A drop in migration from the EU would ease demand for housing, but also reduce the availability of those legendary Polish house builders, who will be hard to replace with local labour.
The Property Council of Australia, a lobby group representing the biggest real estate developers, has shaped election debate about negative gearing and some taxes.
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.
We are hearing dire warnings from property interests fighting against changes to negative gearing. But what if Labor’s proposed changes actually support demand for the flood of new properties?
Ballooning borrowing to invest in the housing market is impeding investment in the real economy, holding back investment in skills and jobs, and driving up inequality.
Falling homeownership rates, stagnant wages and diminishing retirement savings mean that for more and more Americans, the middle-class dream is slowly dying – if it’s not already gone.
Professor; School of Economics, Finance and Property, and Director, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Curtin Research Centre, Curtin University
Professor of Social Epidemiology and Director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne