Two reports from the Australian Financial Review. "It is every homebuyer's dream to be mortgage-free and Sydney developer Allam Property Group is making that possible for some - for twelve months. It will pay a whole year of mortgage for new homebuyers at 80 per cent of purchase price at its Sydney housing estates such as Box Hill, Chisholm, Marsden Park and Schofields."

"'In today's market we think this is important, smaller offers or offers of free up-grades or furniture simply do not have the cut-through in today's incentive driven market,' founder Barney Allam said."

"While incentives are not unusual, in recent times there has been a much bigger push on rebates on stamp duty, utility packages, rental guarantees, and free cars and television sets, particularly in the two biggest and most vulnerable markets Sydney and Melbourne, to lure more buyers in a firmly slower market."

"The market lethargy has also found its way into the rental market. SQM Research reported housing vacancy rates in Sydney, which is suffering a faster price fall than Melbourne, have risen 40 per cent in the past year. What this amounts to is uncertainty around the true valuation of residential property, AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver says."

"The cuts in rents and rising incentives are signs sellers, developers and buyers are all grappling with the real value of housing. 'These are signs of a weak and falling market, people just don't know what the true value is, like catching a falling knife,' he said. 'The increase in housing supply is causing a cut in rents ... rents are usually used as measure of the value of housing but rents are falling.'"

"The drop out of Chinese buyers from the property market has left a significant hole in one Sydney suburb, causing house prices to plunge by 20 per cent in 2018. Houses in the suburb of Penshurst, 17 kilometres south of Sydney's CBD, experienced the biggest fall in median price across the city, dropping by 19.7 per cent from $1.32 million to $1.06 million over the 12 months to December – double the 9.9 per cent city-wide fall in prices – according to Domain Group data."

"'Penshurst used to benefit from the overflow of Chinese buyers in Hurstville, which is the capital of St George and a major China Town,' Ray White selling agent Steve Pentland said. 'We were so heavily reliant on the Chinese market but the demographic of Penshurst has shifted – there are no more Chinese and there's no money being spent.'"

"The median house price in Lane Cove also dropped significantly over the year by 18.2 per cent to $1.8 million followed by Glebe where values slipped by 17.7 per cent to $1.58 million. The biggest drop in unit prices over the year was in Balmain, in Sydney's inner west, where the median price fell 16.9 per cent from about $1,275,000 to $1,060,000."

"Unit prices also fell in other parts of Sydney's inner west, particularly in areas where there has been an influx of new apartments, including Newtown (-15.3 per cent), Leichhardt (-14 per cent), Summer Hill (-14 per cent) and Erskineville (-12.5 per cent)."