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Category Archives: Housing
CHRIS MARTIN AND HAL PAWSON. Last year’s affordable housing green shoots have withered
Budget 2018 fails the 1.5 million Australian households living in unaffordable rental housing or officially homeless, despite the urgent need for Commonwealth leadership on affordable housing policy.
Posted in Housing
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JOHN MENADUE, SUSAN RYAN AND OLIVER FRANKEL. Update to May 2017 ‘Making Housing Affordable’ series
Pearls and Irritations continues to publish various blogs on housing affordability, recognising that the cost of and accessibility to appropriate housing remains out of reach for a significant part of the Australian population.
SAUL ESLAKE. What has changed in the housing market over the past year?
Property prices have moderated in our largest cities over the past year, thanks in part to tightening of lending by APRA, and on inflows of foreign capital. There is some respite for first-time buyers, but the picture for renters is … Continue reading
Posted in Housing
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SUSAN RYAN. The impact of the 2018 Budget on women. It is most notable for its omissions.
The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) each year prepares an analysis of the impacts of the federal budget on women. Since the Coalition government abandoned the practice of including a Women’s Budget Statement in the official Budget documents, a … Continue reading
NICOLE GURRAN and CATHERINE GILBERT. England expects 40% of new housing developments will be affordable, why can’t Australia?
Australia has record levels of supply of new properties but despite various government interventions, housing still remains unaffordable for many.
Posted in Housing
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HAROLD LEVIEN. How to Solve our Housing Crisis.
Federal Government policies are primarily responsible for the housing crisis facing Sydney and Melbourne first-home buyers and renters. Yet this Government virtually ignores fist-home buyers. Indeed it pursues policies which drive very many out of the housing market into exorbitant … Continue reading
Posted in Housing
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DUNCAN MACLENNAN ET AL. Housing: New Reapolitik Needs a New Real Economics
Managing the pressured housing markets of cities such as Sydney and Melbourne poses a major challenge to governments at both state and Federal levels. As has become increasingly clear, such trajectories are wreaking serious damage for younger aspiring homebuyers and … Continue reading
Posted in Housing
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MARCUS SPILLER. Immigration is not the cause of our urban challenge.
Our biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, are growing at around 100,000 people a year causing a bevvy of commentators including, Four Corners and the Grattan Institute, to question whether Australia is in a position to sustain its historically high immigration … Continue reading
NICOLE GURRAN, BILL RANDOLPH, PETER PHIBBS, RACHEL ONG, STEVEN ROWLEY. Affordable Housing Policy Failure Still Being Fuelled By Flawed Analysis.
Australia has a housing affordability problem. There’s no doubt about that. Unfortunately, one of the reasons the problem has become so entrenched is that the policy conversation appears increasingly confused. It’s time to debunk some policy clichés that keep re-emerging.
Posted in Housing
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JOHN MENADUE. Cars, not immigration, are killing our cities.
This week on Four Corners many commentators blamed immigration for many of our ills. It was a diversionary tactic. I think that immigration is Australia’s great success story. Many of the problems that immigration cause are the result of policy failure … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Housing, Infrastructure, Politics
3 Comments
SAUL ESLAKE. Defenders of housing status quo create ‘alternative facts’.
The release last month of (albeit heavily redacted) Treasury advice to the Turnbull Government on the likely effects of the policies the Labor Opposition took to the 2016 election regarding negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount once again … Continue reading
Posted in Housing
2 Comments
SUSAN RYAN. A roof over their heads.
The Annual Report for 2016 of the Women’s Housing Company demonstrates solutions to the terrible and growing situation of older women facing homelessness. These solutions however continue to elude policy makers, the media and business, whose failures to recognise the … Continue reading
JOHN MENADUE. The growing social divide.
There are ominous signs that Australia is breaking up into different social tribes. Our claimed egalitarianism and social mobility are under serious challenge. A mixed society is the best guarantee of social cohesion and social improvement. That social cohesion arising … Continue reading
JOHN MENADUE. Principles to guide housing policy and programs.
Housing policy should be based on three important principles. First, we should value housing for its use-value, not its exchange-value. Second, housing policy should be part of community and neighbourhood building. Third, housing policy should promote social mixing and sharing, rather than stratification.
Posted in Housing, SERIES: Making housing affordable
Tagged housing, housing and neighbourhoods, housing and social mixing, housing for use value, housing principles, John Menadue, Making Housing Affofdable series, The Castle
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SUSAN RYAN. Tent City, Martin Place.
