New research has found a marked increase in people, particularly among women over 50, who are building or want to build a tiny house. However, inflexible planning rules often stand in their way.
‘Build to rent’ means developers build housing with the intent of retaining the building and renting it out to lower-income families.
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A modest rebalancing of federal tax policy toward build-to-rent housing could fill affordable housing funding gaps. Australian funds are already investing in such a scheme in the US.
Much of what is being built is straightforward ‘investor grade product’ – flats built to attract the burgeoning investment market.
Bill Randolph
The inexorable logic of the market will create suburban concentrations of lower-income households on a scale hitherto only experienced in the legacy inner-city high-rise public housing estates
Highly skilled foreign workers (and the investment that follows them) are drawn to Australia because of the lifestyle.
Joel Carrett/AAP
As innovative and business-friendly as Australia has become in its short history, what makes Australia stand out to international workers is its quality of life.
Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle explains the revised Queen Victoria Market redevelopment, flanked by Planning Minister Richard Wynne and Premier Daniel Andrews.
Joe Castro/AAP
Mixing public and private housing in urban renewal projects can be a contentious business. But public good and optimal use of public resources, not developer interests, should guide such decisions.
Vacant and unlit ‘ghost’ apartments are a source of public outrage in major cities around the world.
leniners/flickr
A tax on empty homes will make a modest difference to housing affordability. The sheer wastefulness of our housing system calls for something much more ambitious.
It is not well appreciated that the requirements of affordable housing are related to – but not the same as – those for housing affordability.
AAP/Sam Mooy
New research reveals outdated concepts and thinking are shaping Australia’s troubled housing system.
At the Ashwood-Chadstone estate, Port Phillip Housing Association has built high-quality homes, with no visible difference between the 72 private and 206 community housing dwellings.
PPHA
Concerns about the privatisation of public housing estates should not blind us to the benefits of the transfer of public housing to the not-for-profit community housing sector.
Interest rate adjustments are crude and fail to target the problems within the housing market.
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A variable special rate on new residential housing developments in selected centres could be used to create a local incentive to supply more affordable dwellings at higher density.
The Australian government has plenty of ministers, but not one of them oversees the whole $6 trillion housing sector.
Andrew Taylor/AAP
New research finds a state of confusion when it comes to Australian government policymaking on housing, despite its huge economic and social significance.
Most Sydneysiders are concerned about the effects of foreign investment on the local real estate market.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Only 18% of Sydneysiders think foreign investors should be able to buy property. They simply don't accept arguments that this investment improves housing affordability by increasing supply.
Driven by higher returns on their equity, debt-financed investors are dominating the housing market and shaping its growth.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
New research shows the actual returns on equity for housing investors are higher than most people realise. This helps explain why investors are able to out-compete other home buyers.
Households are not competing on equal terms in the private rental market – their perceptions of insecurity vary according to their means, location and reasons for renting.
April Fonti/AAP
Private renters' security of tenure in Australia has less legal protection than in other countries with high private rental rates. A new study reveals mixed responses to this state of uncertainty.
Even though Sydney’s population growth (at 14%) is below the average across all capital cities, its housing supply failed to match this growth.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Data on housing supply in Australia's capital shows that while it's increasing in areas with lots of jobs, house prices are too high for those who might want to move for work.
More competition between renters won’t help affordability.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
In a market already tilted in favour of landlords, these apps could further push up prices.
Australia’s population is highly concentrated in a few cities, so once centres like Newcastle have absorbed the spill-over from high-cost capitals, where will the talent go?
City of Newcastle/AAP
Australia has few places to capture the spill-over of talented workers priced out of the big cities. Some may leave the country altogether – and where talent goes, capital flows.
Restoring and expanding Australia’s run-down public housing stocks will need an increase in funding on top of the reforms in the budget.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
The budget is pushing for a much-needed reboot of the social housing sector. What it isn't offering is extra funding to renew and expand run-down housing stocks.
Unless the demand pressures are eased, first home buyers are still likely to be crowded out of the market.
Sam Mooy/AAP
The budget acknowledges the crisis of affordability for first home buyers, but fails to do enough about demand pressures on prices to put home ownership back within their reach.
The budget brought no increase in rent assistance to help low-income renters in the private rental market.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Director, City Futures - Faculty Leadership, City Futures Research Centre, Urban Analytics and City Data, Infrastructure in the Built Environment, UNSW
