Australians like to refer to the global financial crisis as the “GFC”, as if it’s a remote phenomenon, happening to other people. Indeed, you might consider yourself charmed if your house seemed immune to the price deflation dogging other developed economies. After a wobble last year, Australian house prices in the first eight months rose almost 8 per cent, according to RP Data-Rismark; the average home value is now 4 per cent higher than the February 2008 peak.

So far, buyers have had both the will and the ability to lever up. As most mortgages are on a floating rate, savage cuts to the central bank’s cash rate – 425 basis points between September and April, to a 49-year low of 3 per cent – have rapidly fed through to borrowing costs. Banks, largely untroubled by writedowns and boasting some of the best capital positions in the world, are still building their loan books.