From the AFR:
Investors have abandoned property in the battling steel town of Whyalla with average rents tumbling 27 per cent in a year, while house prices have plunged 25 per cent as sellers face a wait of nine months to offload sharply discounted properties.
Peter Calliss, a real estate veteran who runs Peter Calliss Real Estate said an exodus of investors and a tightening up by banks who were now demanding deposits of up to 30 per cent from buyers had dealt a big blow to a market already reeling from uncertainty over the future of the Whyalla steelworks.
“Investors have been non-existent for the last six months. They’ve disappeared,” he said.
“The banks have tightened up. It’s just been a flow-on effect”.
Good. The more input costs fall the better.
