A home-building frenzy that is shoring up Australia's economy as the mining boom ends may also be what finally takes the steam out of one of the world's most expensive property markets.
The case in point: Green Square. Nearly 10,000 apartments will be built in one of Sydney's newest suburbs in the next four years to satisfy investor demand, which has already sent property prices in the city to the highest ever. It will also add to the record 213,000 new home starts across the country amid slowing population and economic growth, prompting Goldman Sachs to warn of a supply glut by 2017.
"There is a tsunami of home supply coming," said Nigel Stapledon, head of real estate research at the University of New South Wales Business School and former chief economist at Westpac.
"The market is going to be tested in accepting this sort of supply. It's not like there is economic growth to support it. Income growth has gone from boom time to the lowest in a number of years and population growth has eased back."
Housing and home prices have been the biggest beneficiaries of the central bank's 10 interest-rate cuts since November 2011 to a record low that made mortgages the cheapest they have been in five decades. Economic growth has remained below historical rates and capital spending and confidence have sagged.
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