Sydney with housing, with nearly one in 10 rental homes sitting vacant in some areas."

"CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless said renters were in a good position and would be able to negotiate better lease terms. 'Rents are falling and housing supply is still increasing,' he said."

"Some landlords were combating the spike in vacancies by offering their homes with generous lease terms. Similar offers were being made in nearby Sydney Olympic Park and Rhodes. One real estate agent marketing these homes said the free rent offers were borne out of 'desperation.' 'We simply can’t find tenants,' he said."

The Australian Financial Review. "Shadow banking executives say the big four have been overzealous in lifting their lending standards, which has sent a flood of new business their way, but they have hit back at suggestions they are extending easy money to risky borrowers."

"'Now everyone is applying the same rules,' non-bank lender RESIMAC's Mary Ploughman told the Australian Securitisation Forum in Sydney amid concerns that a pull-back in bank lending was aggravating a property correction."

"Ashley Burtenshaw of Grypon Capital Investments said that while mortgages had performed strongly, the next year would be telling in the context of declining house prices. 'We do not want this massive build-up in shadow inventory, where no one is paying their loans.'"

"Bruce Potts of IFM Investors, which invests in RMBS, said the fundamentals of the housing market were positive given low interest rates and high employment levels. But he said that with poor wage growth that had reduced affordability, and falling house prices, there were risks."

"'We will see people lose money. No doubt about that. Some of the marginal borrowers will be losing the bank's money and my money,' he said."