Housing
2024
To ease the rental crisis and prevent it from happening again, governments should provide targeted assistance while focusing on increasing housing supply through planning reforms, rather than implementing well-intentioned but counterproductive policies like no-fault eviction bans.
There's a lot to like about Denmark's approach to mortgages, but transplanting it to Australia may not be optimal given our existing regulatory framework and housing policies.
While Vienna's social housing model is often praised as a solution to housing affordability issues, its applicability to Australia is questionable due to differences in our institutions, as well as potential drawbacks in the Viennese system itself.
A more forceful, top-down approach might be the solution to Australia's housing crisis.
Australia's migration slowdown will ease housing issues but exacerbate its ageing population and fiscal problems, requiring unpopular entitlement reform and improved fertility rates to sustainably fund old-age benefits.
Peter Dutton claims cutting migration will free up over 100,000 homes and fix Australia's housing crisis. But his numbers don't add up and the impact will likely be minimal. Dutton's playing to anti-migration sentiment rather than addressing the real policy drivers behind unaffordable housing.
The government's policies are unlikely to solve Australia's current housing crisis, which stems from both long-term zoning issues and a recent spike in construction costs. But it could be worse - at least they've avoided reckless ideas like rent freezes, which would devastate the housing market.
The rental affordability crisis has been overblown; why your shower should be a lot better; Chris Minns is doing great work on housing; the freaky side of politics and academia; and a little green bonus.
The Greens released their much-hyped housing plan last week and while I wouldn’t normally give this much attention to a minor party’s policy, it was just so full of well-meaning but really confused policy, I just had to weigh in.
Dick Smith wants to cap Australia's population at 30 million over concerns about a lack of resources and housing costs. In doing so he falls for the 'lump of labour' fallacy, and fails Econ 101: it's poor planning, not immigrants, that erodes housing affordability in Australia.