Sydney Apartment Sales Plummet: Updated

The Australian RE market has flown high in recent years, but trouble spots have begun emerging. This report informs us "Investors have fled the property market, with apartment sales in the Sydney CBD crashing by 70 per cent."

In what may be of relevance to us here in the US, the number of units sold has dropped while prices stayed about the same. "Apartment values remained relatively steady across Sydney, falling by a modest 0.8 per cent between the two periods". The big question is, will prices follow sales down?*see update below

One quote from the story may be coming to a neighborhood near you,"Back in 2001 and 2002 everybody thought 'if I buy a Sydney unit I'll double my money in a couple of years',now they realise that's not going to be the case."

Updated 2.24.05:- It seems prices may be headed down after all; "I know of an (apartment) developer who has dropped prices 20 per cent to make sales and they've already had an impact at the lower-priced end of the market,"