A report from Now Toronto in Canada. "Toronto’s priciest real estate had the steepest declines. The Rosedale and Moore Park area plunged 15.2 per cent from $3,687,292 to $3,127,643. The Bridle Path and Windfields area were not far behind. The average home price dropped 9.5 per cent from $3,697,343 to $3,346,422."

From Glasgow Now in the UK. "Building student accommodation in certain parts of the city could soon be stopped under new planning guidance. More than 11,000 students beds are currently on offer in the city, with over half in the City, Yorkhill and Anderson ward. In the last two years, more than 5,000 student beds have been added. Nearly half that figure is also currently in the pipeline. Cllr Angus Millar, SNP councillor for Anderston,City and Yorkhill, said: 'At a time when we are actively trying to increase the residential population of the city centre, it is vital we support the growth of mixed, balanced communities, rather than adding yet more monolithic student blocks to areas already saturated with them.'"

From Mingtiandi on Hong Kong. "Hong Kong’s retail property market is bracing for turbulent times as a street front shop in the world’s most expensive shopping district was sold at a 73 percent loss. According to Land Registry records cited by the Hong Kong Economic Times, the 244 square foot (23 square meter) shop in Causeway Bay was sold for HK$5 million ($650,000) earlier this month, or around HK$20,500 per square foot. That price was just over a quarter of the HK$18.74 million which the seller had paid to purchase the bedroom-sized property seven years ago."

From Nine News on Australia. "Australia's property market could be left with a glut of stock as mortgage repayment holidays run out and government economic lifelines run dry.'The reality is that despite government assistance, some people may not see secure employment or their business recovering in the near future, and the recommencement of mortgage payments will be a burden they cannot bear,' said Finance Brokers Association of Australia managing director Peter White."

"He warned many lenders won't consider refinancing a borrower under a bank stimulus program. 'For some, the alternative is defaulting on their mortgage, the bank taking possession and walking away with no money and a bad credit rating,' he said. 'You are far better off to be in control of your destiny than allowing the bank to take control as they will act in their own interest and that of their shareholders.'"

"For some, that may involve pre-empting a default on their mortgage before they are forced to. 'There is no advantage in holding off and hoping, when we don't know what the market will likely be after the stimulus payments stop,' he said. 'There may be a glut of property suddenly on the market.'"

From Smart Property Investment on Australia. "Figures released by CoreLogic have shown that Sydney has fallen by 0.8 per cent, while nationally capitals have fallen by just 0.7 per cent throughout the COVID-19 crisis. According to Macquarie University’s professor of business analytics Stefan Trueck property prices in May 2020 sold on average 8 per cent below their valuation. This means that in May, houses were being offered at a significant discount to those pre the COVID-19 crisis."

"'It is likely that Sydney house prices have already dropped more substantially than the public has been led to believe,' says Professor Trueck. 'Vendors and real estate agents have significantly reduced the reporting of sales results for houses and apartments in many suburbs.'"

"Figures sourced from realestate.com.au show that the average number of reported auction results was 76 per cent in the October to November 2019 period. But since April 2020, only 50 per cent of sales data is being made public. The figures show that in comparison to the second half of 2019, auction results or sales are now far less likely to be revealed."

"'For example, in the northern Sydney suburb of Lane Cove, about 60 properties have been sold since the beginning of May 2020, according to realestate.com.au. However, prices for less than 10 of those sales have been made public. This scenario plays out across many other suburbs in Sydney,' the professor highlighted."

"The withholding of auction results often occurs when vendors or real estate agents are not pleased with the result and the sale price falls below expectations. Although these transaction prices can be withheld initially, in subsequent weeks the auction prices are eventually made public when they are reported to the NSW Land Registry Services. 'This suggests that typically unfavourable price outcomes are more likely to not be reported by vendors or real estate agents,' Professor Trueck noted."

From TV New Zealand. "An over-supply in Queenstown has forced landlords to significantly drop their prices as people leave the country or become stuck here. Excluding Canterbury, the average rent price in the South Island has dropped nearly 10 per cent compared to June last year. Queenstown is feeling the brunt of it with Harcourts saying rent values there have gone down as much as 40 per cent in some cases."

"While it’s good news for tenants, it’s added pressure for landlords. 'They’re at a level where they’re only just breaking even,' says Paul Hibbett from Harcourts Property Management."

From Stuff New Zealand. "It's great news for tenants and bad news for landlords as rents continue to come under pressure in Queenstown and other tourist towns. Property manager Beth Chisholm of Ray White Queenstown said at this time last year she had no vacancies at all but this year was completely different and many people had had to leave town. Generally, she said rents were down 20 to 30 per cent 'but I’ve had one at 75 per cent because they just wanted to keep the tenant. I’ve been stressing to owners that it’s important to keep someone living in there, especially over winter, because there’s an awful lot of vacant properties at the moment.'"

"Infometrics economist Brad Olsen says similar situations were developing in other tourist towns such as Rotorua. Rental prices were being driven down by a combination of job losses and a high concentration of AirBnBs or short-stay accommodation which had shifted onto the long-term market. 'It is very much that supply, and you've seen that coming through from some people in the South Island that there is more stock around and therefore there is more choice,' he said."

"The Property Investors Federation's executive director, Sharon Cullwick, said she had heard from some landlords with rentals in Queenstown who were doing it hard. One landlord who owned three properties there had been swamped by competition from AirBnBs. 'They had better views than his, were better positioned to town, and he said he would have to drop the rents, which meant he couldn't afford to keep them.'"

"Also hard hit had been 'quite a few people' who had mixed residential-commercial properties whose business tenants had refused to pay rent. This had been particularly hard on older landlords with fixed incomes and a mortgage on their rental."