PHOTO: Australia’s property market may have an over-supply problem

Australia’s ailing housing market got a triple tonic this week as the RBA flagged interest rate cuts, the banking regulator eased lending criteria and the threat of tax changes that could have hurt property investment abated with the government’s re-election.

But there are at least 80,000 reasons to suggest there’ll be no rapid rebound as the worst housing slump in a generation spreads deeper into the economy. That’s how many apartments were completed in recent years in Sydney – adding about 5 per cent to the housing stock – while Melbourne and Brisbane have also seen relatively large additions, according to the Reserve Bank.

That raises the question: Who’s going to soak up all that new supply? On a recent Saturday morning in Wentworth Point, a suburb of high-rise apartments in west Sydney that largely sprung up during a five-year housing boom, the hordes of potential buyers seen at the peak has slowed to a trickle.

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