A report from Bloomberg on Canada. "Canadian housing once seemed so infallible that the head of the world’s biggest asset manager in 2015 described Vancouver condos as a better store of wealth than gold. The coronavirus is putting that theory to the test. Canada’s situation is more precarious than most. As its oil sector shriveled in recent years, Canada’s economy became ever more driven by real estate, an industry now in a state of paralysis. Nearly one in three workers have applied for income support. What’s more, its households are among the world’s most indebted, poorly placed to weather the storm."

"'I think it is the Great Reckoning,' says Douglas Hoyes, a bankruptcy trustee in Kitchener, Ontario. 'We’ve been in a period for so long where it didn’t matter what property you bought or how highly leveraged you were. Well, guess what? Now it matters.'"

"It doesn’t take much to tip a seemingly tight market into a meltdown. If only 2% of the housing stock were to be listed for sale, it would trigger the kind of supply shock behind a 1990 crash, according to Veritas. That’s most likely to come from investors, half of whom weren’t generating enough cash to cover the cost of owning their rental properties, Veritas found in a survey last September. For loss-making landlords, things are about to get a lot worse: about 30% of apartment rent due April 1 went uncollected, according to estimates by CIBC Economics."

"Then there are those who invested in properties for the short-term rental market that’s all but dried up because of travel restrictions. Nearly a third of Canada’s Airbnb hosts -- who jointly had 170,000 active listings in late 2019 -- need the income to avoid foreclosure or eviction, Airbnb said in a letter to the Canadian government last month."

"In steps that dwarf those taken during the global financial crisis, the federal housing agency and the Bank of Canada are ready to purchase billions of dollars worth of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities to backstop the market, while lawmakers passed a historic wage bill to stem job losses."

"'It’s great we have a government that says they have the fiscal firepower to do this but anyone with any math skills can calculate that my daughter’s grandchildren aren’t even going to be able to pay this off,' says Reza Sabour, a Vancouver mortgage broker. 'What’s the plan after?'"

The Globe and Mail in Canada. "Real estate lawyer Mark Weisleder has some pragmatic advice for buyers, sellers and real estate agents facing conundrums around closing deals: 'You must find a way to make it work.' The partner with RealEstateLawyers.ca LLP says the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is leading to all manner of glitches between the time when a buyer and a seller sign an agreement of sale and the transaction closes."

"'We’re in a different world now,' Mr. Weisleder says. 'You have to understand what you took for granted can’t happen.'"

"Feelings of buyer’s remorse surface when people who purchased property during the frothy days of February and early March wonder if they paid too much to beat out legions of competing bidders for a property. Some of those deals were inked during a time when buyers were paying astounding amounts above the asking price and some bidding wars drew 30, 40 or even 70 plus offers."

"Mr. Weisleder says some buyers do try to negotiate a reduction in price – which the seller may agree to rather than have the deal collapse. Mr. Weisleder points out to sellers that suing a runaway buyer may not bring a satisfactory result in any case. A first-time buyer, for example, may not have enough assets to make a court battle worthwhile. 'What’s the point of suing someone who doesn’t have any money?' he said."

The Edinburgh Evening News in Scotland. "Edinburgh’s Old Town was believed to have the highest concentration of properties being let out anywhere in the UK at the start of this year and the Airbnb site was listing nearly 12,000 properties in the city at the end of last year. However that figure had slumped to just over 8,500 before the plug was pulled on the city’s money-spinning festivals. A leading property agency has launched a helpline service to landlords worried about suffering 'potentially huge losses' this summer as a result of the coronavirus pandemic."

"Edinburgh-based Rettie is offering the advice after reporting a dramatic slide in the number of Airbnb properties listed in the city. The company’s website states: 'Are you facing potentially huge losses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic? It’s a worrying time for Airbnb and short lets landlords as the global tourism industry is dramatically impacted.'"

"Dr John Boyle, director of research and strategy at Rettie, said: 'Given the cancellation of the festivals, I imagine that most whole short term properties will probably come back into long term rent. There will still be a tourism market but I imagine it will be seriously affected for some time to come and long term rents will provide a greater level of security, particularly given people can’t really sell just now. I think advertised rents will fall over the next six months or so at least.'"

From Domain News in Australia. "The Queensland government’s rental relief package has sent shockwaves through the property industry, with divisive proposals sparking both fear and outrage among investors and landlords. Queensland’s Shadow Treasurer Timothy Mander said the government’s protections were not in line with national cabinet guidelines, with the burden placed disproportionately on landlords."

"'This package says they [tenants] don’t have to prove or provide a case that they are in financial hardship … it would seem the Queensland government has gone far further than other jurisdictions and governments,' Mr Mander said. 'The end result can be negative for both the landlord and the tenant. If they [landlords] can’t keep up their loans, they’ll have to dispose of the property – that, ironically, is the result this could end up with – and in the future who would want to invest?'"

The Australian Financial Review. "House-and-land package sales are expected to crash over coming months as prospective buyers delay purchasing decisions due to job security concerns. 'We can safely assume in the growth corridors that sales volumes and enquiry will fall to record low levels over the coming months of uncertainty," said Terry Portelli, the founder and managing director of Red23, one of the country's leading land sales agencies."

"Inquiries across the 19 Melbourne and Geelong housing estates the group was marketing had 'dropped dramatically' since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the market in March, Mr Portelli told The Australian Financial Review. He said it was '100 per cent the case' that a similar situation was unfolding in Sydney and the other major land markets. 'The number one issue is job security. People on our database who were in a position to buy are now questioning that decision,' he said."

"A growing number of sales contracts were falling over at settlement because buyers had lost their jobs and could not get a loan, he said. In other cases, sales contracts were being cancelled as buyers took advantage of valuation shortfalls due to the pandemic to get out of deals. As the unemployment rate – which is expected to double to 10 per cent in the June quarter – rises, so will the cancellation and fall over rate, Mr Portelli warned."

"'Buyers are asking developers whether they are prepared to discount the lot to make up the valuation shortfall. Some buyers are seeking to renegotiate an agreement signed two years ago,' Mr Portelli said. According to Red23, Melbourne and Geelong lot sales rose a strong 23 per cent in February to over 2000 before the pandemic made those monthly numbers 'redundant and irrelevant.' 'We'll be lucky if we get half that figure now,' Mr Portelli said."