Housing

2025
Has the abundance agenda infected Australia's federal Labor party?
A new report adds to growing evidence that poor construction productivity flows from land use regulations and tax policy.
Here’s some of what I’ve been reading from outside Australia recently, along with a few short thoughts on each.
Ken Henry's answer to that question actually explains a lot.
This is the first of what I intend to become a regular Oz Econ Pulse, a free roundup of the economic, political, and social trends that impact Australia.
Both major parties are set to throw cash at first home buyers, which in Australia's choked housing market, will bid up prices and unleash unintended consequences.
Please note that I’m travelling internationally this week and will have limited access to a computer, so Aussienomics will be taking a short breather ahead of the inevitable chaos that will be the run-up to the federal election, which—if called by the end of this month—could be held as soon as 3 May.
This update has become something of a weekly policy analysis wrap, given the flurry of announcements we’re getting ahead of a federal election that now looks like it’ll be held on or before 12 April (today is the deadline for a 29 March election to be called).
Decades of policy decisions have strangled construction productivity, making housing increasingly unaffordable in Australia.
The fallout from the first Trump 2.0 tariffs has continued into the week, with the latest casualty (other than global equities) being the risky crypto that had been bid up on what was ‘supposed’ to be a market-friendly Trump government: