How can you buy a house without checking out the foundations/basement yourself or by a pro?
Widespread sentiment that if you don't buy something ASAP, you'll never be able to - meaning lots of buyers skimping on due diligence to close a sale.
Things have been crazy for a long time, but I am actually optimistic for Melbourne specifically - the construction rate is up and the state government has been decreasing the power local governments have to block or delay development. If this continues, housing affordability should improve. My main concern is that a change of government may put an end to it, but I hope not.
Some details about what VIC is doing differently in this AFR article if you're interested (archive link because original is paywalled):
The Victorian government has also failed significantly on public housing. The wait time is about 20 months (10 months is VicGov's target, it was 14 months 3 years ago) and they're currently looking to demolish many existing options without many short term optionsnfor residents.
It seems very unlikely to me that Victoria's house prices will drop in any sigificant way this decade.
I think there is a good chance it will, as long as a change of government doesn't deliberately dismantle the current approach. Yes there's population growth and yet prices have been stagnant or declining the past few years and construction has picked up. That's a good trend!
I'm not familiar with the situation with public housing but am happy to accept if the government has failed there. But this seems like a separate failure rather than an indictment of their approach to increasing supply generally which I think is working.