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Articles on Housing affordability

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The Conversation

Four ways an Australian housing bubble could burst

There’s been quite a bit of speculation over whether Australia has a property market bubble - where house prices are over-inflated compared to a benchmark - and when it might burst. According to housing…
A Shorten government would double the screening fees on foreign investment and financial penalties that apply to foreign investment in residential real estate. Lukas Coch/AAP

Super funds targeted in Shorten’s housing affordability package

Labor will promise to ban direct borrowing by self-managed superannuation funds, as part of a housing affordability policy released on Friday.
At least ten cents in every dollar of superannuation assets is indirectly financing house purchases via commercial bank debt. AAP/Lukas Coch

Here’s how superannuation is already financing homes

What critics of the plan to use superannuation for housing miss is that Australia’s super system already channels a significant proportion of retirement savings into housing.
Rapid rise of Australian house prices have created disagreement between economists on whether a housing bubble currently exists. Brian Birdwell/flickr

What economics has to say about housing bubbles

Economists struggle to agree on when and where housing bubbles occur, but bubbles all have similar characterisitics.
Despite all the proposals to combat housing affordability, Scott Morrison will need to make hard political decisions on policies that will actually make a difference. Lukas Coch/AAP

The latest ideas to use super to buy homes are still bad ideas

The latest thought bubbles about using super savings for housing might be less harmful than in the past, but they would be just as ineffective.
To meet the needs of lower-income households, housing should be both affordable and located near public transport and other services. Graeme Bartlett/Wikimedia

What a difference a month makes, but Victoria can still do more to get housing and planning right

Victoria has been lagging behind other states in developing an affordable housing strategy. Now that one has been released, how well does it meet the needs of households on lower incomes?
Scott Morrison has recently broadened the range of affordable housing policy options he’s considering, and moving beyond simplistic supply-side solutions would be a positive development. Mick Tsikas/AAP

Australia’s almost a world leader in home building, so that isn’t a fix for affordability

The housing supply solution our leaders are advocating will only work if affordability is simply a problem of supply. In fact, Australia is almost a world leader in rates of new housing production.
Scott Morrison made it clear that any improvement in commodity prices or wages growth would be used for budget repair. Mick Tsikas/AAP

Scott Morrison says budget will remember the renters

The proposed housing affordability package in the May budget will target people relying on social housing as well as those trying to break into the market.
New South Wales is the state that has suffered the biggest fall in available public housing stock since 2009. This has led to protests. Teresa Parker/AAP

Australia needs to reboot affordable housing funding, not scrap it

Although the federal-state agreement does it inadequately and lacks transparency, an enduring program of federal funding for operational expenses is essential to sustain the social housing system.
The homeless people evicted from Flinders Street in Melbourne’s CBD are only the tip of the iceberg of the housing crisis in Victoria. Joe Castro/AAP

States drag feet on affordable housing, with Victoria the worst

Weak state policies, which lack clear targets and mechanisms for providing more and better affordable housing, are part of the problem. Victoria still doesn’t have an affordable housing strategy.
On current trends, renters will eventually outnumber home buyers, representing a fundamental shift in how the economy and wealth generation work. Mick Tsikas/AAP

Moving on from home ownership for ‘Generation Rent’

Generation Rent may force a complete rethinking of home ownership as a basis of our housing systems. Rather than representing security, these housing markets make us vulnerable.

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