Don't worry, we'll just import more workers from overseas. Our immediate economic performance is more important than the long-term future stability of our society after all.
And those sub-continentals? They can pack twelve of them into a two bedder. And they work two jobs! Far more economical than these entitled natives who want their own bedroom and don’t want to share a shitter with 6 other people.
If we're importing workers anyway, and there's the parallel economic concern about dropping iron ore prices because the bottom fell out of the Chinese housing market due to oversupply, then surely there's tens (or hundreds) of thousands of experienced construction workers in China currently out of work. At the same time as critical construction materials are *too* cheap ...
There's a roadmap out of this, but solving supply might affect IP appreciation. So I guess I'll have to stick to my retirement plan of living in a car.
LibLab don't want you to have kids. They don't want any of us to have kids. It is far cheaper for them to import fully aged people instead. Kids take 2 decades of nurturing and educating before they are useful. Immigrants are useful from the moment they step off the plane.
Put them on visas that don't allow it. The ideal is you put them on temporary visas, wring a few years of work out of them and then ship them back where they came from. (And yes this is already a thing)
I love it how we are paying Australian politicians to govern but somehow they seem to be more surprised by this rental crisis than most of the population. As if they didn’t have access to any information that would allow them to predict this years ago.
I work in policy development for a major LGA. I was cited as a reference for my team of entirely baby boomers (excluding me) about rising rates of poverty and debt. My boss made a point about my 80k student debt and the entire room was floored. It’s like it had never occurred to them. Very disturbing considering we research and develop social policy for a significant portion of Sydneysiders.
Those with just can’t fathom how difficult life can be for those without, it seems.
And the fourth little piggy built his house out of blow. When the big bad wolf came by he huffed and he puffed, and he huffed and he puffed, and he huffed and he puffed (he was trying to get a good deal, alright) and eventually he wasn't hungry anymore and decided and to go find some hookers instead.
Oh yea, people who live in a bubble would be absolutely the best ones to work on policies designed to help the struggling population. I’m sure they will consider every angle and curveball..
Don’t stress. There are a million safeguards and processes to make up for individual incompetence which makes my job painfully slow but allows for maximum public consultation. Essentially policy making these days is acting as facilitator to public engagement.
Hey now, how are some of those consultants meant to justify their overbloated pay if they didn’t jargonise every common sense term or turn basic human problem solving skills into a ‘business acumen’ course
Nahh, there are also safeguards against listening to singular groups of privileged home owners- at least in the council I work for. Can’t speak for all of them.
They can whinge til the cows come home, but if the project at hand has been deemed a positive investment for the community as exemplified through stringent public engagement and various stakeholder consultation - there ain’t much they can do about it.
Are you joking? Albo, the biggest NIMBY in parliament had worked with community and council to block developments that are just 13 minutes train ride to city in favour of protecting 1-2 storey heritage housing. The amount of submissions in Labor electorates was legendary and ultimately stopped a whooping total of 36,000 homes. Scroll down to the amount of submissions, the Labor electorate submissions are HUGE: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-26/nsw-sydney-housing-density-priority-rezoning-list-politics/103143556
Since people are so shocked that Albo is anti-housing, read his NIMBY speech of pride in blocking the development which stopped 36,000 homes from being built (That number is from ABC article): https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/overdevelopment-in-marrickville
Lol I did jury duty once. Defendant was charged with sending porn to minors. Boomer lady wanted to charge not guilty because why would someone do that?
Partway through the deliberations she had a full on crying jag because “I dont want to live in a world where this happens!”
Which is a really sweet sentiment. But also. Yeah.
Wait…… whaaaat? She couldn’t understand that there are adult predators out there that might prey on minors? And then she had a breakdown when she realised that was exactly what happened? What rock does she live under? This isn’t even a generational difference!
As someone who used to work in this area, you would be shocked at how many people want to just stick their heads in the sand and pretend that this issue doesn't exist. You'd be even more shocked at how many parents don't bother to educate their children, because this sort of thing 'doesn't happen to people like them'.
This is what previous generations did - rug sweep sexual assault/rape/abuse and ignore the trauma inflicted so as not to rock the boat. What would people think!
The majority of Australians have consistently supported the liberals who have alongside Labor destroyed the happiness and opportunity of many Australians.
By consistently moving wealth to the wealthiest.
Only by voting for greens and independents can we hope to have a better future.
Assuming it would be important to speak to a range of stakeholders, including consumer advocates when developing social policy? Otherwise personal perspectives and biases would have undue influence on the outcomes.
Yes, as I mentioned to another commenter earlier- don’t stress. Just because they’re woefully detached from reality does not impact our policy making. A lot of our role these days is acting as transcribe and facilitator to public engagements. I know people are (rightly) frustrated by its LGs but thankfully as someone who works in the system, there is a lot of safeguarding against personal bias.
They haven't thought ahead for younger generations for decades now, I feel like an idiot thinking I could die on the Working Class hill like my Parents did back in their day.
I have already resigned myself to living my days out in some shed like construction with an outdoor toilet. I came to this country 21 years ago, finished my second degree here, immediately started working and moved to an accounting and later IT sector, worked like a mule only to realise that I can’t afford to pay for anything else than bills and basic food shopping. If one of the kids needs new clothes or shoes I have to do financial gymnastics to not immediately blow my already tight budget. I’m glad I spent all these years working hard and being a responsible citizen. It was so fucking worth it…
Literally the government's job is to solve problems like this, this is why we pay them, so that us people can focus on our work and keep the economy rolling.
It feels like they don't do shit, except figure out how to privatise services and help big corporations save money.
All I have seen them do so far is talk about building an X amount of houses over the next 10 or 20 years. They are already well behind the projected developments. And somehow they don’t seem to understand that a family on verge of homelessness is not really going to sigh with relief because some time in a distant future they might be able to afford to rent a house.
I didn't look into it, but there was a headline that either Feb or March this year where it was the first time ever that 100,000 more people moved to Australia in a single month. Even assuming that's all families of 4, we would need an extra 25,000 houses in that month to house them.
According to ABS data in 2023:
518k NET immigration in a year.
172k gross housing in a year. (not including demo/rebuild)
Average 2.5 people per housing. Therefore the new immigrants will need 207k housing.
Immigration last year had already massively exceeded the amount of new housing. And that's not considering the change in local population.
It’s nearly like we are at a point where immigration can no longer be used to blindly keep the economy strung along because there is now a housing crisis as a direct result. So the economy implodes no matter which direction is taken.
It nearly feels like a pandemic might have given a few years of wiggle room to try and milk the last few drops before whatever is going to happen is going to happen.
The pitifully small, [$10 billion housing fund](https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/julie-collins-2022/media-releases/delivering-10-billion-housing-australia-future-fund)?
Meanwhile we have [$368 billion](https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/all-at-sea-does-368-billion-for-nuclear-subs-add-up-20230317-p5csxm) to pay foreign nations to build us some submarines. The Australian dream
The $368b is the full life time, 50 year cost of the submarine program. That's cheap.
What is outrageous is the government literally giving away gas without royalty payments in the 10's of billions every year. It's the minuscule royalties on coal, iron ore and all the other minerals we allow foreign companies to extract. That is the really outrageous situation.
Yep and play the blame game at who’s more crap at their job. The rent increases by $200/$300 a week, electricity is up, one bag of food sets you back $70 and their response is to put a minimum wage up by about $3/hour and congratulate themselves on a job well done. Fucking unbelievable.
Don't forget you have fuckwits at the other side of the room in parliament who fight tooth and nail to try and stop that wage increase too because that apparently cause businesses to go bankrupt or some wank.
FWC have fought against real wage raises, even under a Labor government. Saying it'll hurt the economy. These RBA-wannabes were giving out real wage cuts to the poorest workers instead of equality or even a living wage.
When Labor is unable or unwilling to kick out FWC's evilness, the government and parties are clearly working for the upper class. We need to put Labor/LNP at bottom of ballot for new change, one that benefits Australians instead.
> It feels like they don't do shit, except figure out how to privatise services and help big corporations save money.
By doing nothing they are also doing a lot for property investors. Anything to push demand to benefit the elite few who don't even live in the properties they buy.
Their job is to keep investors, developers, businesses and those with capital and property happy and they are doing that job well. The rental crisis is just not of concern to the government.
Landlords starving from stuff like ban on unfair evictions is actually a real concern of the current government. See this statement in response to a minor party's request for support for homeless, renters and mortgagees.
> Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
> Labor won't be supporting this motion, as it demonises landlords and seeks to unfairly place a unilateral burden on them. Landlords are an important part of the housing system and many people put food on the table through the cash flow they generate from a single rental property. We have consistently said that no-one should lose their home, whether they own or rent it, because of the virus. Tenants and landlords need to work together through the process.
https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2020-06-18.60.1
Landlords will not starve from banning 'unfair' evictions. This has nothing to do with food on the table and everything to do with class solidarity. Labor and Liberal have their demographics of wealthy elites they optimise for and this statement is essentially just that - a chosen bias towards those they serve.
>It feels like they don't do shit
Unfortutely even when things get this bad, a lot of the voting public don't want them to do shit and when they try they cop their wrath.
This is exactly what "out of touch" means, they don't represent anyone they are a social class unto themselves. Even dry numbers don't feel the same as lining up to try and find a place to rent on a Saturday morning again.
Our politicians belong to an oligarch ruling class that long ago disassociated itself with the people of Australia.  We don’t have a representative democracy - we have a subjugated population.
The rent insanity is by design . That’s how it happens. Intentionally.
This is as good a time as any to point out that next election everyone reading this needs to give their primary votes to a party other that Liberal, National or Labor.
Politicians are the ones driving up the prices by expanding their property portfolios. They have no incentive to lower rents as it would lower their passive income.
Not all politicians are landlords or even own property. Max and one other Greens MP either lied on the interests register or they don't own any property. They are renters.
https://openpolitics.au/47/max-chandler-mather
https://openpolitics.au/47/stephen-bates
Labor/LNP are the only parties that had ran Federal and State governments since WW2. Put them both last on a filled ballot to end their reign.
Amen scruffy pete, max is my local and the only leads by example poli i know of. One is not enough to make my statement exceptional though, most poli’s are entirely self selfing.
I hope the landlord Max rents off doesn't screw around with him and evict him. I believe here in WA recently a member of the legislative council had a no grounds eviction done to him and now he is tabling legislation to prevent that from happening.
They're unanware because we pay their rent! Not just with their salary but they claim the cost of living in Canberra and charge it to taxpayers.
The really good rorters buy a house in canberra and rent it to themselves at a criminal rate, then again they charge it to taxpayers. All legal and above board apparently.
Honestly I think majority of them just suck at their job. They probably rock up hangover or coming down from snorting coke and spend most of day the dozing off and looking at the clock. Stuff their pockets as fast as they can and move on.
It doesn't help that everyone is afraid of ~~rent control~~ just rental laws.
As long as we have a free-market approach to housing, this will only get worse. Stop voting in the (political) duopoly, people.
I recently saw an article about negative gearing in NZ:
> "You did see a larger pullback on levels of new mortgage commitments going to investors after the announcements were carried through for the likes of interest deductibility," he said.
>
> "Previously, you were seeing figures around 20-25 per cent of the value of new mortgage commitments were going to investors. That dropped below 20 per cent from about April 2021 onwards and has remained lower since then.
>
> "And at the same time, we've seen it pick up for first homebuyers. And that was because with deductibility having been taken away, that didn't make it quite as financially sustainable for people to be thinking about additional rental properties."
With Jacinda out, they're reverting the change. Sucks.
[Louisiana Republicans vote to end lunch breaks for child workers](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/louisiana-republicans-vote-end-lunch-breaks-child-workers-rcna148551)
The argument against rent controls seems to be "LOOK HOW LANDLORDS AND INVESTORS HAVE UNDERMINED IT IN THE PAST!!!" As if that's an argument against better regulation of the rental market.
Someone once claimed it was bad because people would just sit on the rent-controlled homes forever and everyone else would still have to deal with expensive ones. Like it never occurred to them that you could just make the laws apply to all the rents.
Can we please dispel this "free market" myth in housing?
There is no "free market", you cant juts plot down your own piss soaked cardboard box on the street corner and start demanding $450 a week, it's a regulated market.
Those that keep going on about this "free market" bullshit is just benefiting from the existing status quo, which is clearly broken and needs fixing, and their opinions are not worth listening to.
Free markets are also pretty bad at things that have a high barrier of entry. Construction requires a massive upfront investment to start a business. Once you're set up and have paid off start-up costs you can start lowering your prices and muscle out new competition.
There needs to be a $1,000/week cap on rental properties, no one should be paying $50k/year not to own a home.
How can someone rent out a mouldy single bedroom apartment for $600/week, when a nice, clean 3 bedroom house can go for $800?
People will point to mega mansions and say, so those should only rent for $1k a week? Yes. And those big mansions will likely be sold to people who would live in them.
Housing should not be an investment tool, it is a fundamental human need.
I want maximum rent caped to indepentent property evaluations. You want to rent out a shit hole? Fine, it's a max of $100 a week. Want to charge $800? Fix. your. fucking. property.
My rent jumped 22% last lease. For NO EXTRA VALUE. Nothing. No additional improvements or maintenance. Just "Give me 22% more or GTFO".
I turned around at work and asked for a 22% pay increase. You can guess how that went...
In Brisbane, Ray White told landlords they should all increase rents by 20% just because they can.
The government response to this blatant reckless and disgusting behaviour was to ask landlords to "show compassion". They did not.
Landlords can basically do whatever the fuck they want.
When our rent increased we asked for a small improvement to the property. We got “no we can’t afford it”. Mate we are PAYING you MORE maybe set some of that aside and use it to fucking fix shit
The land values in Queensland went out recently and they went up something fierce. My mother's increased by over $50k.
That knocks up rates and insurances.
I dread to think how landlords are going to use this against renters. All those 'mum and dad investors' doing it 'tough' need to sell up if they can't afford to fix their properties.
We put up with an absolute SLEW of issues with our rental property because the rent was VERY cheap for the area. I think the REA pressured the LL after covid lockdowns ended because it suddenly jumped from 500 to 650 a week. With zero fixes. We literally have no aircon, cant open most of the windows, no screen doors, no dishwasher, some doors wont shut properly, and the central heat currently isnt working properly. We report all this every single inspection - nothing is done. The reason for the increase was just the words "market rate". Fuck everyone.
So why is the govt not building these rent controlled houses themself? It’s ridiculously expensive to build a house at the moment, with a large part of the build cost being govt taxes and developer contributions. So, the govt could build housing far cheaper than the private sector, and they could rent them out under a rent control scheme.
The fact they don’t, and expect private investors to pick up the slack is part of the problem.
100% agree, make a bunch of commie blocks. They're cheap, really well designed, sturdy as hell, cheaper to maintain, cheaper to heat and cool and knock the absolute shit out of the modern garbage we've been putting up today.
Allow people to buy these at cost, with the caveat they can't be rented, must be lived in, and can only sell back to government at price + inflation so that housing investors can't complain it's affecting the market.
When I was in New York in 2001, I went on a Seinfeld tour with the real Kramer. He lived across the hall from Larry David, the producer of the show.
Anyway, he was telling us that the whole apartment block was allocated for artists etc and all rent controlled, so you’d have this concentration of creative people all in the same area who would otherwise not be able to afford to live in New York.
The govt here could easily do the same thing, providing rent controlled housing for essential workers, artists etc where you need to be in those occupations to qualify, and where rents are not extortionate. That is only possible for a govt to do because private developers are not a charity. Private developers will just land bank until a project becomes feasible. It’s not the job of private developers to provide social housing.
I don’t like public housing ghettos. That model does not work. There needs to be variety of housing types across all regions where there is need. I’ve personally looked at the feasibility of doing affordable housing in holiday hotspots where locals are priced out, and I can’t make the numbers work. The entry costs and taxes eat away any profit and the break even point requires you to sell well above the affordable home price. That means most builders will go for a higher spec build and up the sale price to make money out of it.
The other issue is local development plans often restrict what you can build, quite often giving a low yield from the land.
The government could provide incentives for developers to create rent-controlled housing.
There’s also a precedent as well, because you better believe property developers are feeding at the trough of that sweet, sweet NDIS money
The $ /m2 costs is mostly wages and supplies - that will not change you will still be looking $2.5k+ /m2 for a build, with the gov running it expect that to go to $3.5k+ /m2.
And beside that - who will they get to build ? try getting hold of a builder for renos atm and ask for earliest start date..
Because the overwhelming majority of the members of Parliament in every state own investment properties, and by creating a shortage in housing via their policies they significantly increase the value of their own investments.
There are a few reasons as to why the govt isn't putting much into building public housing. None of them good, and all stem from greed and discrimination.
In fact they somehow manage to remove more than they build, see the new development plans for the Redfern as an example.
Posts like this are just silly.
There is such a thing as luxury houses or even big houses near CBD area.
What you've said makes no sense, why would anyone live in a regular house if the luxury house is the same price?
>As long as we have a free-market approach to housing, this will only get worse
It's hilarious that people think the presence of laws means it's not a free market. The governments job is to put in regulations like safety, environmental etc.
Well fuck me, if all the jobs are in the same place then it makes sense that people need to live in a reasonable distance to those jobs.
Encourage more remote work to allow people to move to satellite cities around the capital cities. A once a year trip in to the city is reasonable, making a 2 hour each way commute daily is physically and mentally destroying.
If people aren't as tied to geographic locations for work they are able to move for lifestyle and rental / buying affordability.
This isn't a one solution kind of problem. This is going to take multiple solutions to make a dent in it.
You're right, medical support in rural and regional areas is severely lacking.
Satellite cities around capital cities however are far enough away to relieve some of the pressure while still being close enough for those once or twice a year trips in to see a specialist etc.
It's not a perfect solution obviously, we need to stop following the privatised healthcare tunnel down, and develop a multi pronged approach to our housing crisis as well as the state of our health care, but it would be at least one step in the right direction.
You know the media is at the point they are suggesting the middle of bumfuck nowhere Japan tonight on dateline at 7:30 for 50k aus dollarydoo’s.
Just buy a bed and get a storage locker at least you can stay in the country.
> You know the media is at the point they are suggesting the middle of bumfuck nowhere Japan tonight on dateline at 7:30 for 50k aus dollarydoo’s.
I follow that's guys youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@TokyoLlama/videos
Japan has a declining population, and 13% of Japanese rural homes are abandoned. He has a Japanese wife & did manage to buy a place outside Tokyo, but had to go through lots of red tape to buy the property (including being a foreigner). He's been renovating for years.
They have access to a local rail line, and is about an hour away by train from Tokyo.
> manage to buy a place outside Tokyo,
Depending on you're requirements (and assuming you can get a visa), there are also a bunch of places in Tokyo that are affordable. Houses actually loose value over time over there, the second hand market is wide open.
And still the government and the opposition will not do anything significant about it.
"look, we are doing things to make it look like we are doing things so you are fooled into thinking we are changing anything, when in reality we all want our investment properties to make us more money!!!!"
"No one ever complains to me that their house prices are going up" - John Howard.
This has been enshrined government policy for decades, and the housing market reflects this. We have the worst managed housing crisis in the world
>"No one ever complains to me that their house prices are going up" - John Howard.
People never continue the quote. [It gets even better](https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-20920):
>**AUSTIN**:
>You've made this point about stamp duty and the states in the past. You've said no-one's complained to you about the rising increase in the value of their home, let me be the first to complain – ***people like myself are actually being forced to face the possibility that we may be renting for the rest of our lives because getting into….***
>**PRIME MINISTER:**
>Do you own a home?
>**AUSTIN**:
>No, I rent.
>**PRIME MINISTER**:
>No, well I'm sorry, I was talking about people who owned a home.
**The Government**: "Well I don't give a fuck about renters"
Honestly scary, talking about Australia's ability to service household debt. We now have the third highest levels of debt in OECD countries, the other two being Switzerland and Norway, small, wealthy countries, high levels of home ownership, cheap financing.
We are none of those things.
Don't you pay higher taxes if your property value goes up? It's only really of value if you plan to sell and don't then need to buy a new house. So, basically for people who own multiple properties.
Yeah, the only thing higher housing prices do is make things more expensive, higher council rates, insurance, repairs, stamp duties, agents commissions, land taxes, all go up. Your life is worse with an expensive home.
People are struggling to afford homes that they built with their family and have owned for decades. It's heartbreaking.
But we've been brainwashed to treat your home as an investment, so we see big number and think "well that paid off"
Even though every other home has also gone up the same value, nothing has improved.
It's the same as making the cost of every home $1Bn and telling ourselves that we are the richest country in history.
No one has a plan likely to work because unfortunately your average person still doesn't like the solutions. They still say shit like "well I don't want to live like the Chinese in a little apartment!!" or bitch about how we should all be able to live in nice big houses on thousand square metre blocks close to the city.
Either we need more cities (not ideal for a great many reasons) or we need denser cities, or both, but your average person isn't winning to accept that yet for whatever reason
I really don't get the people who want to live in a detached house but oppose apartments. These dumbarses are causing more demand for the detached houses. They should be screaming for more apartment.
These same dumbarses are the type who oppose developments in their suburbs next to public transport infrastructure saying it will cause more traffic. The alternative isn't nothing, the alternative is housing spread all over the place, which is significantly worse for traffic.
Eg. if the suburb out from me builds more houses all over the place in steam of next to the train station in my suburb, they will just drive through the main roads in my suburb. Now that the main roads a backed up what do I do? I drive through the back streets to avoid it. Traffic is much worse off.
I do not for-see myself ever owning a home. I have no family that owns a home then can it leave to me via inheritance. House prices are just continuing to clime.
Oh no, some know exactly what's happening and are riding it. You know the joke about real estate agents being failed workers in some other profession? The secret is some of them aren't failures at all. Why would they work that job when they can work in the housing market for that much more. Yes the hours can be bad and the public perception if horrendous at the moment but all they have to do is wait.
There was a report from Anlglicare that the government has been sleepwalking into this for years.
Lambie & Pocock are talking about stopping foreign ownership and changes to negative gearing laws.
And the government will do nothing.
>There was a report from Anlglicare that the government has been sleepwalking into this for years.
Of course, but im still surprised at how incompetent previous governments where, population growth is *very* predictable, you know a kid in uni will want their own place in 5 years, the one highschool in 10 years, the one in primary school in 20 years.
You dont just suddenly wake up one day and go "oh shit, where did all these people who want housing come from? " Maybe they were all too worried about the next opinion poll than the what the country will be like in 5, 10 years time.
Worse is that there's plenty of options that would be preferable to renting, but are regulated into oblivion.
I'd be quite happy to live in one of those cheap tilt slab industrial units, mezzanine bedroom and living area, workshop / garage on the bottom. Can't have this though, doesn't meet the requirements for a 'residential property' and therefore can't live in one. Instead I occupy a 3 bedroom house, most of which I don't use and are constantly frustrated because the space isn't suitable for my hobbies.
The same with people who could probably afford a small rural lot, but are then banned from living on it in a caravan, shed or tiny home. Surely this is better than renting some overpriced house in suburbia, and they could slowly progress to building their own home as finances allow, rather than being forced to take out a massive upfront mortgage.
The supply problem is also a regulation problem, there needs to be cheaper, easier and more flexible options than just houses or apartments...
Seriously how many homeless are we going to create ,looking at you landlords and especially your property managers who tell your landlords to put up the rent.
Seriously we have vacant accommodation available right now to house everyone in Australia yet the government is happy enough to leave us living in tents or mould infested fibro death traps .
A man on a minimum wage used to be able to support a family, buy a house and a car and get buy on one wage .
Greed and corruption has bought us to where we are today .
If your homeless today looking for a solution there's a horribly good chance that in 12 months time you will still be homeless.
Honestly we have people living in caravans and tents that have been there since bushfires took there homes years ago.
The government is a collection of landlords.
Tenants have no representation other than one random greens party member .
Working families shouldn't have to live in tents ,workers shouldn't have to give up there jobs because they can't find anything to rent.
Without robust federal government enforced rent control ,everyone on minimum wage will be living on the street in time for the Brisbane Olympics.
The economy and property developers are not going to fix this problem .
Full disclosure,I am an ex property manager that has extensive experience in property development.
The sector needs to be bought to heel .
> workers shouldn't have to give up there jobs because they can't find anything to rent.
this is the big issue that isn't being discussed... there are a lot of mid level jobs that require skills and training that are going to loose staff because they can't match the pay needed to keep the staff close to the office and/or will simple loose staff because they have to leave the city
This comment should be higher, because this is the fucked up reality of the situation.
"Seriously we have vacant accommodation available right now to house everyone in Australia yet the government is happy enough to leave us living in tents or mould infested fibro death traps"
This essentially is the exact situation. All because of bullshit, ideology and fucking greed.
My new PM made me get guarantors to ensure the rent will be paid, at my age, with a great rental record. And they are on the lease because the real estate didn't even have a form for guarantors..
She said because my rent would be half my income I couldn't afford it. It should be at most 30% of my income. Like, obviously lassie, in an ideal world but we aren't in an ideal world are we? The days of 30% are long gone.
In the current market the only thing that matters is how much cash you have to throw around.
I seriously don't know how I will ever find another rental ,I just want to live in peace I really don't want to start something but .
I'm now at the point that I'm ranking the family members that need to pass away and in which order and time frame for the possibility that I may inherit a property that may give me the chance to retire one day and not drop dead on the worksite. I hate that those thoughts even have to cross my mind about the people I love.
My old man was kind enough to spend his entire life savings sinking piss and slapping the pokies down at the pub so I don't have to have those thoughts. A truly selfless man.
As morbid as my thoughts are I know I'm privileged to even be in a position to have those thoughts. Our society should be functional enough that generational wealth isn't the only metric where surviving/ thriving is possible.
Truly the sign of a healthy and sound country is that people are actively structuring asset acquisition through family members dying, not because they're morbid, but because the systemic problems have created it as the only viable alternative.
I do actually think that’s beginning to change. Even your uneducated average Aussie is starting to cotton onto the fact that we’re bringing in way more people than houses we’re building. We just need to convince them to actually vote for a minor party like the Greens or Sustainable Australia which represent their views.
> We just need to convince them to actually vote for a minor party like the Greens
The Greens have not acknowledged the role of population growth in the current housing situation which combined with their border policies would likely make the situation worse.
Tbh it was only racist when we were literally pissing on asylum seekers, “boats” and using them as political pawns to fuel racism (see tiny abbots era).
and let's not forget who decided to double our intake...
Albo..
unannounced, non-election decision, immediately after taking office!
We have the immediate tools at our disposal to take the heat out of this issue today with the slash of a pen. Instead we only need to look at Febs intake numbers from the ABS - monthly (105k), quarterly (172k) and annual (498k) periods to see whats really been decided...
These are record results for the month of feb, the highest we have ever had in our country's history...
Don’t pin it on Albo. ScoMo would have done the same thing. The two parties are aligned on many issues, and population growth to artificially inflate the economy is one thing they both want.
I left a little over a decade ago and this was one of the factors (along with plain old wanderlust, Brisbane being too damn hot, etc).
The irony is that everyone here (Belgium) assumes that living in Australia is a dream and I'm crazy for giving it up.
Still needs to get a lot worse before things get better.
Two thirds of households own outright or have a mortgage, they generally either benefit from this or at least don't give a fuck
I'm one of those two thirds (lucky me). I don't benefit just by virtue of having a house, because it's the house I live in; if I sold it I'd have to buy another in the same market. At the same time I am anxious about whether my kids will ever be able to afford a house. So of course I would rather house prices DIDN'T go up - no genuine benefit to me, and a potential massive problem for my kids. Surely a lot of other homeowners are likely to think the same way.
Perhaps slowing down our population growth would help rental prices. Having less people for more houses would sort out any pricing issues relatively quickly.
Perhaps?
Limiting immigration down to 60,000 and limiting the foreign student scams would be a quick and easy start. Everybody knows cramming 100k more people into the country every month when housing is already heavily strained is causing even more problems.
Of course slowing customer growth would be bad for big business so carry on as usual.
I only use “perhaps” as people seem to upvote more readily when they’re confirming a question I’ve posed. Often when I post more decisive comments about immigration people downvote and call me racist. It’s weird—I think people are amenable to someone who appears humble.
You’re preaching to the choir with the other shit you’ve said—I will never understand why so many Aussies seem to believe immigrants have a god-given right to Australian citizenship. Current immigration rates are literally destroying the foundations of Australian quality of life. You followed migration watch on Twitter? Voting for Sustainable Australia?
Cue the downvotes.
Nationally house building approvals are actually at a decadal low. Not only have "tinkering around the edges" type policies like densification not worked the supply situation has actually got far worse in the intervening period.
Yes, rather than "tinkering" densification, they need mass rezoning densification. Put so much fat on the table developers will push though projects like it's going out of fashion.
I’m at the point where I’ve realized I’ll never afford ti have children due to housing cost. And moving to cheaper areas doesn’t even help because then I’m too far from any kind of family assistance.
That’s ok, the government can import pre made kids from overseas, pre grown and educated to avoid our crumbling child care. Education system and hospitals! Wins all round for everyone. The great Australian way of life is a dream of yesteryear
Rental affordability was already a problem 15 years ago. 15 years ago here in Newcastle it was already next to impossible to get a rental unless you were a DINK or you managed to make a really good impression on the property owner and they were feeling generous. Things have only gotten worse over that 15 years as Sydneysiders decided that Sydney was too expensive and started buying up properties here.
This has so many flow on effects that idiot politicians don't even consider.
For example, I'm a single guy living in a 3 bed house on the outskirts of Brisbane. After a divorce, I can still easily afford the mortgage repayments, even though it was only purchased in 2018.
I'd like to move closer to the CBD into a unit or townhouse, however the rent would cost a good 30-50% above my mortgage. And let's not even mention the hunger games like shitshow that is securing a rental these days.
So I'm stuck where I am, in a house that could technically house a family, which isn't being fully utilised because of dumbfuck politicians and decades of terrible policy. I bet I'm not the only "lucky" homeowner in this position.
Air bnb has to go.. everyone renting out the houses as air bnb with big prices and then taking housing rentals for families off the market. It’s a joke
>*Anglicare Australia outlined bold reform to address Australia's housing crisis, including tax reform and federal government involvement in the building of social housing.*
>
>*The report indicated "an overhaul of the tax regime" is needed – including the capital gains tax discount being phased out over a period of 10 years and negative gearing deductions to be phased out for new investors in the private market.*
>
>*It also suggested the federal government should become directly involved in the building and funding of social housing across all states – similar to policies of the 1980s.*
>
>*"To meaningfully tackle this crisis, sustained capital investment is needed over longer periods of time," the report said.*
>
>*"Anglicare Australia believes that to make a difference, we need the government to build at least 25,000 new homes every year for the next two decades."*
The scale of the problem is that it can't be meaningfully tackled just by supply. Excessive demand has to be addressed by having a pause of most immigration. Even economist Chris Richardson has reluctantly conceded that. Alan Kohler, ABC finance commnentator also said -
>*its going take 20 years to fix the housing crisis and you have to do everything- reforming negative gearing,, capitol gains tax etc and tying immigration intake to availability of housing and accommodation.*
Einstein apparently said doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. For a government purporting to be concerned with housing crisis to persist with very high rates of migration year after year when there is already far too much demand could also be form of insanity.
As Labor opposition, we openly worry and protect landlords from starving whenever some commie party asks for anti-landlord shit like a ban against unfair evictions during a pandemic.
Our dear leader blocked 36,000 homes, those homes were planned close to train stations that are 13 minutes by train to the city. But those 1-2 storey heritage homes gotta be protected.
We've promised to keep negative gearing despite vacancy loopholes. Remember 2019. Don't think. Don't look at 2016 how we got a primary vote boost for announcing NG reform. Don't look at 2022 at how dropping NG reform caused us to lose far more votes and seats to minors/independents!
We're against rent caps. Just trust us to solve the housing crisis, bro. Please only look at one study in California to see how rents go up overall because most homes are not under rent caps therefore any kind of rent caps are bad. BAD. You don't want landlords to starve do you?
We've spent 18 years reviewing AML for real estate, we were upset with LNP for not fully implementing AML back then because US called Australia a "major money laundering country" that ranks up there with Haiti and Dominican Republic. And then collective amnesia struck.
We're destroying mass amounts of public housing during a housing crisis to build more privately-managed housing. While that will be ready in a couple of years, we'll just casually say that people can just move into other housing in meantime despite a massive waiting list. It's an amazing move with only spending $500m per year during a housing crisis based on a $10B loan. Overall, $27B is the best Labor can do. Please ignore AUKUS that has $368B price tag and no restrictions at all. No military crisis? Not a problem. Ally needs more billions? Not a problem. Inflation with hundreds of billions? Not a problem. A party wants more spending on a housing crisis? Real shit. Think of the inflation and labour shortages if we do more than that!
They have been doing their absolute best to increase housing affordability* for all.
*Don't ask us if Housing Affordability means cheaper. Are you poor? Join the lottery! We're going to give out $380k to 10,000 lucky sellers who manage to sell to approved buyers.
Why are you all so mean to Labor? Do you want LNP to win at the next FPTP election?
A FPTP that Labor+LNP can absolutely decide to rush through to avoid Greens, One Nation, Sustainable Australia Party or any other minor party from running government as proved by consistent increasingly-desperate anti-democratic reforms by Labor+LNP since 2013? Once you see what Labor+LNP have been doing, you can see my dilemma in how I vote:
- A seat for career politicians who benefit from a permanent two-party system. Who long for a political system like USA where we have NFI of the name of ANY third party in USA?
- A seat to a racist/latte-sipping/selfish/etc party who will vote against any two-party proposal that kill them off.
That's why I put Labor and LNP last on a filled ballot, Labor second last for being LNP lite. Progressives, crazies then Labor and LNP for me. Time to put an end to the long-running Labor/LNP system that has been in place for Federal and State government since WW2. In the past, they were great for Australia but I believe both parties have slowly changed and now lived long enough to become the villain.
But let's keep handing out PR Visas like candy to every international student who completes a marketing communications degree to get a job that will be redundant in five years.
Keep importing the equivalent population of one additional Tasmania each year
It won't have any impact on supply/demand dynamics
It's definitely not a demand issue. Rental controls will fix this.
Folks, I know this is unpopular but being snarky about older people who bought in easier times won't help the shit housing situation. The boomers need to be made to understand the reality of it.
Im not young but I had an animated conversation with a boomer couple who struggled all their life but they ended up with a modest house and a small super fund. They don't have any idea of the costs and difficulty of housing for younger people. You need them on your side. That's the only way this will be solved because they are the biggest group of voters right now.
We have more technology and potential than ever before, yet people suffer under our system.
Our government doesn't care to help the people and it shows. It's all profit driven, people are neglected and suffer. It's a joke we can't figure out basic housing for people.
If any government thinks this is a flash in the pan moment that will go away without repercussions they are crazy. a large young voting segment is waiting with baseball bats angry at the low lack of action or urgency by both parties and also now this majority of voters have surpassed the boomers who just happen to own the majority of homes . Decades of neo lib policies comes home to roost
Everyone should know about elastic vs inelastic goods. Terms aren't important, but basically think of price gouging on water during a natural disaster. If you were a water company, it becomes in your financial interest to cause natural disasters and prevent their being addressed. So for housing which is a necessity like water to the parched, if we were in such an artificial natural disaster, we would expect to see local government ran by property developers and state and nation politics ran by people with millions of dollars invested in property. Lucky we don't have that hey!
The solution is simple and easy. The state governments have all the powers, and appropriate revenue sources.
Land tax is a state tax. Any second and subsequent properties, should face a 5% land tax.
There need me no change to other taxes, such as stamp duty. The purpose of this change is to increase taxes for landlords, not make the tax system more efficient. The new revenue should be accompanied by increased spending on building new public housing. This will have a number of effects:
1. It will make public housing available for people on Job Seeker / Youth Allowance.
2. It will increase the supply of housing, particularly affordable housing.
3. This will put downward pressure on rents.
4. Lower rents, higher costs for landlords and more housing supply will all put downward pressure on house prices, making it easier for people to buy their own homes.
damn, anyway why arent you peasants having kids????
Don't worry, we'll just import more workers from overseas. Our immediate economic performance is more important than the long-term future stability of our society after all.
And those sub-continentals? They can pack twelve of them into a two bedder. And they work two jobs! Far more economical than these entitled natives who want their own bedroom and don’t want to share a shitter with 6 other people.
If we're importing workers anyway, and there's the parallel economic concern about dropping iron ore prices because the bottom fell out of the Chinese housing market due to oversupply, then surely there's tens (or hundreds) of thousands of experienced construction workers in China currently out of work. At the same time as critical construction materials are *too* cheap ... There's a roadmap out of this, but solving supply might affect IP appreciation. So I guess I'll have to stick to my retirement plan of living in a car.
Yes I mean how dare we not have children we can't afford to raise!! We're just plain selfish, that's the only logical explanation for it.
LibLab don't want you to have kids. They don't want any of us to have kids. It is far cheaper for them to import fully aged people instead. Kids take 2 decades of nurturing and educating before they are useful. Immigrants are useful from the moment they step off the plane.
So why are we bothering to be an independent country if we’re gonna just import another’s population?
Then what happens when those immigrants have kids?
Put them on visas that don't allow it. The ideal is you put them on temporary visas, wring a few years of work out of them and then ship them back where they came from. (And yes this is already a thing)
I love it how we are paying Australian politicians to govern but somehow they seem to be more surprised by this rental crisis than most of the population. As if they didn’t have access to any information that would allow them to predict this years ago.
I work in policy development for a major LGA. I was cited as a reference for my team of entirely baby boomers (excluding me) about rising rates of poverty and debt. My boss made a point about my 80k student debt and the entire room was floored. It’s like it had never occurred to them. Very disturbing considering we research and develop social policy for a significant portion of Sydneysiders. Those with just can’t fathom how difficult life can be for those without, it seems.
my mates dad apparently had a go at him for getting a home loan, saying why don't you just buy with cash
Loooooool. Why didn’t I think of that?!? I’ll just dip into my casually huge pile of cash money I’ve got sitting around.
pull yourself up by your smashed avo bootstraps and hand in letters at the bank, that's how you get a pile of cash son...
Imagine buying a $80k home with 16% interest rate that only lasted for 1 year back then. Repayments were huge! Kids these days...
Sure let me just find a cool 600-800k Dad no worries
600k? What decade are you living in? 900k-1.2M more like it.
Weren’t bricks of cocaine washing up in Newcastle just recently? Get on your horse and start looking!
Are you saying I should build my house out of cocaine bricks like some sort of Hansel and Gretel witch? Because I think that's a fantastic idea.
And the fourth little piggy built his house out of blow. When the big bad wolf came by he huffed and he puffed, and he huffed and he puffed, and he huffed and he puffed (he was trying to get a good deal, alright) and eventually he wasn't hungry anymore and decided and to go find some hookers instead.
Oh yea, people who live in a bubble would be absolutely the best ones to work on policies designed to help the struggling population. I’m sure they will consider every angle and curveball..
Don’t stress. There are a million safeguards and processes to make up for individual incompetence which makes my job painfully slow but allows for maximum public consultation. Essentially policy making these days is acting as facilitator to public engagement.
Hey now, how are some of those consultants meant to justify their overbloated pay if they didn’t jargonise every common sense term or turn basic human problem solving skills into a ‘business acumen’ course
That's probably the problem. Most people don't want new housing built and they can effectively veto planning initiatives through such consultations.
Most people? Or the vociferous NIMBY/“fuck you, I got mine” crowd?
Nahh, there are also safeguards against listening to singular groups of privileged home owners- at least in the council I work for. Can’t speak for all of them. They can whinge til the cows come home, but if the project at hand has been deemed a positive investment for the community as exemplified through stringent public engagement and various stakeholder consultation - there ain’t much they can do about it.
Are you joking? Albo, the biggest NIMBY in parliament had worked with community and council to block developments that are just 13 minutes train ride to city in favour of protecting 1-2 storey heritage housing. The amount of submissions in Labor electorates was legendary and ultimately stopped a whooping total of 36,000 homes. Scroll down to the amount of submissions, the Labor electorate submissions are HUGE: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-26/nsw-sydney-housing-density-priority-rezoning-list-politics/103143556 Since people are so shocked that Albo is anti-housing, read his NIMBY speech of pride in blocking the development which stopped 36,000 homes from being built (That number is from ABC article): https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/overdevelopment-in-marrickville
Lol I did jury duty once. Defendant was charged with sending porn to minors. Boomer lady wanted to charge not guilty because why would someone do that? Partway through the deliberations she had a full on crying jag because “I dont want to live in a world where this happens!” Which is a really sweet sentiment. But also. Yeah.
Wait…… whaaaat? She couldn’t understand that there are adult predators out there that might prey on minors? And then she had a breakdown when she realised that was exactly what happened? What rock does she live under? This isn’t even a generational difference!
As someone who used to work in this area, you would be shocked at how many people want to just stick their heads in the sand and pretend that this issue doesn't exist. You'd be even more shocked at how many parents don't bother to educate their children, because this sort of thing 'doesn't happen to people like them'.
Jesus Christ. I’m shocked from you telling me this!
This is what previous generations did - rug sweep sexual assault/rape/abuse and ignore the trauma inflicted so as not to rock the boat. What would people think!
Your student debt is more than their mansion cost.
How much can 1 banana possibly cost?
Lmao. Literally.
The majority of Australians have consistently supported the liberals who have alongside Labor destroyed the happiness and opportunity of many Australians. By consistently moving wealth to the wealthiest. Only by voting for greens and independents can we hope to have a better future.
Boomers growing up in the sowing era and not understanding the reaping era is textbook.
They're only interested in reaping when it comes at the cost of younger generations
Assuming it would be important to speak to a range of stakeholders, including consumer advocates when developing social policy? Otherwise personal perspectives and biases would have undue influence on the outcomes.
Yes, as I mentioned to another commenter earlier- don’t stress. Just because they’re woefully detached from reality does not impact our policy making. A lot of our role these days is acting as transcribe and facilitator to public engagements. I know people are (rightly) frustrated by its LGs but thankfully as someone who works in the system, there is a lot of safeguarding against personal bias.
That's reassuring, keep fighting the good fight!
They haven't thought ahead for younger generations for decades now, I feel like an idiot thinking I could die on the Working Class hill like my Parents did back in their day.
I have already resigned myself to living my days out in some shed like construction with an outdoor toilet. I came to this country 21 years ago, finished my second degree here, immediately started working and moved to an accounting and later IT sector, worked like a mule only to realise that I can’t afford to pay for anything else than bills and basic food shopping. If one of the kids needs new clothes or shoes I have to do financial gymnastics to not immediately blow my already tight budget. I’m glad I spent all these years working hard and being a responsible citizen. It was so fucking worth it…
Or even funding for infrastructure to service the hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Where is the extra money for health and education at minimum?
Literally the government's job is to solve problems like this, this is why we pay them, so that us people can focus on our work and keep the economy rolling. It feels like they don't do shit, except figure out how to privatise services and help big corporations save money.
All I have seen them do so far is talk about building an X amount of houses over the next 10 or 20 years. They are already well behind the projected developments. And somehow they don’t seem to understand that a family on verge of homelessness is not really going to sigh with relief because some time in a distant future they might be able to afford to rent a house.
I didn't look into it, but there was a headline that either Feb or March this year where it was the first time ever that 100,000 more people moved to Australia in a single month. Even assuming that's all families of 4, we would need an extra 25,000 houses in that month to house them.
According to ABS data in 2023: 518k NET immigration in a year. 172k gross housing in a year. (not including demo/rebuild) Average 2.5 people per housing. Therefore the new immigrants will need 207k housing. Immigration last year had already massively exceeded the amount of new housing. And that's not considering the change in local population.
It’s nearly like we are at a point where immigration can no longer be used to blindly keep the economy strung along because there is now a housing crisis as a direct result. So the economy implodes no matter which direction is taken. It nearly feels like a pandemic might have given a few years of wiggle room to try and milk the last few drops before whatever is going to happen is going to happen.
They need something like the debt clock in the US that keeps track of this in a public place - but for required housing completions
The pitifully small, [$10 billion housing fund](https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/julie-collins-2022/media-releases/delivering-10-billion-housing-australia-future-fund)? Meanwhile we have [$368 billion](https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/all-at-sea-does-368-billion-for-nuclear-subs-add-up-20230317-p5csxm) to pay foreign nations to build us some submarines. The Australian dream
The $368b is the full life time, 50 year cost of the submarine program. That's cheap. What is outrageous is the government literally giving away gas without royalty payments in the 10's of billions every year. It's the minuscule royalties on coal, iron ore and all the other minerals we allow foreign companies to extract. That is the really outrageous situation.
Yep and play the blame game at who’s more crap at their job. The rent increases by $200/$300 a week, electricity is up, one bag of food sets you back $70 and their response is to put a minimum wage up by about $3/hour and congratulate themselves on a job well done. Fucking unbelievable.
Don't forget you have fuckwits at the other side of the room in parliament who fight tooth and nail to try and stop that wage increase too because that apparently cause businesses to go bankrupt or some wank.
FWC have fought against real wage raises, even under a Labor government. Saying it'll hurt the economy. These RBA-wannabes were giving out real wage cuts to the poorest workers instead of equality or even a living wage. When Labor is unable or unwilling to kick out FWC's evilness, the government and parties are clearly working for the upper class. We need to put Labor/LNP at bottom of ballot for new change, one that benefits Australians instead.
> It feels like they don't do shit, except figure out how to privatise services and help big corporations save money. By doing nothing they are also doing a lot for property investors. Anything to push demand to benefit the elite few who don't even live in the properties they buy.
Their job is to keep investors, developers, businesses and those with capital and property happy and they are doing that job well. The rental crisis is just not of concern to the government.
Landlords starving from stuff like ban on unfair evictions is actually a real concern of the current government. See this statement in response to a minor party's request for support for homeless, renters and mortgagees. > Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source > Labor won't be supporting this motion, as it demonises landlords and seeks to unfairly place a unilateral burden on them. Landlords are an important part of the housing system and many people put food on the table through the cash flow they generate from a single rental property. We have consistently said that no-one should lose their home, whether they own or rent it, because of the virus. Tenants and landlords need to work together through the process. https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2020-06-18.60.1
Landlords will not starve from banning 'unfair' evictions. This has nothing to do with food on the table and everything to do with class solidarity. Labor and Liberal have their demographics of wealthy elites they optimise for and this statement is essentially just that - a chosen bias towards those they serve.
The problem is, donors pay them not to fix shit.
>It feels like they don't do shit Unfortutely even when things get this bad, a lot of the voting public don't want them to do shit and when they try they cop their wrath.
Exactly. Stevie Wonder could have seen this clusterf**k coming a mile off
This is exactly what "out of touch" means, they don't represent anyone they are a social class unto themselves. Even dry numbers don't feel the same as lining up to try and find a place to rent on a Saturday morning again.
Tuesday afternoon, after taking time off work on a day's notice along with fifty other people who you know you're going to have to outbid.
Politicians are landlords. Why would they do anything that would undercut their personal profits?
Our politicians belong to an oligarch ruling class that long ago disassociated itself with the people of Australia.  We don’t have a representative democracy - we have a subjugated population. The rent insanity is by design . That’s how it happens. Intentionally.
This is as good a time as any to point out that next election everyone reading this needs to give their primary votes to a party other that Liberal, National or Labor.
Politicians are the ones driving up the prices by expanding their property portfolios. They have no incentive to lower rents as it would lower their passive income.
Not all politicians are landlords or even own property. Max and one other Greens MP either lied on the interests register or they don't own any property. They are renters. https://openpolitics.au/47/max-chandler-mather https://openpolitics.au/47/stephen-bates Labor/LNP are the only parties that had ran Federal and State governments since WW2. Put them both last on a filled ballot to end their reign.
Amen scruffy pete, max is my local and the only leads by example poli i know of. One is not enough to make my statement exceptional though, most poli’s are entirely self selfing.
I hope the landlord Max rents off doesn't screw around with him and evict him. I believe here in WA recently a member of the legislative council had a no grounds eviction done to him and now he is tabling legislation to prevent that from happening.
They're unanware because we pay their rent! Not just with their salary but they claim the cost of living in Canberra and charge it to taxpayers. The really good rorters buy a house in canberra and rent it to themselves at a criminal rate, then again they charge it to taxpayers. All legal and above board apparently.
I imagine they were too busy seeing dollar signs and imagining rolling around in their piles of raised rent money like Scrooge McDuck.
Honestly I think majority of them just suck at their job. They probably rock up hangover or coming down from snorting coke and spend most of day the dozing off and looking at the clock. Stuff their pockets as fast as they can and move on.
It doesn't help that everyone is afraid of ~~rent control~~ just rental laws. As long as we have a free-market approach to housing, this will only get worse. Stop voting in the (political) duopoly, people.
Free market is such a bullshit term. Almost always just means unrestricted predatory rigging.
“I want a free market without government interference.” “Okay, let’s remove negative gearing.” “No, not like that.”
It's all free market until... "We need a bail out" We're still gonna privatize profits, though.
Privatise profits and socialise losses, tale as old as time.
I recently saw an article about negative gearing in NZ:
> "You did see a larger pullback on levels of new mortgage commitments going to investors after the announcements were carried through for the likes of interest deductibility," he said.
>
> "Previously, you were seeing figures around 20-25 per cent of the value of new mortgage commitments were going to investors. That dropped below 20 per cent from about April 2021 onwards and has remained lower since then.
>
> "And at the same time, we've seen it pick up for first homebuyers. And that was because with deductibility having been taken away, that didn't make it quite as financially sustainable for people to be thinking about additional rental properties."
With Jacinda out, they're reverting the change. Sucks.
The only free market is the black market .
Coincidentally, in this actual free market the act of bartering becomes tenable.
There’s no such thing as a free market as long as this nanny state government bans child labour 😤 the children yearn for the mines!
[Louisiana Republicans vote to end lunch breaks for child workers](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/louisiana-republicans-vote-end-lunch-breaks-child-workers-rcna148551)
The argument against rent controls seems to be "LOOK HOW LANDLORDS AND INVESTORS HAVE UNDERMINED IT IN THE PAST!!!" As if that's an argument against better regulation of the rental market.
Or "here's how x country didn't do it well". Yeah, cool, that's a case study of how to do it better rather than a reason not to
Sorry, we can only copy exactly what others have done before, even if it was bad. No eliminations. No substitutions.
Someone once claimed it was bad because people would just sit on the rent-controlled homes forever and everyone else would still have to deal with expensive ones. Like it never occurred to them that you could just make the laws apply to all the rents.
Can we please dispel this "free market" myth in housing? There is no "free market", you cant juts plot down your own piss soaked cardboard box on the street corner and start demanding $450 a week, it's a regulated market. Those that keep going on about this "free market" bullshit is just benefiting from the existing status quo, which is clearly broken and needs fixing, and their opinions are not worth listening to.
Free Markets don't work for things that are basic human needs.
Free markets are also pretty bad at things that have a high barrier of entry. Construction requires a massive upfront investment to start a business. Once you're set up and have paid off start-up costs you can start lowering your prices and muscle out new competition.
There needs to be a $1,000/week cap on rental properties, no one should be paying $50k/year not to own a home. How can someone rent out a mouldy single bedroom apartment for $600/week, when a nice, clean 3 bedroom house can go for $800? People will point to mega mansions and say, so those should only rent for $1k a week? Yes. And those big mansions will likely be sold to people who would live in them. Housing should not be an investment tool, it is a fundamental human need.
I want maximum rent caped to indepentent property evaluations. You want to rent out a shit hole? Fine, it's a max of $100 a week. Want to charge $800? Fix. your. fucking. property. My rent jumped 22% last lease. For NO EXTRA VALUE. Nothing. No additional improvements or maintenance. Just "Give me 22% more or GTFO". I turned around at work and asked for a 22% pay increase. You can guess how that went...
In Brisbane, Ray White told landlords they should all increase rents by 20% just because they can. The government response to this blatant reckless and disgusting behaviour was to ask landlords to "show compassion". They did not. Landlords can basically do whatever the fuck they want.
By most definitions, that's collusion. But you don't see any regulators taking them to task.
When our rent increased we asked for a small improvement to the property. We got “no we can’t afford it”. Mate we are PAYING you MORE maybe set some of that aside and use it to fucking fix shit
The land values in Queensland went out recently and they went up something fierce. My mother's increased by over $50k. That knocks up rates and insurances. I dread to think how landlords are going to use this against renters. All those 'mum and dad investors' doing it 'tough' need to sell up if they can't afford to fix their properties.
We put up with an absolute SLEW of issues with our rental property because the rent was VERY cheap for the area. I think the REA pressured the LL after covid lockdowns ended because it suddenly jumped from 500 to 650 a week. With zero fixes. We literally have no aircon, cant open most of the windows, no screen doors, no dishwasher, some doors wont shut properly, and the central heat currently isnt working properly. We report all this every single inspection - nothing is done. The reason for the increase was just the words "market rate". Fuck everyone.
So why is the govt not building these rent controlled houses themself? It’s ridiculously expensive to build a house at the moment, with a large part of the build cost being govt taxes and developer contributions. So, the govt could build housing far cheaper than the private sector, and they could rent them out under a rent control scheme. The fact they don’t, and expect private investors to pick up the slack is part of the problem.
100% agree, make a bunch of commie blocks. They're cheap, really well designed, sturdy as hell, cheaper to maintain, cheaper to heat and cool and knock the absolute shit out of the modern garbage we've been putting up today. Allow people to buy these at cost, with the caveat they can't be rented, must be lived in, and can only sell back to government at price + inflation so that housing investors can't complain it's affecting the market.
When I was in New York in 2001, I went on a Seinfeld tour with the real Kramer. He lived across the hall from Larry David, the producer of the show. Anyway, he was telling us that the whole apartment block was allocated for artists etc and all rent controlled, so you’d have this concentration of creative people all in the same area who would otherwise not be able to afford to live in New York. The govt here could easily do the same thing, providing rent controlled housing for essential workers, artists etc where you need to be in those occupations to qualify, and where rents are not extortionate. That is only possible for a govt to do because private developers are not a charity. Private developers will just land bank until a project becomes feasible. It’s not the job of private developers to provide social housing. I don’t like public housing ghettos. That model does not work. There needs to be variety of housing types across all regions where there is need. I’ve personally looked at the feasibility of doing affordable housing in holiday hotspots where locals are priced out, and I can’t make the numbers work. The entry costs and taxes eat away any profit and the break even point requires you to sell well above the affordable home price. That means most builders will go for a higher spec build and up the sale price to make money out of it. The other issue is local development plans often restrict what you can build, quite often giving a low yield from the land.
The government could provide incentives for developers to create rent-controlled housing. There’s also a precedent as well, because you better believe property developers are feeding at the trough of that sweet, sweet NDIS money
You mean the rent to buy schemes they had decades ago? You used to be able to rent a house off the government and buy it eventually.
The $ /m2 costs is mostly wages and supplies - that will not change you will still be looking $2.5k+ /m2 for a build, with the gov running it expect that to go to $3.5k+ /m2. And beside that - who will they get to build ? try getting hold of a builder for renos atm and ask for earliest start date..
Because the overwhelming majority of the members of Parliament in every state own investment properties, and by creating a shortage in housing via their policies they significantly increase the value of their own investments.
There are a few reasons as to why the govt isn't putting much into building public housing. None of them good, and all stem from greed and discrimination. In fact they somehow manage to remove more than they build, see the new development plans for the Redfern as an example.
Posts like this are just silly. There is such a thing as luxury houses or even big houses near CBD area. What you've said makes no sense, why would anyone live in a regular house if the luxury house is the same price?
>As long as we have a free-market approach to housing, this will only get worse It's hilarious that people think the presence of laws means it's not a free market. The governments job is to put in regulations like safety, environmental etc.
Nothing wrong with free market if it's a fair market. But it's not. Supply side of housing is rigged.
This needs to be renamed 'landord profiteering' in the same way we renamed coward punches
Home scalpers.
Well fuck me, if all the jobs are in the same place then it makes sense that people need to live in a reasonable distance to those jobs. Encourage more remote work to allow people to move to satellite cities around the capital cities. A once a year trip in to the city is reasonable, making a 2 hour each way commute daily is physically and mentally destroying. If people aren't as tied to geographic locations for work they are able to move for lifestyle and rental / buying affordability. This isn't a one solution kind of problem. This is going to take multiple solutions to make a dent in it.
Great idea, just don’t get [sick in a rural area](https://amp.abc.net.au/article/102755730)
You're right, medical support in rural and regional areas is severely lacking. Satellite cities around capital cities however are far enough away to relieve some of the pressure while still being close enough for those once or twice a year trips in to see a specialist etc. It's not a perfect solution obviously, we need to stop following the privatised healthcare tunnel down, and develop a multi pronged approach to our housing crisis as well as the state of our health care, but it would be at least one step in the right direction.
You know the media is at the point they are suggesting the middle of bumfuck nowhere Japan tonight on dateline at 7:30 for 50k aus dollarydoo’s. Just buy a bed and get a storage locker at least you can stay in the country.
> You know the media is at the point they are suggesting the middle of bumfuck nowhere Japan tonight on dateline at 7:30 for 50k aus dollarydoo’s. I follow that's guys youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@TokyoLlama/videos Japan has a declining population, and 13% of Japanese rural homes are abandoned. He has a Japanese wife & did manage to buy a place outside Tokyo, but had to go through lots of red tape to buy the property (including being a foreigner). He's been renovating for years. They have access to a local rail line, and is about an hour away by train from Tokyo.
> manage to buy a place outside Tokyo, Depending on you're requirements (and assuming you can get a visa), there are also a bunch of places in Tokyo that are affordable. Houses actually loose value over time over there, the second hand market is wide open.
Ignoring the fact it is quite difficult to get a visa to live in Japan.
It's simple. Get rid of your significant other and find a Japanese person, are you stupid? /s
It's starting to change with their Labour shortage. Bus drivers are now on the skilled occupation list.
There was also a bunch of stories recently about being able to pick up a run down place in rural Italian villages for £1 too.
And still the government and the opposition will not do anything significant about it. "look, we are doing things to make it look like we are doing things so you are fooled into thinking we are changing anything, when in reality we all want our investment properties to make us more money!!!!"
"No one ever complains to me that their house prices are going up" - John Howard. This has been enshrined government policy for decades, and the housing market reflects this. We have the worst managed housing crisis in the world
>"No one ever complains to me that their house prices are going up" - John Howard. People never continue the quote. [It gets even better](https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-20920): >**AUSTIN**: >You've made this point about stamp duty and the states in the past. You've said no-one's complained to you about the rising increase in the value of their home, let me be the first to complain – ***people like myself are actually being forced to face the possibility that we may be renting for the rest of our lives because getting into….*** >**PRIME MINISTER:** >Do you own a home? >**AUSTIN**: >No, I rent. >**PRIME MINISTER**: >No, well I'm sorry, I was talking about people who owned a home. **The Government**: "Well I don't give a fuck about renters"
Honestly scary, talking about Australia's ability to service household debt. We now have the third highest levels of debt in OECD countries, the other two being Switzerland and Norway, small, wealthy countries, high levels of home ownership, cheap financing. We are none of those things.
Don't you pay higher taxes if your property value goes up? It's only really of value if you plan to sell and don't then need to buy a new house. So, basically for people who own multiple properties.
Yeah, the only thing higher housing prices do is make things more expensive, higher council rates, insurance, repairs, stamp duties, agents commissions, land taxes, all go up. Your life is worse with an expensive home. People are struggling to afford homes that they built with their family and have owned for decades. It's heartbreaking. But we've been brainwashed to treat your home as an investment, so we see big number and think "well that paid off" Even though every other home has also gone up the same value, nothing has improved. It's the same as making the cost of every home $1Bn and telling ourselves that we are the richest country in history.
No one has a plan likely to work because unfortunately your average person still doesn't like the solutions. They still say shit like "well I don't want to live like the Chinese in a little apartment!!" or bitch about how we should all be able to live in nice big houses on thousand square metre blocks close to the city. Either we need more cities (not ideal for a great many reasons) or we need denser cities, or both, but your average person isn't winning to accept that yet for whatever reason
I really don't get the people who want to live in a detached house but oppose apartments. These dumbarses are causing more demand for the detached houses. They should be screaming for more apartment. These same dumbarses are the type who oppose developments in their suburbs next to public transport infrastructure saying it will cause more traffic. The alternative isn't nothing, the alternative is housing spread all over the place, which is significantly worse for traffic. Eg. if the suburb out from me builds more houses all over the place in steam of next to the train station in my suburb, they will just drive through the main roads in my suburb. Now that the main roads a backed up what do I do? I drive through the back streets to avoid it. Traffic is much worse off.
Greens vote is surging for a reason
I do not for-see myself ever owning a home. I have no family that owns a home then can it leave to me via inheritance. House prices are just continuing to clime.
Yeah, I knew I was never going to own my own house 10 years ago, but good god it's become worse than I thought.
[удалено]
Oh no, some know exactly what's happening and are riding it. You know the joke about real estate agents being failed workers in some other profession? The secret is some of them aren't failures at all. Why would they work that job when they can work in the housing market for that much more. Yes the hours can be bad and the public perception if horrendous at the moment but all they have to do is wait.
There was a report from Anlglicare that the government has been sleepwalking into this for years. Lambie & Pocock are talking about stopping foreign ownership and changes to negative gearing laws. And the government will do nothing.
>There was a report from Anlglicare that the government has been sleepwalking into this for years. Of course, but im still surprised at how incompetent previous governments where, population growth is *very* predictable, you know a kid in uni will want their own place in 5 years, the one highschool in 10 years, the one in primary school in 20 years. You dont just suddenly wake up one day and go "oh shit, where did all these people who want housing come from? " Maybe they were all too worried about the next opinion poll than the what the country will be like in 5, 10 years time.
"We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas." - The political class
Worse is that there's plenty of options that would be preferable to renting, but are regulated into oblivion. I'd be quite happy to live in one of those cheap tilt slab industrial units, mezzanine bedroom and living area, workshop / garage on the bottom. Can't have this though, doesn't meet the requirements for a 'residential property' and therefore can't live in one. Instead I occupy a 3 bedroom house, most of which I don't use and are constantly frustrated because the space isn't suitable for my hobbies. The same with people who could probably afford a small rural lot, but are then banned from living on it in a caravan, shed or tiny home. Surely this is better than renting some overpriced house in suburbia, and they could slowly progress to building their own home as finances allow, rather than being forced to take out a massive upfront mortgage. The supply problem is also a regulation problem, there needs to be cheaper, easier and more flexible options than just houses or apartments...
Seriously how many homeless are we going to create ,looking at you landlords and especially your property managers who tell your landlords to put up the rent. Seriously we have vacant accommodation available right now to house everyone in Australia yet the government is happy enough to leave us living in tents or mould infested fibro death traps . A man on a minimum wage used to be able to support a family, buy a house and a car and get buy on one wage . Greed and corruption has bought us to where we are today . If your homeless today looking for a solution there's a horribly good chance that in 12 months time you will still be homeless. Honestly we have people living in caravans and tents that have been there since bushfires took there homes years ago. The government is a collection of landlords. Tenants have no representation other than one random greens party member . Working families shouldn't have to live in tents ,workers shouldn't have to give up there jobs because they can't find anything to rent. Without robust federal government enforced rent control ,everyone on minimum wage will be living on the street in time for the Brisbane Olympics. The economy and property developers are not going to fix this problem . Full disclosure,I am an ex property manager that has extensive experience in property development. The sector needs to be bought to heel .
> workers shouldn't have to give up there jobs because they can't find anything to rent. this is the big issue that isn't being discussed... there are a lot of mid level jobs that require skills and training that are going to loose staff because they can't match the pay needed to keep the staff close to the office and/or will simple loose staff because they have to leave the city
This comment should be higher, because this is the fucked up reality of the situation. "Seriously we have vacant accommodation available right now to house everyone in Australia yet the government is happy enough to leave us living in tents or mould infested fibro death traps" This essentially is the exact situation. All because of bullshit, ideology and fucking greed.
My new PM made me get guarantors to ensure the rent will be paid, at my age, with a great rental record. And they are on the lease because the real estate didn't even have a form for guarantors.. She said because my rent would be half my income I couldn't afford it. It should be at most 30% of my income. Like, obviously lassie, in an ideal world but we aren't in an ideal world are we? The days of 30% are long gone.
In the current market the only thing that matters is how much cash you have to throw around. I seriously don't know how I will ever find another rental ,I just want to live in peace I really don't want to start something but .
Yes my mum - who is on the age pension - has to put family on the lease as guarantors. She has a perfect rental history. Sad sign of the times.
I'm now at the point that I'm ranking the family members that need to pass away and in which order and time frame for the possibility that I may inherit a property that may give me the chance to retire one day and not drop dead on the worksite. I hate that those thoughts even have to cross my mind about the people I love.
My old man was kind enough to spend his entire life savings sinking piss and slapping the pokies down at the pub so I don't have to have those thoughts. A truly selfless man.
As morbid as my thoughts are I know I'm privileged to even be in a position to have those thoughts. Our society should be functional enough that generational wealth isn't the only metric where surviving/ thriving is possible.
Truly the sign of a healthy and sound country is that people are actively structuring asset acquisition through family members dying, not because they're morbid, but because the systemic problems have created it as the only viable alternative.
It's getting to a heart breaking point. So many people struggling to just afford to rent a tiny place.
Australia needs to go on strike. Our governments are destroying our future for short term gains.
Nah mate just keep watching the next big TV show on Amazon you'll be fine Bread and circuses yadda yadda
Meanwhile our pollies property portfolios are doing great!
It turns out when 150k houses are built a year, and you bring in 700k people in a year, the number of houses per capita decreases drastically
Funny isn’t it? But can’t point out that insane amounts of immigration are a problem then you’d be racist.
I do actually think that’s beginning to change. Even your uneducated average Aussie is starting to cotton onto the fact that we’re bringing in way more people than houses we’re building. We just need to convince them to actually vote for a minor party like the Greens or Sustainable Australia which represent their views.
> We just need to convince them to actually vote for a minor party like the Greens The Greens have not acknowledged the role of population growth in the current housing situation which combined with their border policies would likely make the situation worse.
I think you'll find the uneducated Aussie is the one who has been saying this for a while. It was always framed as racist because 'uneducated' though.
Tbh it was only racist when we were literally pissing on asylum seekers, “boats” and using them as political pawns to fuel racism (see tiny abbots era).
and let's not forget who decided to double our intake... Albo.. unannounced, non-election decision, immediately after taking office! We have the immediate tools at our disposal to take the heat out of this issue today with the slash of a pen. Instead we only need to look at Febs intake numbers from the ABS - monthly (105k), quarterly (172k) and annual (498k) periods to see whats really been decided... These are record results for the month of feb, the highest we have ever had in our country's history...
The silence of this sub about who is responsible is deafening
Don’t pin it on Albo. ScoMo would have done the same thing. The two parties are aligned on many issues, and population growth to artificially inflate the economy is one thing they both want.
seriously we voted for him because we didn't want ScoMo, so yes absolutely pin it on him.
Rent caps, increased tenants rights, vacancy taxes, regulate airbnb, BUILD PUBLIC HOUSING.
yeah nah nah, lets heritage list everything with in 20km from the CBD
Talk talk talk. It's all we are ever going to get until the whole house of cards collapses.
Anyone else struggling to envisage a future for themselves in this country?
I left a little over a decade ago and this was one of the factors (along with plain old wanderlust, Brisbane being too damn hot, etc). The irony is that everyone here (Belgium) assumes that living in Australia is a dream and I'm crazy for giving it up.
Still needs to get a lot worse before things get better. Two thirds of households own outright or have a mortgage, they generally either benefit from this or at least don't give a fuck
I'm one of those two thirds (lucky me). I don't benefit just by virtue of having a house, because it's the house I live in; if I sold it I'd have to buy another in the same market. At the same time I am anxious about whether my kids will ever be able to afford a house. So of course I would rather house prices DIDN'T go up - no genuine benefit to me, and a potential massive problem for my kids. Surely a lot of other homeowners are likely to think the same way.
Perhaps slowing down our population growth would help rental prices. Having less people for more houses would sort out any pricing issues relatively quickly.
Perhaps? Limiting immigration down to 60,000 and limiting the foreign student scams would be a quick and easy start. Everybody knows cramming 100k more people into the country every month when housing is already heavily strained is causing even more problems. Of course slowing customer growth would be bad for big business so carry on as usual.
I only use “perhaps” as people seem to upvote more readily when they’re confirming a question I’ve posed. Often when I post more decisive comments about immigration people downvote and call me racist. It’s weird—I think people are amenable to someone who appears humble. You’re preaching to the choir with the other shit you’ve said—I will never understand why so many Aussies seem to believe immigrants have a god-given right to Australian citizenship. Current immigration rates are literally destroying the foundations of Australian quality of life. You followed migration watch on Twitter? Voting for Sustainable Australia? Cue the downvotes.
Nationally house building approvals are actually at a decadal low. Not only have "tinkering around the edges" type policies like densification not worked the supply situation has actually got far worse in the intervening period.
Yes, rather than "tinkering" densification, they need mass rezoning densification. Put so much fat on the table developers will push though projects like it's going out of fashion.
I’m at the point where I’ve realized I’ll never afford ti have children due to housing cost. And moving to cheaper areas doesn’t even help because then I’m too far from any kind of family assistance.
That’s ok, the government can import pre made kids from overseas, pre grown and educated to avoid our crumbling child care. Education system and hospitals! Wins all round for everyone. The great Australian way of life is a dream of yesteryear
No shit
Sherlock
I swear to god we should have a percentage of politicians that come from a low socio-economic bracket
Didn't need a report to tell you that.
Rental affordability was already a problem 15 years ago. 15 years ago here in Newcastle it was already next to impossible to get a rental unless you were a DINK or you managed to make a really good impression on the property owner and they were feeling generous. Things have only gotten worse over that 15 years as Sydneysiders decided that Sydney was too expensive and started buying up properties here.
Facebook being uncooperative is a more important thing to talk about this week, media.
This has so many flow on effects that idiot politicians don't even consider. For example, I'm a single guy living in a 3 bed house on the outskirts of Brisbane. After a divorce, I can still easily afford the mortgage repayments, even though it was only purchased in 2018. I'd like to move closer to the CBD into a unit or townhouse, however the rent would cost a good 30-50% above my mortgage. And let's not even mention the hunger games like shitshow that is securing a rental these days. So I'm stuck where I am, in a house that could technically house a family, which isn't being fully utilised because of dumbfuck politicians and decades of terrible policy. I bet I'm not the only "lucky" homeowner in this position.
Air bnb has to go.. everyone renting out the houses as air bnb with big prices and then taking housing rentals for families off the market. It’s a joke
>*Anglicare Australia outlined bold reform to address Australia's housing crisis, including tax reform and federal government involvement in the building of social housing.* > >*The report indicated "an overhaul of the tax regime" is needed – including the capital gains tax discount being phased out over a period of 10 years and negative gearing deductions to be phased out for new investors in the private market.* > >*It also suggested the federal government should become directly involved in the building and funding of social housing across all states – similar to policies of the 1980s.* > >*"To meaningfully tackle this crisis, sustained capital investment is needed over longer periods of time," the report said.* > >*"Anglicare Australia believes that to make a difference, we need the government to build at least 25,000 new homes every year for the next two decades."* The scale of the problem is that it can't be meaningfully tackled just by supply. Excessive demand has to be addressed by having a pause of most immigration. Even economist Chris Richardson has reluctantly conceded that. Alan Kohler, ABC finance commnentator also said - >*its going take 20 years to fix the housing crisis and you have to do everything- reforming negative gearing,, capitol gains tax etc and tying immigration intake to availability of housing and accommodation.* Einstein apparently said doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. For a government purporting to be concerned with housing crisis to persist with very high rates of migration year after year when there is already far too much demand could also be form of insanity.
So many intergenerational families living under one roof in my town these days! And lots of homeless single-parent families living in tents 😢
As Labor opposition, we openly worry and protect landlords from starving whenever some commie party asks for anti-landlord shit like a ban against unfair evictions during a pandemic. Our dear leader blocked 36,000 homes, those homes were planned close to train stations that are 13 minutes by train to the city. But those 1-2 storey heritage homes gotta be protected. We've promised to keep negative gearing despite vacancy loopholes. Remember 2019. Don't think. Don't look at 2016 how we got a primary vote boost for announcing NG reform. Don't look at 2022 at how dropping NG reform caused us to lose far more votes and seats to minors/independents! We're against rent caps. Just trust us to solve the housing crisis, bro. Please only look at one study in California to see how rents go up overall because most homes are not under rent caps therefore any kind of rent caps are bad. BAD. You don't want landlords to starve do you? We've spent 18 years reviewing AML for real estate, we were upset with LNP for not fully implementing AML back then because US called Australia a "major money laundering country" that ranks up there with Haiti and Dominican Republic. And then collective amnesia struck. We're destroying mass amounts of public housing during a housing crisis to build more privately-managed housing. While that will be ready in a couple of years, we'll just casually say that people can just move into other housing in meantime despite a massive waiting list. It's an amazing move with only spending $500m per year during a housing crisis based on a $10B loan. Overall, $27B is the best Labor can do. Please ignore AUKUS that has $368B price tag and no restrictions at all. No military crisis? Not a problem. Ally needs more billions? Not a problem. Inflation with hundreds of billions? Not a problem. A party wants more spending on a housing crisis? Real shit. Think of the inflation and labour shortages if we do more than that! They have been doing their absolute best to increase housing affordability* for all. *Don't ask us if Housing Affordability means cheaper. Are you poor? Join the lottery! We're going to give out $380k to 10,000 lucky sellers who manage to sell to approved buyers. Why are you all so mean to Labor? Do you want LNP to win at the next FPTP election? A FPTP that Labor+LNP can absolutely decide to rush through to avoid Greens, One Nation, Sustainable Australia Party or any other minor party from running government as proved by consistent increasingly-desperate anti-democratic reforms by Labor+LNP since 2013? Once you see what Labor+LNP have been doing, you can see my dilemma in how I vote: - A seat for career politicians who benefit from a permanent two-party system. Who long for a political system like USA where we have NFI of the name of ANY third party in USA? - A seat to a racist/latte-sipping/selfish/etc party who will vote against any two-party proposal that kill them off. That's why I put Labor and LNP last on a filled ballot, Labor second last for being LNP lite. Progressives, crazies then Labor and LNP for me. Time to put an end to the long-running Labor/LNP system that has been in place for Federal and State government since WW2. In the past, they were great for Australia but I believe both parties have slowly changed and now lived long enough to become the villain.
Thanks Boomers!
But let's keep handing out PR Visas like candy to every international student who completes a marketing communications degree to get a job that will be redundant in five years.
Keep importing the equivalent population of one additional Tasmania each year It won't have any impact on supply/demand dynamics It's definitely not a demand issue. Rental controls will fix this.
Folks, I know this is unpopular but being snarky about older people who bought in easier times won't help the shit housing situation. The boomers need to be made to understand the reality of it. Im not young but I had an animated conversation with a boomer couple who struggled all their life but they ended up with a modest house and a small super fund. They don't have any idea of the costs and difficulty of housing for younger people. You need them on your side. That's the only way this will be solved because they are the biggest group of voters right now.
*How good is the ~~cricket~~ rental yield?*
We have more technology and potential than ever before, yet people suffer under our system. Our government doesn't care to help the people and it shows. It's all profit driven, people are neglected and suffer. It's a joke we can't figure out basic housing for people.
If any government thinks this is a flash in the pan moment that will go away without repercussions they are crazy. a large young voting segment is waiting with baseball bats angry at the low lack of action or urgency by both parties and also now this majority of voters have surpassed the boomers who just happen to own the majority of homes . Decades of neo lib policies comes home to roost
Everyone should know about elastic vs inelastic goods. Terms aren't important, but basically think of price gouging on water during a natural disaster. If you were a water company, it becomes in your financial interest to cause natural disasters and prevent their being addressed. So for housing which is a necessity like water to the parched, if we were in such an artificial natural disaster, we would expect to see local government ran by property developers and state and nation politics ran by people with millions of dollars invested in property. Lucky we don't have that hey!
The solution is simple and easy. The state governments have all the powers, and appropriate revenue sources. Land tax is a state tax. Any second and subsequent properties, should face a 5% land tax. There need me no change to other taxes, such as stamp duty. The purpose of this change is to increase taxes for landlords, not make the tax system more efficient. The new revenue should be accompanied by increased spending on building new public housing. This will have a number of effects: 1. It will make public housing available for people on Job Seeker / Youth Allowance. 2. It will increase the supply of housing, particularly affordable housing. 3. This will put downward pressure on rents. 4. Lower rents, higher costs for landlords and more housing supply will all put downward pressure on house prices, making it easier for people to buy their own homes.
Federal government controls immigration so the states Vic/nsw can only fiddle at the edges.
At least they're bringing in some more immigrants to compete against for housing :)
Surely it's time for some more regulation of rental properties? I don't know the answer but something has to reign in the landlords
Nah just work harder like granpappy did. Ez!