First home buyers look to Dubai for a bargain

The Dubai property bubble has burst with residential property prices falling over 40%' as speculators flee the market.
This is just the latest indication of the extent to which Dubai's property boom of recent years has come to an abrute end with the worldwide recession.
Because finance has dried up and job opportunities in Dubai have declined investors got out anyway they could.But that leaves the market to anyone who has a job and steady income to get a home at knockdown prices.
The chances are that waiting for the right property will be fruitful as prices are expected to fall even further.

Australian housing market has little sub-prime downside

First home buyers should buy low, buy used and only buy if they have secure incomes streams.
There is talk of an Australian Subprime Fallout about to happen in Australia. This is just not true.
The current finance crisis was made in The USA and mostly on the back of bad lending practices that caused millions of Americans to lose their homes. A lot of these toxic debts were on sold to British Banks and Aussie banks found them irresistible too.
Australia however does not have that problem to anywhere near the extent that the US has.
Yes we did have subprime loans made to people that did not verify income or credit standing. But these loans were to a less risky borrower than the US model allowed. They had money or equity, were largely self employed and enjoyed tax advantages that left more in their pockets. They weren't penniless people without a plan on where the next dollar was coming from. And they didn't constantly eat into their home equity to sustain themselves when the markets were rising, unless they had 20% net in equity after redraws. Australian subprime were also buying quality housing stock. Enough said about that.
Yes we are now seeing low-paid first home buyers given too higher loans whilst the mortgage interest rates are so low, but at least these people have clear credit and regular jobs.
Yes some or even many of these people will be caught when the rates rise to levels they cannot manage, but they will be able in most cases to sell their homes should the worst happen, unlike in the US where not one was buying because the homes were aver priced, and no one was lending because the funds weren't there to lend out.
Right now first-home buyer end of the market has been booming due mainly to the first home buyers subsidy, which in my view is far too low, and for new home buyers may not even cover the interest charges whilst there home is being build [do the math and include the land purchase value and you will see its a joke].
The problem is many jobs are not secure and house prices are too high .
In Sydney, the average property already costs nine times the average household income, while the UK and US reached a peak of only seven times average income before their markets crashed on this delusion.
Buying a new home in this market and in this cycle may get the economy rolling, but the downside may be nasty for those that lose their income streams, regardless of income levels. Its a risky proposition. So you need to be smart and buy low, buy used and don't buy if your incomes stream might run dry.
The news of Qantas layoffs shows that even if you are in profitable iconic companies there is no secure paycheck you can count on.
Job security is the prime danger and the secondary one being house price stability. If that does not hold, then many more will be in danger. But that again has nothing to do with the loose lending practices that was used in the US for the last ten years.
For me the bottom line is that a trade qualified blue collar worker, and an office or health care or retail shop worker are good bets to find work if their employer goes belly up.
To suggest that these people are "subprime" is just plain wrong. They are not and neither is lending to them.
These low income earners are a better bet in my view than many of those swanning around in their leased BMW's checking out the canal backed homes on the Gold Coast.