A report from Think Pol on Canada. "'No.' That’s the Government of Canada’s one-word response to Airbnb’s request to bail out hosts who are struggling to survive amid cancellations brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Airbnb’s request was met with widespread anger and derision. 'The predators at AirBNB do not deserve a bailout,' Tweeted housing market data analyst Stephen Punwasi. 'AirBNB didn’t even respect the laws in place during the housing crisis. Now they want a bailout?' Others didn’t mince their words. 'Airbnb Hosts can F-OFF!' tweeted Vancouver actor Steve Oatway. 'I hope every one of them suffers from huge financial losses after what they did to our cities.'"

The Toronto Star in Canada. "Lauren Haw, CEO of online realtor Zoocasa, is watching to see whether there is an inventory injection from homes that were previously used as Airbnb rentals. Because of fears about collecting rent during the COVID crisis, many of those owners are looking at putting the properties up for sale rather than renting them as long-term leases, she said. When sales plunge 50 per cent overnight, there will inevitably be a price blip, said Christan Bosley, chief operating officer of Bosley Real Estate, who compares the market conditions to a natural disaster."

"'We know every property on the market right now is in a critical situation to sell,' she said. 'Sellers will simply pull their homes off the market,' in the meantime, said Royal LePage CEO Phil Soper. 'They’ll say, ‘This too shall pass and I’m not willing to let my asset go at less than market value.'"

From Prague Morning in the Czech Republic. "Airbnb is in crisis. According to bezrealitky.cz, in March the number of apartments for rent in the Czech Republic increased by 16 percent. In Prague by 41 percent. 'To imagine, there are currently about 30 apartments that were used by Airbnb on Bezrealitky every day. If we took the growth for the whole month, we are on the growth by half compared to the previous one,' said Hendrik Meyer, CEO at BezRealitky."

"Meanwhile, real estate prices are also falling in the rental market in Prague, which is, according to Meyer, a short-term effect related to coronavirus on the economy in general and not just Airbnb. 'The number of apartments to be withdrawn from Airbnb will increase. The main wave will not come until it is clear that the summer season will be without mass tourism,' added Meyer. 'In May and June, another 5-6 thousand apartments could be poured into the rental market.'"

From The Print. "Over the past decade, the app that connects fly-by-night tourists and short-term renters to 'cozy' lofts and five-star 'experiences' morphed into a gig-economy nightmare for cities like Paris, Amsterdam and Barcelona. That all seems like ancient history now. Paris has 100,000 empty homes and 100,000 second homes, according to the mayor’s office. One study of Airbnb in a Lisbon neighborhood between 2015 and 2017 found it looked less like a sharing economy and more like a buy-to-let craze, with 99% of short-term rentals marketed all year round."

From Deadline News UK. "Well-heeled music lovers have the opportunity to own a stunning property once rented by Justin Bieber – and now available with £1m lopped off the asking price. The five bedroom property in Frodsham, Cheshire, features a two storey illuminated cave, 10 bathrooms and five bedrooms. All this is now on sale for £3m after the original asking price was cut by 25%."

From Domain News in Australia. "The proportion of homes sold at a profit was rising late last year as the housing market rebounded from its slump, according to new figures based on sales from before the coronavirus outbreak. But the outlook for property values is less upbeat as the economy goes into hibernation and unemployment rises in response to the health crisis. 'Loss-making sales could increase proportionally as those that sell are doing so out of necessity, even if it means accepting a loss,' said CoreLogic head of Australian research Eliza Owen. 'Some regions with a high concentration of households in accommodation and food services or the tourism sector are likely to see a larger impact on housing markets.'"

"Domain economist Trent Wiltshire said the housing market was booming during the period covered by the report, even if it now seems like a long time ago. 'As we know things have changed dramatically since mid-March with the coronavirus pandemic,' he said. 'We’ll probably see a tick up or a rise in the proportion of loss-making sales from now onwards in 2020.'"

The Daily Telegraph in Australia. "Home prices in some of Sydney’s inner suburbs and further flung areas with a glut of apartment sales could see the biggest price falls during the coronavirus crisis. Sales analysis revealed these areas would be more vulnerable during a market slowdown because unit supply heavily outweighed buyer demand and prices were higher than in neighbouring suburbs. The supply of units in northwest suburb Kellyville was particularly high, with about 10 per cent of all apartments in the suburb currently up for sale, LocationScore.com.au data revealed."

"Supply was also unusually high in Rhodes, Mascot and Haymarket, while buyer demand was expected to weaken as the pandemic deepens. LocationScore.com.au property analyst Jeremy Sheppard said affluent inner suburbs could also record price falls because speculative buying caused a market surge last year and increasingly budget conscious buyers now had cheaper options elsewhere. 'Affluent areas jump the most in a strong market and fall the most in a downturn,' Mr Sheppard said."

"Buyer’s agent Peter Kelaher said in a letter to clients that the best buying opportunities would be in the upper end of the market. 'This is where there will be distressed sales and decent price drops, maybe in the vicinity of five, 10, and 20 per cent, and maybe even more in the real upper end of the market,' Mr Kelaher said."

"The Western Sydney suburb of Colebee had one of the biggest imbalances between housing demand and supply, LocationScore research showed. The vacancy rate for rental properties was nearly three times the national average and the area, mostly a new estate, was surrounded by other new estates such as Marsden Park. About 7 per cent of all housing in the suburb was currently for sale. Numbers like this meant it was oversupplied with new housing, Mr Sheppard said. 'Supply is the arch enemy of growth (in prices),' he said. 'This is not a market likely to see capital growth any time soon.'"

The Wall Street Journal. "Wells Fargo & Co. substantially curtailed its program for making large loans this week, one of the most pronounced signs yet of how the recent market turmoil is cutting off access to some types of mortgages. America’s largest mortgage lender will only refinance jumbo mortgages for customers who hold at least $250,000 in liquid assets with the bank, according to a bank spokesman. The change is effective immediately."

"A jumbo loan is one considered too big to be sold to government mortgage corporations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In most markets, it must be larger than $510,400 this year, but in the highest-cost areas it must be larger than $765,600. Wells Fargo extended more residential mortgages than any other lender last year, according to industry-research group Inside Mortgage Finance. It was also the biggest lender for jumbo loans, extending some $70 billion of them in 2019."

"Loans without government backing, like jumbo loans, have been harder to come by during the recent market fluctuations because there has been limited appetite for investors to buy these loans. Some banks don’t sell jumbo loans to investors, but rather keep them on their balance sheets. Wells Fargo faces limitations on its ability to do so. Since 2018, the Federal Reserve has capped the bank’s total assets because of risk-management failures tied to its fake-accounts scandal. That gives it limited flexibility to make loans that it holds onto."

"'These difficult business decisions reflect efforts to prioritize how we serve customers and maintain prudent balance sheet discipline,' the bank spokesman said Saturday."

"The bank also said earlier this week that it would stop purchasing all jumbo loans made by third-party mortgage bankers. Its third-party mortgage business, known as correspondent lending, amounted to about one fifth of its total business in the final three months of 2019, according to Inside Mortgage Finance."