Quite simply, there may not be enough demand for the wave of new property coming onto the market.

ECONOMIST: Is Dubai being hit by the turmoil?

Spain is already in the grip of a wave of defaults by property companies: Martinsa-Fadesa and Promociones Habitat, two huge developers, filed for bankruptcy in July and November respectively last year.

ECONOMIST: European bankruptcy laws

Another possibility: Jackson sells off the property in the current wave of global wine consolidation (see preceding story).

FORBES: Harvest Time

While some in the property sector have been predicting that China's maturing economy would lead to a wave of investment in U.S. real estate akin to the Japanese property-buying spree of the late 1980s, thus far, it has only been trickling in.

WSJ: Deal of the Week: China Vanke Arrives in U.S.

As chemical companies sought to consolidate control over intellectual property, they set off a wave of lawsuits that has mired the industry in the courtrooms for close on a decade.

ECONOMIST: REPORTS: Designer plastics | The

The catch is that property developers are turning the decrepit buildings, abandoned when most businesses fled a crime-wave for the northern suburbs in the early 1990s, into swanky apartment blocks, and property prices have been rocketing.

ECONOMIST: Struggling to cope with too many people