A report from the Huffington Post on Canada. "Advertised rental rates are on a downward slide in many cities. Some of the priciest cities saw some of the steepest drops. One-bedroom units in Toronto fell 4 per cent in April from March, while two-bedroom units fell 7.7 per cent. In Vancouver, one-bedroom units fell 5.6 per cent while two-bedrooms dropped a steep 15.8 per cent. There is likely more downward pressure to come. With vacation travel at a standstill, owners of Airbnb units are putting their properties on the apartment rental market, causing a spike in new listings, Rentals.ca said."

"The owner-occupied housing market is also seeing falling prices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Data released this week by the Canadian Real Estate Association showed the average selling price of a home in Canada fell nearly 11 per cent from March to April."

The Times of Malta. "It is a tenant’s market for rental property right now, with supply far outstripping demand and prices going down by as much as 50 per cent in some cases, according to real estate agents. Rental fees have dropped an average 20 per cent and even halved 'in the case of already overpriced apartments,', after an injection of an estimated 9,000 properties from the short-let sector of the industry."

"Contractors with tens of short-let flats, whose bookings have now been lost, are flogging them at reduced prices, while many others are preferring to leave them empty than make less money. 'Prices of available properties are being slashed on the one hand, with no budging on the other, and no in-betweens. We are either being told to get rid of the properties, or not to call back,' said Steven Mercieca, CEO of Quicklets, whose listings have doubled since the outbreak."

From EdgeProp Malaysia. "With the tourism sector being battered by the Covid-19 pandemic, short-term hosts are also suffering. The Edge Malaysia reported Airbnb operators saying 'they had never imagined such a crisis plaguing the travel industry.' An Airbnb operator with more than 60 units in his portfolio told the weekly that he has cut rentals by about 40% to keep tenants."

"'I’ve seen many operators just pack and go off. They didn’t even inform the [property] owners and didn’t do a proper handover. The owners also didn’t know their tenants [who are Airbnb operators] had left,' he added. He revealed that although some Airbnb operators 'secured a 50% cut in rental from unit owners, they decided to quit the business because of the gloomy outlook.'"

"Things are especially hard for individual Airbnb operator Hendy Tan since the beginning of the movement control order. Bookings went down so much that he told The Edge that he had 'zero income in March.' It was then that Tan decided to convert his property into a long-term rental at RM1,800 per month. 'At least, I can secure a consistent income every month to pay for my monthly housing loan instalment,' he explained."

The Herald Sun in Australia. "Five and a half thousand more Melbourne rental homes were vacant at the end of April than a month earlier, new figures show, as COVID-19 ravaged the inner-city rental sector. A rush of Airbnb properties hitting the long-term rental market also contributed to greater Melbourne’s rental vacancy rate climbing to 2.8 per cent in April, SQM Research found. This equated to 16,575 properties. These numbers increased from 1.9 per cent and 11,091 properties in March to mark 'one of the largest one-month rises ever recorded' by SQM, managing director Louis Christopher said."

"Mr Christopher said 'deeper falls in rents' were inevitable if vacancy rates remained high. Another research firm found vacancy rates soared month-on-month in Southbank (from 5.5 per cent to 13 per cent), Docklands (4.4 per cent to 9.1 per cent) and CBD (5 per cent to 7.6 per cent) to make them full-blooded renter’s markets. The figure also doubled in South Yarra and Prahran (both now 3.9 per cent), Port Melbourne (3.5 per cent) and St Kilda (3.8 per cent)."

"Propertyology head of research Simon Pressley said oversupplied inner-city apartments had 'never been great investments' even before the pandemic. But these markets were in more strife now the tenant pool most likely to rent there — comprising young people, hospitality workers, migrants and international students — had been slashed by unemployment and border closures."

"'Landlords with tenants in these more vulnerable areas should do their best to hold on to them,' Mr Pressley said. 'And tenants looking to relocate in the inner city can pretty much name their price.'"

"Collings head of property management Caleb Pikoulas said some of his landlords in Melbourne’s inner north were 'dropping prices by about 10 per cent and still struggling to lease them.' A surge in short-term accommodation hitting the long-term rental market also boosted vacancy rates in the inner city and holiday hot spots like Lorne (8.9 per cent) and the Bellarine Peninsula (6.6 per cent), Propertyology found."

The South China Morning Post. "Hong Kong’s property sales flopped for the fourth straight weekend, as homebuyers turned their backs on unsold projects to wait for better discounts, amid a real estate slump in the city’s worst economic contraction in decades. Wheelock Properties sold 13 flats, or 13 per cent of the 101 units on offer at its Grand Marini project in Lohas Park as of 6:45pm, sales agents said. The same project was 90 per cent sold two months earlier, with 18 potential buyers vying for every available unit then."

""The reversal of fortune for Wheelock’s Grand Marini over two months underscores how Hong Kong’s residential property is becoming a buyers’ market, as investors hold out for the best deals amid a glut of choices. The city’s monthly average home price has fallen by 7.6 per cent from its peak in June 2019, tracking the economic contraction that saw Hong Kong’s first-quarter growth shrinking by 8.9 per cent compared with last year, according to the Centa-City Leading Index."

"Average home rent had also fallen, as rising unemployment weighed on demand in the residential property market. Average rent fell for nine consecutive months, or by a cumulative 12.1 per cent, to HK$33.3 per square foot in April, according to Centaline Property Agency. Transactions in the world’s most expensive home market slowed to a trickle. A flat measuring 234 sq ft at Lee Bo Building in Tuen Mun sold at just HK$2.35 million recently, 34 per cent below market price and back to 2015 level, according to Ricacorp Properties."

"CK Asset, one of the city’s biggest developers, is poised to launch its Sea to Sky project, comprising 1,422 flats, in Lohas Park next month. CK Asset is likely to be joined by Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), Henderson Land Development, Vanke Holdings (Hong Kong), Wing Tai Properties and the Easyknit Group, as they rush to launch new projects after suspending them for two months during the coronavirus outbreak."

"The abundance of options will almost certainly lead to discounts. Wing Tai has already discounted the first batch of its Oma by the Sea flats in Tuen Mun by 10 per cent compared with prices of new projects nearby, according to Centaline."