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Articles on Housing affordability

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To understand how households cope, we may need to look beneath broad patterns of affordability to the interplay of housing costs with other problems. IDuke/Wikimedia Commons

Housing affordability problems might not be all bad

Housing affordability is often not the only problem households face. More often the compounding effects of multiple problems leave people unable to cope, which is why one solution won’t work for all.
As well as meeting his UK counterpart, Philip Hammond (flanked by Australian High Commissioner Alexander Downer), Scott Morrison has been talking with UK housing finance experts. Will Oliver/EPA

Sensible reform to finance affordable housing deserves cross-party support

Scott Morrison has been exploring a UK model for channelling investment via a specialist financial intermediary into new affordable housing provided by landlords with a social purpose. It makes sense.
This transit-oriented development in Oakland, California, combines residential housing with easy access to local transport options and amenities. Eric Fredericks/flickr

Make housing affordable and cut road congestion all at once? Here’s a way

A combination of transit-oriented centres, inclusionary zoning and a special rate on land instead of stamp duty could make housing more affordable by cutting congestion, development and travel costs.
The housing affordability crisis isn’t limited to the big cities – the Tweed Heads area, for instance, is rated worse than Melbourne in the latest survey. AAP

A housing affordability crisis in regional Australia? Yes, and here’s why

The affordability crisis in regional Australia has a long history. In some places the problem is even worse for residents than in the capital cities.
The increasing proportion of children living in housing-related poverty confronts us with the question: what will we do about it? Ollyy/shutterstock.com

Rental housing policies trap children in poverty, so how low will we go?

Many children are living in low-income families that struggle to pay the rent to keep a roof over their heads. Unaffordable housing is fuelling childhood poverty, so where is the policy response?
The growing numbers of pensioners in private rental accommodation use much of their income to pay for housing. Alan Porritt/AAP

Why secure and affordable housing is an increasing worry for age pensioners

For the increasing proportion of people living in private rental accommodation who can expect to be dependent on the age pension, the prospects of financial and housing insecurity are grim.
The government has changed the rules so that another foreign investor can replace one who has pulled out of buying an off-the-plan dwelling. Mick Tsikas/AAP

Changes for off-the-plan foreign buyers rely on a broken supply argument

The government says its changes to foreign investment will increase housing supply and make it more affordable, but that’s relying on narrow and possibly incorrect assumptions about investors.
The problem with the current rezoning approach is that it leads to huge windfall profits and developments aimed at the upper end of the market. AAP

Sydney needs higher affordable housing targets

The community needs affordable housing and that requires meaningful targets for new developments. The only ones who will lose out are landholders who make windfall profits from rezoning.
The Collective Old Oak co-living block in London has more than 500 apartments with bedrooms and bathrooms. All other spaces are shared. David Hawgood/Geograph

Reinventing density: co-living, the second domestic revolution

While some forms of co-living seek to match modern lifestyles and a desire to downsize, other profit-driven models simply exploit a lack of affordable housing alternatives.
On average, Gen Ys are $50,000 short of the deposit they expect they’ll need to buy their first home. Lolostock from www.shutterstock.com

What’s the key to home ownership for Gen Y?

Without long-term solutions to the imbalance between incomes and house prices, Gen Ys face a lifetime of renting without the financial and emotional security of home ownership.
A national housing policy is needed that recognises how all the sectors – buying, renting, investing, social housing or homeless – are connected. AAP/Paul Miller

Our cities will stop working without a decent national housing policy

A decent national housing policy is not just about the million or so Australians who are in housing need, marginal housing or homeless. In reality, all the housing sectors are connected.

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