I'm from Perth, Western Australia, a city that recently hit 2M population. There was a massive China-fueled resources boom in the early 2000s that soaked up th

I'm from Perth, Western Australia, a city that recently hit 2M population. There was a massive China-fueled resources boom in the early 2000s that soaked up the available construction capacity (materials and labour) for capital projects like building oil rigs and ports and all the ancillary stuff that entailed. In 2000 you could buy any number of 1970s houses for <$100k. These were relatively small 3x1s (like 1000-1500 sq ft) but solid. Concrete pad, brick-and-tile (Australia doesn't build timber-framed houses). By 2006, those same houses now cost $350k. There were articles at the time stating that the cheapest house for sale in the city was $250k. And all that paled in comparison to what happened at the high end of the market. Anyway, rents went through the roof. By 2011, the resources boom had definitely cooled and prices were starting to drop. There were less FIFO (fly-in fly-out) workers and so on. Rents had actually did drop through the middle 2010s, sometimes significantly. I used to rent out a house for $450/week and now I'd be lucky to get $300/week for. Thankfully I'd long since sold it. So yes, rents can go down.