A report from the Times of London in the UK. "Alex Johnston has reluctantly cut the price of his townhouse in Maida Vale, west London, after three years with no offers. The app developer and his wife put the five-bedroom home on the market for £3.25m in 2016, but have cut the price to £2.749m and brought in a second agency."

"'We’ve had 25 viewings this year,' says Johnston, 55, who wants to downsize. 'It’s a good excuse to clean the house, but I never expect it will end up in an offer.'"

"He says he’s a motivated seller, but not a desperate one. 'Buyers see Brexit as an opportunity and want the best deal they can get. But this is my biggest asset. If I can ride out a market storm, I should. To sell it at a low point would make me feel foolish and as if I’d left a lot of value on the table. I feel I’ve reduced the price by a reasonable amount.'"

"Overvaluing is paralysing the market, rural buying agent Jess Simpson adds — especially with housing stock at record lows, according to last week’s RICS Residential Market Survey. 'Agents are overvaluing by 20% — they’re desperate to get the instruction and to be seen to have properties on their books. Six out of 10 houses I see are overvalued. It’s a false market.'"

"Tim Dansie, director at Jackson-Stops estate agency in Ipswich says many vendors are selling off market so as not to leave a digital footprint and the stench of failure if a property sits around and drops in price."

The Jamaica Observer. "Jamaica is currently facing a chronic oversupply of apartments, especially in Kingston, where there are upwards of 1,000 unsold units. This according to real estate broker Anya Levy and veteran real estate entrepreneur and developer, Peter Rousseau. Both are of the view that the apartment segment of the real estate market is already over-saturated, with very little takers based primarily on the price being demanded by developers."

"'When you drive around parts of Barbican, Liguanea and a number of areas at nights and look at the number of apartment buildings built recently, the number of lighted apartments to non-lighted apartments, sometimes you see upwards of 80 darkness,' Rousseau lamented, making the case that many of these apartments are unsold and unoccupied."

"Levy made the point that given this excess supply, 'if you don't adjust rate downwards, they (apartments) are just going to stay vacant. They have been inching up their prices, going from US$200 per square foot, to US$250 per square foot and now climbing to US $340 per square foot …What we want to see is for developers to taper off on the prices, because what's gonna happen is that the mortgages persons have to service — there is going to be a disconnect with the anticipated income of prospective buyers,' Levy explained."

The Thompson Citizen in Canada. "The overall vacancy rate for apartments and townhouses in Thompson October 2018 was 9.2 per cent, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported last fall, but for some types of rental units it was as high as 18 per cent."

"Two-bedroom apartments had the lowest vacancy rate at 7.4 per cent, while 8.2 per cent of one-bedroom apartments were unoccupied. Rental units with three or more bedrooms, in row or townhouse complexes, had a vacancy rate of about 18 per cent."

From Domain News in Canada. "Residents in a multi-award-winning Sydney harbourview apartment building are fighting a plan to set up a language college that they say will mean at least 150 students coming into their premises every day."

"Meanwhile, the luxury block next door in exclusive Milsons Point on the lower north shore is also battling a 'horrific' scheme to potentially install a call centre in their basement, nine floors down from the street. Residents claim the plans mean unknown visitors will flood both buildings’ lobbies several times a day, tying up the lifts, and force building management to issue numerous extra security key fobs."

"'We’re looking at overseas students hanging around, using the foyer as a meeting place, bringing in food and drink and smoking cigarettes outside the door,' said Sonny Mathews, the chair of the strata committee at the glamorous 18-level Bridgehill Residences on Alfred Street, where apartments have sold for more than $5.5 million."

From Bloomberg on New Zealand. "New Zealand’s ban on foreign buyers is damping house prices in Queenstown, a stunning winter playground for the rich that has been a magnet for wealthy overseas investors. Nestled on the shores of a pristine lake on New Zealand’s South Island, and ringed by majestic mountains, Queenstown’s popularity with buyers from Australia, Asia and the U.S. had seen values double in little more than three years."

"The boom has been brought to an end by a nationwide ban on foreign property buyers the government introduced in October in a bid to make housing more affordable for its own citizens. 'It’s very, very clear the foreign buyer ban has impacted the Queenstown market,' said Nick Goodall, Wellington-based head of research at Corelogic New Zealand. 'It’s a massive chunk of demand taken out.'"

"The curb on foreign buyers comes at a time of increased supply. Queenstown is the busiest region for home construction, with new building consents about 8% of existing housing stock, according to Corelogic."

"'Queenstown and Auckland are international markets, in particular Queenstown,' said Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr . 'A lot of buying was pulled forward leading into the ban. Prices in Queenstown are now falling and it looks like that will get worse.'"