The housing effect is the single biggest reason Australia came out less scathed than the United States in recent financial times, said National Business Commentator for The Australian, Robert Gottliebsen, at last week's 2003 AXA Expo, in which he evaluated international and local markets. Australia’s housing effect, in which house prices and the building industry simultaneously grew, has lead to “Australia having the most expensive houses in the world,” according to Gottliebsen’s estimates.

Several large scale factors have lead to Australia’s, and indeed the world’s, current economic environment, he explained. The banks in Japan are still broke, no one ...