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Re:Australia hasn't had a recession for over 25 years by falsedan on Friday March 31, 2017 @04:56AM (#14002102)
The bubble pops when property is not as safe/lucrative of an investment as other instruments, and the foreign investors sell up. House prices go down, but no one can move because their mortgages are underwater (proceeds from selling the house don't match the outstanding debt). Developers stop building because no one will buy the new-builds at a price which will leave them with a profit. The situation is as before the bubble pops, but now everyone is poorer since their (inflated) home equity has vanished.

Usually this happens when interest rates go up, because then it's better to keep your wealth in a more liquid investment like cash. Mortgage payments go up as well, turning the (imaginary) loss of equity into concrete loss of income.

Re:Australia hasn't had a recession for over 25 years by XorNot on Friday March 31, 2017 @08:49AM (#14003135)
The bubble pops once the big development firms start going under. At some point, the highly leveraged property developers will stop being able to clear out the apartment blocks they're putting up presuming $1m+ sale prices. They're the ones who pop the bubble, since a few bankruptcies are very likely to cascade into panic selling.
Re:Australia hasn't had a recession for over 25 years by falsedan on Friday March 31, 2017 @10:07AM (#14003881)
They go under when buyers stop showing up. It's the buyers. Think: where does their money come from? (from buyers)