Reserve Bank of Australia Jonathan Kearns, Head of Financial Stability speaking

At the Australia-China Property Developers, Investors & Financiers event in Sydney

  • Closely watching loans for apartment building
  • Says no widespread reports of settlement failure, increase in arrears or losses for banks.
  • Says run up in commercial property prices raises the risk of a sharp correction
  • Australian banks have tightened lending conditions for commercial property in recent years
  • Says Asian banks have grown their commercial property lending sharply
  • Purchases by foreign buyers equivalent to around 10-15 pct of new home construction
  • Says around three-quarters of foreign buyers come from China
  • Says purchases by foreign buyers do not reduce supply of dwellings overall

Full text: Australian Property - Financial Stability and Foreign Involvement

The quick headlines above are via Reuters

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AUD not doing too much at all on the speech.

Despite all the hype about property price crashes (the hype has been ongoing for a decade at least ... all the better to sell newsletters, right?) the price decline seen so far in Australia's (arguably) most heated market of Sydney is (on average) around 1% (or less) from the heady levels and welcome to many. Not least the people charged with overseeing financial stability at the RBA!

Stay tuned for more RBA today ...

0350 GMT - Reserve Bank of Australia's Marion Kohler, Head of Domestic Markets, speaking at the Australian Securitisation Forum, in Sydney