A report from the Lethbridge Herald in Canada. "Lethbridge Land released its annual report earlier this week, and the picture it paints of the city’s current home-building slowdown couldn’t be more clear. 'Over the past two years the amount of building permits has slowed down quite a bit,' acknowledged Michael Kelly, the City’s manager of real state and land development. 'We have dropped by almost 50 per cent over the past two years.'"

"Kelly predicted Lethbridge will continue to experience slow growth in the home, commercial and industrial real estate sectors for the next few years; so it’s all about managing expectations, he said. 'People have to be patient,' stated Kelly. 'Real estate is always in cycles. We had a great run from 1999 until this past year.'"

From MENAFN on Lebanon. "The Lebanese economic slowdown affected the country's residential apartments' demand significantly as it was affected with a sharp decrease in 2019. Chairman of Ramco Real Estate Advisors Raja Makarem emphasized that 'the real estate sector is in its worst situation ever.' Makarem added: 'banks are only giving loans at high interest rates nowadays prompting citizens to keep their money in banks and gain a high interest rate on their deposits instead of investing in apartments.'"

The Business Report on South Africa. "Over the last three months, sellers in Cape Town’s swanky Atlantic Seaboard and Constantia Upper areas have reduced their asking prices by p to R10 million to conclude a sale according to the latest sales data. Ross Levin, managing director for Seeff Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl said that as a result of the continued weak demand at the upper price levels, sellers are now offering steep discounts to attract buyers. Some recent sales have been concluded at anything between 20 percent - 50 percent below the asking prices."

"The market is already down by 40 percent since 2016/17, and despite the expected uptick following the election, the reality has been a further decline of 15 percent in value generated during the first half of this year. High-end sales remain especially slow. Consequently, he says, there’s plenty of good stock and prices are falling!"

From Vietnam Net Global. "Hà Nội has witnessed the rapid construction of modern condominiums, gradually replacing old-style community houses. Quỳnh Anh has recently moved to the new residence on Hà Nội’s Minh Khai Street. But the experience has not been so positive. 'Although I do not spend that much time here, anytime I come home it is a different disappointment,' she said. 'I find a lot of things to complain about – dirty halls, discarded gum on the handrails and noisy neighbours who sing karaoke without closing their doors.'"

"Dwellers’ bad habits are not the only problem in Hà Nội’s apartment buildings. Disputes over maintenance funds, common use areas and the handover of construction documents among investors, management boards and residents have fuelled uproars. Last year, the residents of D’Capitale – a luxury apartment complex protested the investor's advertisements of the project."

"They said the development was marketed as high-class and each apartment was sold for VNĐ60 million (US$2,6000) per square metre. However, only until when apartments were handed over, did the residents realise that every corridor is only 1.4m wide instead of 2.4m as stated in the initial apartment template."

"The building is also not air-conditioned and the construction quality is not as good as was promised. Feeling fooled by the investor, customers staged protests with posters and banners to ask for a price reduction and demanded local authorities' intervention."

The Malaysian Reserve. "Developers in Johor Baru (JB) should stop building serviced apartments in a state which accounts for about half the country’s unsold properties and a capital city which is facing massive oversupply, low take-up rate and rising uninhabited structures. The rush to capitalise on wealthy foreign buyers has left the state with over 16,000 unsold properties worth billions. Structures erected in the city were left empty with only a few units taken up. The high price also prevented many of the 3.7 million Johor populations from buying such residences."

"VPC Realtors (JB) Sdn Bhd AsiaPacific property consultant Bruce Lee said while Johor still has an abundant supply of land viable for development, the state does not have enough population or demand to take up the available properties. 'Properties in Johor were not built based on current demand, but based on speculations. They assume that more people will migrate to the state, including foreigners. But when those did not happen, the units are left unsold. Stop building serviced apartments in JB until the demand can absorb the supply,' he said."

The South China Morning Post on Macau. "Macau’s residential property market has fallen victim to the protracted US-China trade war. Home sales in the world’s largest gambling hub, which sits off the coast of southern China, plunged 42.2 per cent in the first half from the same period a year earlier, to 3,920 registered transactions, said JLL."

"'The transaction volumes of various property sectors have declined significantly due to the weakening investment sentiment caused by the global economic uncertainty amid the ongoing US-China trade war,' said Mark Wong, director of valuation advisory services at JLL Macau."

The Hong Kong Economic Journal on China. "Lejia Apartment, China’s third-largest rental apartments operator, has suddenly gone bankrupt, creating big trouble for hundreds of thousands of its tenants. To rein in property speculation, Chinese authorities have been encouraging the development of the apartment leasing industry. But the operating model of Lejia was fundamentally flawed, leading to its abrupt collapse."

"Basically, the company operated as a middle-man platform, matching landlords and tenants. Average yield of mainland residential properties is rather low, less than 2 percent in general. In order to scale up quickly, Lejia often offered excessive returns to lure landlords, and at the same time, lured tenants with bargain deals."

"If the macro-environment was robust, Lejia could have been able to sustain the cash-burning business model by raising new capital. But as China’s economy has been cooling amid a worsening US trade war war, the option was no longer available. Lejia had been rumored to be facing a credit crunch since June, and many individual home owners complained they were not able to receive rental payment."

"The company dropped the bomb on August 7, announcing that it’s shutting down after all attempts to sustain the operation failed. It’s a common practice among rental apartment operators to collect one year of rent from tenants in advance, and then pay to individual home owners on a monthly basis. Lejia took the money from tenants, spent it all and is now unable to make payment to home owners. The company is now asking the owners and tenants to sort out the mess themselves."

The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. "A resident of one of Sydney's several evacuated apartment buildings has broken down in tears before a parliamentary inquiry when describing the uncertainty he and his young family are now facing. Vijay Vital, who was evacuated from Sydney's Mascot Towers on June 14, was overcome with emotion when he addressed the NSW Legislative Council inquiry into the state's building standards on Monday."

"Another Mascot Towers resident, Alton Chen, said he may have been better off investing in a caravan. 'Perhaps what I should have done is invest in a caravan because at least, if it was burnt down, at least I'd be covered by the insurance,' he said."

"Mr Chen said he and hundreds of other residents were still waiting for answers to what caused the 132-unit block to be deemed structurally unsound. 'For a lot of us, this is the only place that we have that we call home ... we don't know when we can go back, a lot of uncertainties are right in front of us,' he said. 'We've got to pay mortgages for a place we can't live in. A lot of us can't afford to go bankrupt ... we need the government's support.'"