In the SMH on March 28, 2016, Laurence Troy and Bill Randolph discuss the problem of negative gearing encouraging owners to leave houses empty. In this article they say

‘At the last census there were nearly 120,000 empty dwellings in the greater Sydney region alone, representing nearly one fifth of the projected new housing demand to be met by 2031, or equivalent to nearly five years of projected dwelling need.  When this is combined with under-utilised dwellings, such as those let out as short-term accommodation, the total number of dwellings reaches 230,000 in Sydney and 238,00 in Melbourne.’

Dr Laurence Troy is a research associate and Professor Bill Randolph is director of the City Futures Research Centre at UNSW.

See full article in link below.  John Menadue.