A report from the Globe and Mail in Canada. "Here’s how Royal Bank of Canada senior economist Robert Hogue sees things: 'If it wasn’t already apparent, March data provided clear evidence that some of Canada’s largest western markets are in a pretty deep slump,' Mr. Hogue said. 'Home resales (seasonally adjusted) fell to a 10-year low in Vancouver and near eight-year lows in Calgary and Edmonton.'"

"Prices, too, are falling, with the MLS home price index sinking more than 7.5 per cent in Vancouver, 5 per cent in Calgary and almost 4.5 per cent in Edmonton."

From Bloomberg on Canada. "Vancouver's housing market is buckling under a slew of taxes and regulations introduced since 2016 to tame years of relentless growth that made the city the most unaffordable on the continent."

"The high end felt the impact first and has been the hardest hit: prices in West Vancouver, Canada's richest neighbourhood, are down 17 per cent from their 2016 peak. The slowdown is now broadening: home sales in March were the weakest since the financial crisis and benchmark prices fell 8.5 per cent from their record last June."

From Homes and Property on the UK. "Prices are falling in all but nine of London’s 33 local authority areas, with some of the boroughs that were experiencing the most rapid growth last year now suffering the biggest reverses. The biggest single plunge recorded by the Land Registry was the 19.6 per cent dive in Westminster, from an average of £1,117,408 to £898,127, although this is likely to have been exaggerated by fewer mansion sales."

"Jonathan Hopper, managing director of buying agents Garrington Property Finders, said: 'The sheer scale of the decline in London prices is breathtaking. In the space of a month, the annual rate of price falls in the capital has almost doubled. South-east England has also caught the capital’s cold."

"Joshua Elash, director of property lender MT Finance, said: 'A price fall of 3.8 per cent over the year to February is massive. This represents billions of pounds of lost value.'"

The Global Property Guide on Egypt. "Egypt’s housing market continues to struggle, with the nationwide real estate index plunging by 19.24% in 2018 from a year earlier, after y-o-y changes of -11.49% in 2017, 1.19% in 2016, -14.22% in 2015 and 1.14% in 2014. Nominal house prices also fell by 9.58% y-o-y in 2018. Real house prices dropped 16.84% q-o-q during the latest quarter."

"Despite this, Egypt’s housing market is widely expected to improve in the coming years. Why? Because inflation is eating up a large portion of Egyptians' savings every year. So Egypt's moneyed classes are buying property like there is no tomorrow. Especially as it is hard to get money out of the country. And there are excellent rental yields in Cairo."

From EdgeProp on China. "Hundreds of luxury homes were built by a Chinese tycoon, to be given as a gift to the residents of his hometown. But his gesture was met with greed and ingratitude, as the villagers squabble over ownership of the homes. A local newspaper cited by the South China Morning Post, reported that in the village of Guanhu, Guangdong province, five years ago, Chen Sheng put up 200 million yuan to construct 258 luxury villas on land provided by local authorities."

"The homes have stood at the ready, since the end of last year, but they remain unoccupied. Villagers squabble over who should receive one or even two of the houses. Chen was quoted as saying that he based the number required on a 2013 census, which said there were 190 households in the village, which results in an oversupply of 70 homes. But more and more people came forward to stake their claim to homes, with several villagers saying they needed more than one to accommodate their growing families."

"'As soon as I went back to the village, everyone started making all kinds of demands,' he said. 'So I don’t go back any more.'"

The Malaysian Reserve. "The Home Ownership Campaign (HOC), which will continue its run until June, is expected to clear off more than 50% of the houses offered by government-owned company 1Malaysia People’s Housing Programme (PR1MA). The six-month campaign, which started in January, offers more than 42,000 residential units from various projects."

"The campaign is part of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) and private developers’ efforts to alleviate the nation’s property glut worth more than RM20 billion."

The Herald Sun on Australia. "Homebuyers can time travel back to 2014 in a bunch of Melbourne suburbs offering their cheapest prices in years. Finder.com.au crunched CoreLogic data to find Abbotsford’s unit median had slipped back the furthest from 2014 levels. The figure was $577,000 then, and it’s now $450,000 — a 22 per cent decline."

"The typical Travancore unit is also 18 per cent cheaper than it was in 2014, at $350,000. There have also been big price reversals in Windsor (unit median down 14 per cent to $460,000 in five years), Bundoora (9.5 per cent to $400,000), and Melbourne postcode 3006 and Carlton (both down 9 per cent to $573,750 and $370,000 respectively)."

"The Melbourne market downturn had also caused house prices to decline over the past year, with leading economists tipping a further fall of up to 8 per cent by the end of 2019, said Finder.com.au insights manager Graham Cooke. 'So Victorians thinking of entering the market might want to hold out for further price drops,' he said."

From ABC News in Australia. "This is Little Bay. 14km from Sydney's CBD. New data from Digital Finance Analytics has revealed there are 3,900 households in this post code, where the owner has a mortgage higher than the property's current valuation."

"It has all the conditions, an oversupply of new apartments aimed at investors, who no longer want to buy them, and house prices that have come off record highs. ANDREW PENNISI, PENNISI REAL ESTATE: 'It's heartbreaking. I think people invest because they want to improve their life. It doesn't really cross their mind that they're investing and losing money. There's certainly some people that have stretched themselves a little too far, that are obviously — have concerns because they potentially, could end up in a situation where they have negative equity. Certainly have sold properties in the last 12 months where we've had clients who have sold less for what they paid.'"

"Do you feel for people who are in negative equity? HOMEOWNER: 'Yeah. I guess I do. And if they need to move, in the next couple of years it's going to be hard.'"

From Stuff New Zealand. "Difficulty getting finance is being blamed for a slump in house sales around the country. Gisborne had the biggest fall in turnover, with sales down 33.3 per cent. Broker Glen McLeod said it was hard to get finance deals done. 'It's definitely harder at the moment to get lending. Rate - at the moment - is not really the challenge.'"

"He said banks were assessing borrowers' ability to pay rates almost four percentage points higher than were currently being offered in the market. Auckland house prices fell by 2.7 per cent over the year to a median $856,000. 'They are requiring more documentation than ever, we hear the expression 'responsible lending code' on a daily basis,' McLeod said."