A few reports from Domain News in Australia. "If you were counting on a pre-approval to secure your new property, looking to refinance, or shopping for a home loan, things have changed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. 'Generally where a customer is in a severely affected industry such as tourism, hospitality or retail, then their loan is declined unless we can prove that their income is unaffected,' says Otto Dargan, managing director at homeloanexperts.com.au."

"Dargan says casual income in particular is seen as extremely high risk and only a few lenders are accepting it at all. For investors, rental income may be discounted if a property lacks a paying tenant. 'We’ve had some customers with three or more properties where the tenants aren’t paying rent and so lenders are cautious where someone is overly reliant on rent income,' says Dargan."

"Some lenders have also dropped the maximum loan-to-value ratio (LVR) they will consider. 'It makes sense to not offer 95 per cent loans if the property market may fall,' he says. 'They’re being conservative because everyone is a higher risk than they were just a month ago. Some have put in place minimum credit scores so that they’re just approving the lowest risk people.'"

"The amount of homes still sitting on the market after four weeks has jumped, new figures show, as the economy weakens amid the coronavirus pandemic. Listings that have been on the market between 30 and 60 days surged 74 per cent in March from a month earlier, suggesting sales activity had slowed in the month, according to SQM Research."

"'Residential property listings are starting to increase and accumulate,' SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said. 'I note the surge of stock that has been on the market between 30 and 60 days. This may reflect the start of a capital city housing market downturn due to the health and economic impact of COVID-19.'"

"In Sydney, there were nearly 4000 homes on the market between 30 and 60 days, up from about 1800 a month earlier. Melbourne’s 30 to 60 day listings increased to 5280 in March, from just over 2100 in February. Sydney recorded a 10.5 per cent jump in listings in March, from February, while Melbourne rose 5.7 per cent, Brisbane 3.9 per cent, Perth 8.5 per cent and Canberra 11 per cent, SQM found."

"New rental listings are rapidly rising in inner Melbourne, a sign of things to come. The inner city and Stonnington areas had 94 per cent and 76 per cent" more new listings over the two weeks just gone when compared to the same time last year."

"'At any point in time they used to be between 900 to 1100 properties up for rent in the city and the last time I checked there were close to 2000 properties,' Belle South Melbourne head of property management Loic Mamet said. 'It’s supply and demand, there are too many properties available in one area. If you’re in Parkville, Princes Hill and share house areas with lots of students, students are nowhere to be found.'"

"Mr Mamet said he used to use properties rented out a few weeks in the past to give a rental estimate to landlords, but no longer could because of how rapidly things had changed. 'Now we’re comparing three days behind, because two weeks is too long ago,' he said. 'Just in the past week there’s already been a massive drop, and at the end of April you’ll see prices have dropped.'"

"Together with the shutdown of immigration into the country, that could now lead to rent falls by as much as 10 per cent, predicts AMP Capital chief economist Dr Shane Oliver. In the three weeks to April 5 this year, new Domain Group figures show that Hobart saw a staggering 60 per cent more listings coming onto the market compared to the same period in 2019, with Melbourne seeing them jump by 20 per cent, and Sydney 18 per cent. Adelaide saw a rise of 8 per cent, and Brisbane 7 per cent."

"Domain senior research analyst Dr Nicola Powell says that’s a result of homes being listed on short-term letting platforms like Airbnb now moving to regular residential lets after the collapse in the domestic and international travel markets, and renters giving up their leases to move back in with family, friends or into share houses because of financial concerns."

"The earlier boom in the market also led to an increase in construction, and now many of those homes are also coming onto the market to increase supply. Dr Oliver says as the economy falters, people lose jobs and take rent holidays – and that will have a negative effect on rents. 'It’s almost certain that rents will fall,' he said. 'New supply is still coming onto the market too, particularly in Sydney, and to a lesser degree in Melbourne.'"

"'No one knows how many of the estimated 120,000 Airbnb properties will convert to residential, while there are also some completions of new housing coming on. That decline in demand and increase in supply means one thing: falling rents,' said SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher."

"Pockets of Sydney’s rental market have been flooded with vacant properties. Sydney has seen a surge of new rental properties listed in the past two weeks, jumping 18 per cent compared to last year, Domain figures show, with asking rents expected to drop in coming months as a result."

"But Sydney’s CBD has seen the biggest increase in rental properties on the market in the same period, rising a whopping 114 per cent. It was followed by the eastern suburbs, which saw a 57 per cent increase in rental properties, and the inner west, which recorded a 37 per cent rise in vacant rentals. 'Some of those short-term leases in the CBD would have now gone onto the long-term market because tourism is now non-existent,' said analyst Dr Nicola Powell."

"Small business owner and landlord Fabienne Phillips said after her motorbike training business for women took a hit from the social distancing measures, she was heavily reliant on her rental income and needed to ensure there was still some money coming in. 'After the federal government announced the moratorium that you can’t evict your tenant, I was experiencing anxiety about how they were going to meet their obligations,' Ms Phillips said."

