Hmm fingers crossed the world doesn't collapse and the good times continue.
That's an interesting risk-management perspective.
What evidence do you rely on to convince you that this is different from the real estate markets of the U.S. or Great Britain or Canada in 2007? Or rather, that you'll avoid buying into the real estate market experienced by those countries in 2008?
Said in jest obviously Nords. You can't protect against an apocalypse, but if spend all of your time worrying about an event like it you'll never invest at all.
What evidence do I have? We'll lets see for starters:
- I've bought in a suburb that has shown average growth of 4.3% p.a. for 15-20 years
- Price I've paid is less than 4 times average dual-income household income
- Population growth is such that there is a gigantic shortage of quality housing in metro areas - a huge unmet demand
- Prices in Sydney metro area either did not fall, or if they did fall have subsequently rebounded higher during the worst global financial/economic conditions in 70 years
- Sydney market is not a one-hit wonder like the regional centres exposed to 1 mine or 1 manufacturer.
- Unlike the US or Britain, our economy and financial system is actually run by people who know what they are doing
- Unlike the US, you cannot just leave the keys in the letterbox and walk away from a mortgage if you don't feel paying it anymore.
- Credit assessments are tighter here. A ninja (no income, no job, no assets) would never get a loan, and our government is not stupid enough to enact laws to force the banks to give people like this loans, like previous US administrations did.
- The culture down here is different. People will pay their mortgages before putting food on the table. Default rates are 1% or less
- The Chinese and Singaporeans like the place. They are buying up everything left right and centre and that is not going to stop anytime soon
I could go on, but thats enough for now...