A report from 7 News Melbourne in Australia. "Gumtree is typically used as an avenue to sell unwanted household goods for extra cash. But the downturn in the property market is hitting some Melbourne families so hard that hundreds are trying to sell their land through the online marketplace."

"7NEWS can reveal that one in three property owners can't afford to pay off their housing blocks - to which they financially committed during the property boom. And 1000 blocks are up for sale on Gumtree as families try to avoid financial ruin."

"In 2017, Reet Kaur and her husband Sukhpreet bought a housing estate block for $400,000, paying a 10 per cent deposit of $40,000. But at settlement time the block value had plummeted, with the bank valuing it at $350,000. Taking into account a range of related factors - including the bank requiring a greater deposit - the Kaurs said they stood to lose $100,000."

"'To be honest, I'm speechless. I don't even have words to express it,' Reet Kaur, who is expecting her first child, told 7NEWS. 'I was shaking and was telling them that I'd lost everything.'"

"Real Estate Agent Himanshu Gupta said there is currently a 27 per cent default rate in Melbourne."

From Thompson Reuters on China. "Song Jingyi, a paralegal from a family of modest means in the central Chinese region of Henan, had long dreamed of buying a home of her own in Zhengzhou, the sprawling provincial capital of 10 million where she attended college."

"Last November, Song was presented with a tempting opportunity: a deal offered by a Chinese developer to circumvent the usual 30% downpayment on an apartment by borrowing the up-front payment itself. The offer was a risky one for a developer - and a warning sign that the market in Zhengzhou was hitting a wall."

"Despite the warning signs, Song saw the mortgage offer as a golden opportunity to finally get into the Zhengzhou market. However, Song soon noticed that prices were dropping at some developments - including one where a friend had bought a home."

"She had longed for a taste of the middle class lifestyle her friends were flaunting with their apartments packed with consumer goods. But she also didn't want to buy into a bubble that looked set to pop. She decided to pull out, ultimately filing a lawsuit to get her deposit back."

"'I felt that everyone around me had a house and I felt so much pressure from my peers,' Song said. 'In many ways, that was an illusion of false prosperity.'"

"The effects of the slowdown in Zhengzhou have been felt by people like Zhang Chenxuan, who has run an interior design business in the city for seven years. Since last year, his income has shrunk by 20-30% as orders from new home buyers fell, he said."

"'Clients nowadays only want something practical and simple that saves money instead of going for the luxurious,' Zhang said. 'Eighty percent of my customers now complain that they are very poor, that they don't have the money for proper furnishings.'"