Experts warn Asia’s real estate markets are expected to crash by almost 50 percent in the next six months. Property prices which had primped up in the last two years will nose dive as banks, financial institutions and multinational companies sell property to keep businesses afloat.

Owning to large build ups of bad debt, banks are cutting their exposure to property, leading landlords in Japan, China, India, Australia and other Asian countries to be forced into fire sales if they fail to refinance loans, putting more properties on the market and driving values down further, experts warn.This is when most real estate investors who have been waiting on the sidelines for the markets to tank hope to jump in.

“For investors with money, this is a once-in-a-lifetime period,” Robert Lie, Asia managing director for Redevco told Reuters. Property prices in India which have doubled since 2005 are expected to return to their pre 2005 rates. The Chinese real estate market too is expected to witness a similar fall. Brokerage CLSA and consultants Savills expect average home prices in Beijing and Shanghai to drop 20-25 percent this year, similar to falls in Shenzhen and Guangzhou in 2008.

“Rationally, there is limited room for property prices to fall and most cities will see a drop of 10 percent,” Chen Sheng, vice president of China Index Academy, told Reuters.“But in a market downturn, once expectations worsen, prices could smash previous estimates and even go below the cost (of construction),” he continued.

Governments in both India and China have taken considerable measures to plump up the real estate market. A large part of the country’s stimulus packages have already been diverted to infrastructure growth, banks have resumed lending to developers and greater tax concessions and cheaper mortgages are available to homeowners.