The Berejiklian government in NSW showed this last week that it could act fast. To deal with the reported discomfort of the Premier, caused for months by a tent city of the homeless situated in Martin Place just opposite the … Continue reading
JOHN MENADUE. Making housing affordable. (Repost from Housing Series)
Pearls and Irritations recently posted a series of articles on the theme Making Housing Affordable. The series focuses on Australia’s housing affordability crisis. Most of the articles were posted just before the Federal Budget, but a few were posted afterwards, … Continue reading
SAUL ESLAKE. Housing affordability and the 2017-18 Budget: a missed opportunity
Housing affordability was to be a key focus of the Government in this year’s federal budget, according to the ‘nods and winks’ that traditionally precede the Treasurer’s budget speech. A journalist who has often been privy to the thinking of … Continue reading
Posted in Housing, SERIES: Making housing affordable
Tagged foreign investment in housing, housing affordability, housing demand, housing supply, Saul Eslake
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NICOLE GURRAN and PETER PHIBBS. Policy sentiment rather than substance in housing policy
The Federal Treasurer clearly understands the housing affordability pressures facing moderate and low income renters and Australia’s growing homeless. His budget speech set the scene for a package of measures to boost affordable housing supply and recalibrate demand settings. A … Continue reading
Posted in Housing
Tagged affordable housing, federal budget., housing affordability, housing policy, housing supply, social housing
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IAN MCAULEY. The budget – still tough on the young
The Commonwealth’s budget has a Keynesian boost for a sluggish economy, and is based on an optimistic, or even heroic, assumption that economic growth will deliver a fiscal surplus within a few years. We have heard similar claims from treasurers, … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Housing, Infrastructure
Tagged budget, economy, housing, Ian McAuley, infrastructure, politics, superannuation, tax
2 Comments
MICHAEL KEATING. The 2017 Budget – A welcome change in direction. Part 2 of 2
Budget repair was never going to be easy. That is one reason why it has taken so long with quite a few false starts. While some of the individual decisions in this Budget are debateable, overall the quality of the … Continue reading
LIONEL ORCHARD. Housing Policy: a social democratic response
The missing element in current debates about Australian housing policy is consideration of the social democratic case for building a genuine mixed economy in the housing system respecting the different purposes of the sectors involved – public, private and household. … Continue reading
Making Housing Affordable Series. HAL PAWSON. Can Institutional Funding be Channelled into Rental Housing?
Channelling institutional finance into affordable rental housing has long been a ‘holy grail’ urban policy aspiration. Recent developments suggest that this may be edging towards reality.
Making Housing Affordable Series. ROB KOCZKAR. How institutional investment could help housing affordability
Competition between first home buyers and investors is dominating the discussion about housing affordability, but it’s what’s happening a few rungs down the property ladder that is perhaps the greatest cause for concern – the challenges for people trying to … Continue reading
Posted in Housing, SERIES: Making housing affordable
Tagged affordable housing, AHFA, Australian Housing Finance Aggregator, CHPs, Community Housing Providers, first home buyer, HESTA, housing affordability, Housing Finance Corporation (UK), institutional investment, investors, Making Housing Affordable series, private capital, Rob Koczkar, scale, social housing, SVA
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Making Housing Affordable Series. JACK DE GROOT. Homelessness – the potential to implement a widespread housing first policy
Having a roof over one’s head, a place to call home, is a fundamental right for every individual. Until all levels of government collaborate with institutional investors and the not-for-profit sector to provide more affordable housing and accessible services, housing … Continue reading
Making Housing Affordable Series. MICHAEL PERUSCO. Revitalising social and affordable housing
The discussion and commentary about housing affordability in Australia has reached a crescendo in recent months. But an important piece of the housing puzzle cannot be overlooked in the debate: the role of social housing. It is time for governments … Continue reading
Posted in Housing, SERIES: Making housing affordable
Tagged affordable housing, bond aggregator, home ownership, Making Housing Affordable series, Michael Perusco, mixed tenure, NAHA, social housing, subsidy
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Making Housing Affordable Series. SAUL ESLAKE. The causes and effects of the housing affordability crisis, and what can and should be done about it.
Treasurer Scott Morrison is right in saying that “there are no single or easy solutions” – even though he (and others on his side of politics) tend to ignore this advice in emphasising ‘supply-side solutions’ and decrying any suggestion of … Continue reading
Posted in Housing, SERIES: Making housing affordable
Tagged affordable housing, first time buyers, foreign investors, home buyers, home ownership, housing affordability, housing investment, housing supply, immigration, land tax, Making Housing Affordable series, rental housing, Saul Eslake, stamp duty, tax
5 Comments
Making Housing Affordable Series. PETER PHIBBS. The politics of property and the role of urban planning
The narrative provided by the property industry and by some politicians is that the planning system creates large bottlenecks to more supply. Yet the reality is that we have been generating record levels of supply in Australia in recent years. … Continue reading
Making Housing Affordable Series. NED CUTCHER. Running the private rental market at a loss, for profit
Understanding how unaffordable housing affects renters is increasingly important, since more Australians can expect to rent for longer. How do negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount affect affordability, amenity and security for renters? Encouraging “mums and dads” to … Continue reading
Posted in Housing, SERIES: Making housing affordable
Tagged capital gains tax, first home buyers, home ownership, housing affordability, investors, Making Housing Affordable series, Ned Cutcher, negative gearing, owner occupiers, private rental, rental affordability, rental housing, renters, renting, supply
1 Comment
Making Housing Affordable Series. DAMIEN WEBB. An institutional scale solution for the social and affordable housing challenge – from a super fund’s perspective
Many well-intentioned solutions have been proposed to address Australia’s housing affordability problem, yet fail to gain traction because the challenges faced by key stakeholder groups aren’t being addressed simultaneously. We believe success on a material scale will be more likely … Continue reading
Posted in Housing, SERIES: Making housing affordable
Tagged affordable housing, Affordable Housing Bonds, AHB, CAHC, CHPs, Community Housing Providers, Damien Webb, financial mechanism; investment model, institutional investment, Making Housing Affordable series, return gap, social housing
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Making Housing Affordable Series. MARCUS SPILLER. The planning system, politics and housing affordability
Forever expanding supply on the urban fringe is unlikely to provide a solution to retreating affordability of home ownership. Housing needs to be expanded in those places where good jobs, services and infrastructure are. The inner and middle suburbs – … Continue reading