A report from the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. "It's probably fair to say that Sydney house prices have now officially fallen over the cliff and Melbourne looks to be not too far behind. It has taken almost 18 months for the decline to move into overdrive but we are now getting alarmingly close to record-hitting territory. On selected parts of Sydney (Ryde) and Melbourne (inner east), for example, the falls have been between 11.5 and 12.1 per cent. These numbers are head-spinning."

"Property analytics group CoreLogic paints a picture of a market that has changed radically over the past 18 months. According to its head of research Tim Lawless, 'the rebalancing towards buyers over sellers in Sydney and Melbourne is clear across CoreLogic’s vendor metrics, with clearance rates tracking in the low 40 per cent range while private treaty sales are showing substantially longer selling times and larger rates of discounting than they have over recent years.'"

From Ten Daily. "'We've recently seen small and steady declines but this month nationally, the 0.7 percent fall is the biggest monthly since November 2008, which was late in the global financial crisis,' Cameron Kusher, head of CoreLogic research, told 10 daily. 'The 1.4 percent drop in Sydney was the biggest monthly fall since early 2004.'"

"Dr Chris Martin, of the University of NSW's City Futures Research Centre said government policy settings such as negative gearing had made investing in property a very attractive and profitable proposition, and led to vast sums of money flooding the market, and people borrowing large amounts to secure their place in the housing boom."

"'The devotion to prices go to show we’ve got a problem with housing speculation, that's been the driver of house price growth,' Martin said. 'These things are watched so anxiously because so many people have borrowed world-beating amounts of money to throw at housing in the hope someone else will come later and borrow even more and spend even more, to pay off the cost of that bet.'"

"'It has meant that not only investors but also owner-occupiers are buying with an eye on what prices are going to do. They've become speculators too, and prices have been rampant and increased very rapidly,' he said. 'The other side of that is that people are anxious about the prospect of future increases, so if they stop buying, prices can go down rapidly as well.'"

The Australian Financial Review. "Buyers in the business of flipping houses are starting to come unstuck with many finding they have mistimed the market and now face substantial losses. In the past two years a buyer frenzy across Sydney saw old houses ripe for renovation being snapped up for inflated prices by investors hoping to make a tidy profit after a quick makeover."

"But prices have now fallen 9.5 per cent since they peaked in July 2017 and those who bought and renovated just as the market turned are now facing problems when they go to sell"

"'Now is not the time to be flipping,' director at Ray White Surry Hills Ercan Ersan said. 'Last year there was a real fear of missing out, there was a sense the market would keep going up and up, but, whether it's shares, property or cash itself, markets fluctuate.'"

"One property currently listed for sale is a small three-bedroom terrace in Newtown that last sold in October 2017 for $1.3 million after 15 days on the market. A year on and despite being 'completely transformed.' the newly-renovated cottage is being marketed at $1.225 million, after 84 days on the market."

"With an estimated stamp duty bill of about $60,000 and a conservative $50,000 makeover budget, the owner is likely to lose at least $185,000 if they sell at the current advertised price."

"Selling agent Darren Pearce, of BresicWhitney, said the vendors had renovated several other properties around Sydney but had been caught out in the current market."

"'Unfortunately we've had to go through this journey – obviously they aren't happy,' Mr Pearce said. 'They've been good at [buying and renovating properties] but they were not aware of what was coming, like a lot of people who are in the same boat.'"

"Across town in the Sydney's eastern suburbs a three-bedroom apartment in Rose Bay that sold for $1.525 million in September 2016 is now back on the market, after a lick of paint, for $1.39 million. After paying an estimated $70,000 on stamp duty, and extra on cosmetic changes, the owners are likely to lose more than $300,000, if they sell at the currently-advertised price."