"After the tenants left her Paddington terrace, she decided to drop her asking rent from $1675 to $1000 per week. 'I’d rather bite the bullet and really slash the weekly rental … because for me something’s better than nothing,' she said. 'We’re all in this together. We all have to work together … it’s unreasonable if a landlord is expecting someone to pay their rent as it would be in a normal climate.'"

"'Like the tenant is requesting the landlord to give them a break, the landlord needs to speak with the bank, their insurance. I still have bills to pay,' she said, adding that she had asked her bank for a freeze on her mortgage repayments."

From West Australia Today. "The coronavirus pandemic has put property at the back of mind for much of the population, leaving the market full of bargain hunters and those desperate to sell, a leading West Australian property analyst suggests. Property valuer and forecaster Gavin Hegney said the pandemic had created never-before-seen conditions in WA and with bigger fish to fry, real estate had dropped down the priority list for many households."

"'Generally speaking I don’t think it is on their minds as much as what it was three or six months ago,' he said. 'In the Perth market, if it’s not on peoples’ minds then sales activity tends to drop away and we are already seeing evidence of that.' In the last week of March the Real Estate Institute of WA revealed home sales had plummeted, leading to a huge drop across the month, down 23 per cent at 2205 transactions. There were 12,294 properties listed for sale on REIWA’s website."

"Mr Hegney predicted a lot of genuine sellers would take their properties off the market which would soften to a combination of anxious sellers and 'not-so-anxious' buyers looking for bargains. 'I don’t think you’ve got anything to gain by selling today,' he said."

"Housing Industry Forecasting Group chairman Steven Rowley also predicted downward pressure on house prices thanks to a lack of appetite and a potential surge in investment properties for sale. 'It is going to be pretty difficult to sell your home now unless you’re really desperate … if you are desperate you’re going to have to discount,' he said. 'If you’re an investor who lost your job the bank might give you a break but it may be the case you might think about selling. If you get a massive surge in sellers it has negative implications for supply. If there is no demand around there are going to be serious price impacts.'"

The Property Observer. "Developers must change their business strategies and pricing for off-the-plan units to avoid insolvency, according to RiskWise Property Research. RiskWise CEO Doron Peleg said the selling price of most off-the-plan units should be far more attractive to investors, the majority of off-the-plan buyers, and developers should not expect high property prices. 'In the past three years a few big events have had a major impact on developers and have resulted in bankruptcy,' Mr Peleg said."

"'These events include oversupply, credit restrictions, the potential introduction of changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, construction defects and now coronavirus. The entire business model of developers is based on meeting pre-sales and sales targets and for that they simply need buyers. Therefore, the risk assessment for each project should also address the potential events with a material impact on home buyers and particularly investors.'"

He said the best case scenario in areas of oversupply was they simply underperformed the market, but the worst case scenario was they were actually losing money. And these days investors are well aware of these risks. 'For example, while Domain’s House Price Report shows in the 2019 December quarter prices rose 4.3 per cent, this was not the case in suburbs with high oversupply and particularly those affected by construction defects, such as Mascot where prices fell 4.6 per cent to $880,000. In Homebush West, where the Centenary Park building is located, prices also fell 9.3 per cent to $565,000."'

"'These areas not only have the risk of being in the Danger Zone due to oversupply but also the construction defect risk – and the reputational damage from the construction defects has also carried through to high-rise towers across Australia. The number of transactions, which is a key factor when assessing the risk of not meeting pre-sales and sales targets, is often very low. For example, the number of apartment sales in Sydney Olympic Park fell dramatically by 75 per cent following the defects identified in Opal Tower with buyers showing little interest for apartments across the suburb.'"

"'What we are seeing is that new units in high-supply suburbs either resulted in a loss or underperformed the market, even during periods of strong price increases,' he said. Mr Peleg said the introduction of credit restrictions in 2017 completely altered the landscape of the housing market with investors demonstrating their responsiveness to the changes."

"'The Brisbane unit market is a case study in poor risk management. When a developer pays inflated prices for the land, the risk will be realised, and you will have loss. Even as early as June 2016 in Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4) Brisbane Inner-City, price growth was -1.8 per cent with a massive oversupply of units (17,417 in the pipeline - an addition of 24.5 per cent to the current stock). As a developer when you are paying for a piece of land based on the potential selling price of the end product, you must factor in the risks rather than base it on optimistic scenarios.'"

"'We need to identify and assess the key risks. There are some very obvious and common risks that must be addressed by developers and these are oversupply and inflated selling prices that are included in the financial models of the developers when they make their decision to develop the property,' Mr Peleg said. 'Then if they see the discounted pricing, including the risk aspects, is too low – and that others are willing to pay more inflated prices for a lot – they should move on.'"