Will Australia follow the same path as Ireland?

[Alex Barton]

The Irish property bubble. Consider Ireland, the country that redefined the words 'speculative bubble'. Indeed there are many similarities between Ireland and Australia, yet many differences too. The similarities include high population growth (and that surly didn't save Ireland's bacon), credit driven housing mania, an ingrained belief that you 'can't go wrong' with property, and a predominantly services based economy (services that can easily move offshore to more competitive countries). Differences include an insane building frenzy in Ireland at the height of the boom, and interest rates kept artificially low by Europe, far below the appropriate interest rate for such an overheating economy. The question remains to be seen, will those differences outweigh the similarities, or will Australia (like Ireland) discover that 'it's not different here'. Only time will tell!

If you wish to discuss this, you are welcome to join the Australian Property Forum at http://s4.zetaboards.com/Australian_Property

This is an Australian economics & finance forum dedicated to discussion of the Australian and global housing markets, including house prices, affordability, the likelihood of a global house price crash (GHPC), or an Australian house price crash. Is there an Australian housing bubble? Will house prices crash, or boom? How will a credit crunch or peak debt situation impact Australian property? Can house prices really rise forever, or is there a more simple and sustainable approach? These are the type of questions we hope to address here, at the Australian Property Forum, the premier site for bears and bulls.

Alex Barton
Australian Property Forum
http://s4.zetaboards.com/Australian_Property

[TKline]

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Australian Property Forum
Australian Property Forum (http://s4.zetaboards.com/Australian_Property)


Good forum, I registered today, cheers for that!