A report from the Vancouver Sun in Canada. "Rental prices are softening in Vancouver and Toronto and housing prices are soon to follow as the number of new immigrants and foreign students falls sharply because of border restrictions aimed at combatting the spread of COVID-19. Average rents have dropped by eight per cent in Vancouver and Toronto in recent months. Hundreds of thousands of dwellings filled by last year’s cohort of 642,000 international students are empty. And a record number of investor-owned condo units, formerly rented, have been listed for sale."

"Zoocasa, a real-estate brokerage, reports the number of condo apartments offered for rent across Metro Toronto has risen by 45 per cent compared to last year. In the core of the city, which has many colleges and universities, condo rental listings have skyrocketed 80 per cent. For Metro Vancouver, there has been a 35-per-cent spike in condo apartments, many of which had been rented, being off-loaded for sale. Almost 3,000 are up for grabs, the most in five years."

"With Ottawa telling many foreign students to delay plans to attend classes, real estate analyst Stephen Punwasi, of Better Dwelling, says 'students that have been paying rent and living overseas (away from their homelands) are unlikely to renew their digs in Canada into the school year. … With their extended absence, hundreds of thousands of homes will be sitting empty.'"

The Liverpool Echo in the UK. "A controversial Liverpool property company behind several doomed developments spent 40% of investors' money on marketing and administration, it has been revealed. Pinnacle Alliance was a group of linked companies behind a number of luxury apartment developments in Liverpool. The ECHO has already revealed how Pinnacle schemes such as the Paramount, Quadrant and Victoria House all stalled leaving buyers owed millions of pounds."

"Last year a property expert told the ECHO that investors in stalled schemes across Liverpool, including the high profile North Point Global sites, had lost around £200m so far. Now, a special report by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) has revealed that Pinnacle Alliance spent 40% of investors' money on marketing and administration, rather than on building the promised apartments. The buyers' money was then lost."

"The SRA has included the Pinnacle Alliance as a case study into their investigation into dubious property schemes across the country. The report explains that investors in Pinnacle schemes were required to pay large deposits on exchange of contracts."

From Gulf News on Dubai. "Legal notices are to be issued to homeowners in Dubai who have not paid their service charges for the first six months, property management companies confirm. Service charges disputes have escalated in recent months, more so after the pandemic struck and created a situation where property owners have seen declines in their personal incomes. Or successive yearly rental declines are getting owners to demand similar declines on service charges."

"'The only way to reduce costs will be to rationalize the workforce at OA companies,' said the CEO at a mid-sized property management company. 'The challenge here will be to not compromise on the value of the asset. In the final analysis, reducing costs will take some time and the transition will be painful for all the players involved.'"

From Business Week on Botswana. "The Francistown property market has been hard hit by COVID-19 and a leading analyst says the situation will take some time to recover. In recent weeks, BusinessWeek has observed many vacant commercial spaces in the city’s popular malls and industrial sites, suggesting that the city’s property market is battling with the pandemic’s effects on business. Property expert Elijah Gwamulumba of Willy Kathurima Associates said COVID-19 might even lead to an unprecedented glut in the property market if it does not go away very soon."

"'Since the lockdown period, the commercial property market has been on a serious decline with rising vacancy and default levels as most tenants struggle to meet their monthly rental obligations,' he said. 'There has been lower demand for high cost houses something which has also caused a glut.'"

The Hong Kong Standard. "William Kwok Tze-wai, a director of Cheung Kong Real Estate, said home prices are under pressure in the short term. Property buyers backed out of 30 home purchase deals at major new projects in August, media reported. A buyer forfeited deposits of about HK$220,000 after cancelling the purchase of a 227-sq-ft flat at Emerald Bay in Tuen Mun, which was offered at HK$4.33 million."

"In the commercial market, Hang Seng Bank (0011) slashed rents for three street shop premises at Hang Seng Tsimshatsui Building, media reported. Among them, a 1,072-sq-ft shop was leased for HK$200,000, or HK$186 per sq ft, after HK$190,000, or 48.7 percent, was slashed from the original asking rent. In Sheung Wan, a 1,057-sq-ft room at Shun Tak Centre China Merchants Tower was rented for HK$30,600 per month, or HK$29 per sq ft, the lowest in almost a decade at the building, reports said."

The Daily Mail Australia. "Panicked investors are offloading Sydney homes at heavily discounted prices in a desperate bid to fast track sales as coronavirus bites the market. Some investors with CBD and inner city apartments are slashing up to $250,000 from the original price listed before the pandemic hit Australia's shores earlier this year. While prices for all housing categories across Sydney has dropped in recent months, the inner city unit market was one of the hardest hit. Advertised unit prices in Sydney's CBD are down 15 per cent compared to a year ago, according to SQM Research's Asking Prices Index."

From Domain News in Australia. "Melbourne’s house prices have been falling since April but experts warn the real test of the market is yet to come. Questions remain for investors after Melbourne’s rental vacancy rate soared to 3.8 per cent in August with a 20.6 per cent spike in vacant rental listings, as casual workers lost jobs and moved in with family, while international students could not get to Australia."

"Questions remain for investors after Melbourne’s rental vacancy rate soared to 3.8 per cent in August with a 20.6 per cent spike in vacant rental listings, as casual workers lost jobs and moved in with family, while international students could not get to Australia. More and more sellers are dropping their asking prices in order to get a deal done, with the proportion of online listings offering discounts rising nearly fourfold from July last year to July 2020."

"One owner hoping to sell her Box Hill home this spring is Kerrie Love, who brought forward her decision to move. Ms Love, recently retired from her catering job, had supplemented her income over the past few years by renting out rooms in the historic Box Hill house on Airbnb. It had been an extremely successful income stream, and one which she had planned on continuing following her retirement, with bookings up until October 2021 – until the pandemic hit."

"'I’ve had so many cancel. All the borders are closed and there’s so much uncertainty,' she said. 'Not being able to rely on that income has brought my decision forward. I’ve had time [during lockdown] to do up the garden, the renovations are all done, so I think it’s time to do it. I’m hoping the fact it’s a beautiful family home will mean it sells now.'"