Writer
Oliver Frankel
Oliver Frankel is a former corporate finance and M&A lawyer, who has spent the second half of his career in finance, investment and management. Most recently, he has taken a strong interest in how to address the affordable housing crisis.
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KERRY GOULSTON, THANH NGUYEN AND OLIVER FRANKEL. Vietnam’s success in containing Covid-19
Relative to most other countries, including Australia, Vietnam seems to be faring extremely well in the shadow of the current coronavirus pandemic, and has recently earned praise from the WHO. Vietnam had only 275 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and thankfully no deaths from the virus, as at 17 April 2020. Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – Feb/Mar 2020
The following is the latest instalment of a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the relevant source. Although housing affordability and homelessness have featured less in the news over the past month, due to our almost exclusive (and Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – Jan/Feb 2020
The following is the latest instalment of a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the relevant source. Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – late Nov 2019 to mid Jan 2020
This is part of what is normally a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the relevant source. Due to the just past Christmas holiday period, this particular digest covers more than the usual monthly period, and is therefore Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – Oct/Nov 2019
This is a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the relevant source. Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – Sept/Oct 2019
This is a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the relevant source. Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – Aug/Sept 2019
This is a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the relevant source. Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – July/Aug 2019
This is a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the relevant source. Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – June/July 2019
This is a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the relevant source. Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – May/June 2019
This is a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the relevant source. Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – Apr/May 2019
This is a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the relevant source. Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – Mar/Apr 2019
This is a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the relevant source. Continue reading »
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Monthly digest on housing affordability and homelessness – Feb/Mar 2019
This is the second monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the source. Continue reading »
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Monthly housing digest – Jan/Feb 2019
This is the first of what is intended to be a monthly digest of interesting articles, research reports, policy announcements and other material relevant to housing stress/affordability and homelessness – with hypertext links to the source material. While the focus is on Australia, the Digest may occasionally include items of significant interest from overseas jurisdictions. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE Drug reform series
From next Monday Pearls and Irritations will be posting fifteen articles on the need for drug reform. Continue reading »
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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. Continue reading »
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House prices are not necessarily correlated with changes in supply and demand
A recent research report, Regional Housing Supply and Demand in Australia, by the ANU’s Centre for Social Research and Methods, has reignited the debate about the relationship between house prices and imbalances in the supply of and demand for housing. Few would dispute that steeply rising prices in some of our largest cities have made Continue reading »
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Mounting housing stress underscores need for expert council to guide wayward policymaking
A recent policy pledge by Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has given fresh heart to campaigners for the restoration of the former National Housing Supply Council (NHSC). Continue reading »
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Sydney house prices – an increase of 18.9% in one year!
With only a month to go to the federal budget, the news that Sydney’s median dwelling prices rose by 18.9% in the 12 months to March is sobering. It is surely enough to jolt the Turnbull government into finally adopting bold measures to curb speculative demand in the housing market. Calls to reform negative gearing and/or Continue reading »
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Saul Eslake’s well timed warnings help inform the housing affordability debate
Saul Eslake, one of Australia’s most highly respected independent economists, has sounded some sobering warnings about the impact of declining rates of home ownership (and rising levels of mortgage debt) on Australia’s retirement income system. He has also once again stressed the need for reform of the demand side of the supply and demand equation Continue reading »
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Victoria’s recent housing affordability initiatives
Victoria’s Labor Government has made clear its determination to do something about housing affordability, recently announcing a suite of reforms – many aimed at first home buyers. The changes are for the most part designed to boost supply of homes both for purchase and rental. However, they also attempt to lower the barriers to purchase Continue reading »
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OLIVER FRANKEL. Making housing affordable – Drawing inspiration from India and Singapore
Not many of those following the housing affordability debate in Australia would think of looking to India and Singapore for inspiration, yet the experiences of each of these countries are inspiring in their scale and ambition (and in Singapore’s case, already proven success), and could provide useful lessons for us as we attempt to deal Continue reading »
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OLIVER FRANKEL. Making housing affordable. Vancouver’s new “Empty Homes Tax”
Vancouver’s response to the housing affordability crisis, now includes a new Empty Homes Tax at 1% per annum of the value of each empty home covered. Australian reports suggest that there may be 90,000 empty dwellings in Sydney and 83,000 in Melbourne. Continue reading »
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OLIVER FRANKEL. Focusing on supply only will not solve the affordable housing crisis
There is now widespread recognition in the echelons of government, both Federal and State, that we face an affordable housing crisis. However, there is still no consensus about how to solve it. The Coalition insists the problem can be fixed by bringing on more supply. Labor regards a supply only market-based approach as too Continue reading »
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OLIVER FRANKEL. Sydney second to Hong Kong in housing unaffordability
Demographia International’s latest (13th) annual International Housing Affordability Survey provides yet more evidence of the burning issue of housing affordability in Australia, particularly in our largest cities. Sydney ranks second most unaffordable, and Melbourne is only a few places behind that. Continue reading »
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OLIVER FRANKEL. Short-term leases – salt in the wounds of unaffordability for long-term renters
An increasing number of Australians are being forced into long-term rental accommodation, unable to afford the prohibitive and ever-increasing cost of home ownership. In the private rental market, heavily debt-laden, individual landlords are the norm. Their short-term investment outlook deprives renters seeking security of tenure of the ability to achieve it. For tenants struggling with Continue reading »
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OLIVER FRANKEL. Sharing our space (Part 2) – implications for housing affordability
Sharing our space undoubtedly makes accommodation more affordable for those willing to share, albeit with some sacrifice in privacy. Continue reading »
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OLIVER FRANKEL. Sharing our space (Part 1) – the sharing economy and beyond
Part 1 – Part 2 will be published tomorrow. Space sharing is an important part of the fast-growing sharing economy. New co-living paradigms are emerging which could have significant implications for the way we live and the type of housing we need. … One of the main applications of the sharing economy is in accommodation, particularly Continue reading »
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OLIVER FRANKEL. Exploiting our under-used housing capacity – a way to ease the affordable housing crisis
The substantial under-used capacity within our existing residential built environment offers a quick, and capital light, opportunity to ease the affordable housing crisis. … There are an estimated 90,000 properties empty in Sydney and 83,000 in Melbourne. Continue reading »
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OLIVER FRANKEL. When does housing become unaffordable?
Affordable housing has become one of the most hotly debated social problems of our time, yet there is no consensus on how to identify when it exists, let alone its root causes and how to fix it. Continue reading »
