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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OLIVER FRANKEL. 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 »
