A report from Bow Valley Crag and Canyon in Canada. "The list of headwinds is many for the city’s new homes market. Veteran housing analyst Dave LaRose notes he surveys new builders’ salespeople and is hearing anecdotally about prospective buyers making low-ball offers, some even asking an impossible $100,000 or more off a $500,000 listing price. 'There are people who have been absolutely ridiculous with their offers,' he said."

The Wall Street Journal on the UK. "The uniquely British financial strategy, contract reassignment, has helped real-estate speculators in the U.K. reap fantastic and fast profits over the past decade. But in today’s floundering market, attempting to unload sale contracts at a profit has become a risky strategy."

"According to research by LonRes, which monitors new build prices in the British capital, prices in Nine Elms, home of both Battersea Power Station and the new American Embassy, where 20,000 apartments are being built, have fallen 15.4% between 2014 and 2019, or $240 a square foot. In Earl’s Court, a west London neighborhood on the fringes of prime central London long-tipped for price growth, prices fell 9.3%. In Canary Wharf, London’s modern financial district, prices are down 8.3%."

The Tirana Times on Albania. "According to the Albanian Construction Portal there are 245 construction projects currently underway in Tirana, from 227 at the beginning of the year. Compared to the same quarter a year ago, the area of new permits granted has nearly fivefold."

"The biggest concern of the main operators in the market is that construction in the Tirana area is being done without empirical studies and without relying on an analysis of how the demand performance will continue in Tirana. Market operators say the new arrivals in the city supply both the rental and sales market at the same time, but they belong to a category seeking economic prices, which does not match the boom of luxury and high-rise construction."

From News.com.au on Australia. "Government, builders and the banks have mucked it up and Australian homeowners and homebuyers are on the hook for big financial pain, experts have told news.com.au in the wake of Sydney’s Mascot Towers drama. REA chief economist Nerida Conisbee said the apartment quality crisis had come at the worst time, as values were already slipping thanks to the large number of properties coming onto the market."

"Financing is also problematic for people who already own apartments in new buildings, with banks valuing units in buildings that have had problems significantly lower than their purchase price, pushing owners into negative equity that may follow them around for life. 'It affects the value of your property, you’ll get mortgage prisoners stuck in these flats unable to move,' said Steve Jovcevski, housing expert at Mozo."

"It’s a story all too familiar for Andy White, who owns an apartment in a building in Melbourne constructed with non-compliant cladding. 'You’ve got more consumer protection with a toaster than an apartment,' Mr White said. 'You can’t sell, you can’t put it up as surety for a loan to buy somewhere else. Be wary and do extra homework if you’re going to buy — I would not buy an apartment again.'"

From Newshub New Zealand. "Some of Auckland's popular inner-city suburbs experienced a dip in property prices in May, with Parnell prices falling 14.8 percent, Ponsonby dipping 4.1 percent and Remuera dropping 7.8 percent. 'Property prices in the region have been flat for a number of months but now it seems the Auckland property bubble is losing air and prices are on the decline,' says Head of Trade Me Property Nigel Jeffries."

From MarketWatch. "According to Ritholtz Wealth Management’s Nick Maggiulli, the greatest bubble of all time burst in 1989, and investors still haven’t bounced back. 'Japan in the late 1980s was the grandaddy of them all,' he wrote. 'More importantly, in the 30 years since the peak, both Japanese stocks and residential real estate have yet to recover.'"

"As for how to prepare for the next bubble, Maggiulli left us with a quote from an anonymous pamphlet from the South Sea bubble of 1720 that was cited in 'arguably the greatest financial history book' ever written: 'The additional rise of this stock above the true capital will be only imaginary; one added to one, by any rules of vulgar arithmetic, will never make three and a half; consequently, all the fictitious value must be a loss to some persons or the other, first or last. The only way to prevent it to oneself must be to sell out betimes, and so let the Devil take the hindmost.'"