State government attempts to redirect development from urban fringes to established urban areas have failed. New deregulated planning systems, not strategic metropolitan plans, are driving development…
The vision for a “Global Sydney” overshadows the need for affordable housing in the city.
James Morgan/AAP
The forecast is grim for housing affordability in Sydney, according to a recent government briefing paper. In the last decade median rent for all properties in the inner ring of Sydney more than doubled…
Research shows ageing will affect house prices, with interesting results.
Dan Peled/AAP
Despite talk of a housing bubble in Australia, house prices have been flat in real terms over the past six years since the pre-financial crisis peak in December 2007. The weighted average of established…
House prices in Australia are still sky high.
markehr
London-based think tank Civitas has called for restrictions on foreign buyers as a solution to escalating house prices in the UK capital. They suggest the UK adopts a similar approach to that used in Australia…
Australians of all ages are lining up to tap the equity in their home, but as a policy solution for welfare it comes with many risks.
Julian Smith/AAP
Perceptions of the family home have changed dramatically in recent years. Once viewed as a tool to ensure low housing costs in old age, a more complex and wide-ranging welfare role for home ownership has…
Under the current tax regime, investors and cashed up owner occupiers are bidding up the cost of housing.
Dean Lewins/AAP
In an ideal (and economically efficient) world, tax policy would not influence the investment or consumption choices taxpayers make. In reality, this neutrality is rarely achieved. External factors influence…
My partner and I volunteered at a homeless shelter last month – the idea being to channel our spare time and seasonal spirit into something community-focused and productive. I’ve worked in many inner-city…
How much is that cluttered spare room really costing you?
Flickr/raider3_anime
How much would you give up to have a home that didn’t cost you a cent in energy bills? Would you sacrifice that spare bedroom that’s full of junk and hardly gets used? Or the additional bathroom? What…
Losing access to public housing has emerged as a major concern for Aboriginal Victorians.
www.panoramio.com/photo/55450813 - taken by densil
Imagine being the mother of a young autistic boy, whose violent outbursts had caused $30,000 of damage to your rented home - but being too afraid to ask anyone for help for fear of having your son taken…
London’s population is increasing rapidly and forecasts say this growth is set to continue over the next decade and more. However, the last time the capital had enough new houses to match this rate of…
The causes of the crisis that engulfed the global economy and its financial markets were not special or unique, even though the consequences were unprecedented for most of us. It is true that this crisis…
Sometimes the best plans aren’t enough.
Ben Birchall/PA
As a planning academic you might think that I get heavily involved in the planning system – commenting on draft development plans, or objecting to proposed developments – but actually I tend to steer clear…
Even tiny houses are worth a lot these days.
Images_of_Money
Bosses at Barratt Developments, the UK’s largest housebuilder, could be forgiven for awarding themselves a pat on the back at the company’s AGM today. Advance sales are up 47%, aided by the government’s…
Renting attracts the lowest share of benefits from government housing policies,
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Government housing policies overwhelmingly favour home owners over renters, according to a new report compiled by the Grattan Institute. And scaling back government support would do little to impact home…
I say, look at the size of this larder.
Oli Scarff/PA
Mortgage rates for the government’s Help to Buy scheme were announced yesterday amid the usual torrent of criticism for a policy that has very few friends. One Daily Telegraph commentator deemed the policy…
The commentariat has gone into overdrive in the wake of Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour party conference. Does it represent, at last, the shattering of the neoliberal consensus? Is it the articulation…
Houses should be homes, not assets.
Chris Radburn/PA
Amid all the noise around UK housing policy, it is worth taking a step back and asking a deeper question about our property market. Yes, another bubble would be damaging for the UK economy and especially…
Yesterday’s early start to the bushfire season threatened homes in Sydney’s suburbs.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Australia is a harsh and volatile environment, subject to extremes of fire and flood. We’ve just seen a particularly early start to the bushfire season, with over 60 fires burning and at least two homes…
Bricks and mortar, yes, but how much insulation under the tiles?
Rui Vieira/PA
The UK has some of the oldest – and leakiest – housing stock in the western world. The vast majority of it will still be standing in 2050, the year by which the government has set itself a target to cut…
Switch off the heater, you won’t need it.
IceSabre/Flickr
A new study says that all Australia’s existing housing could be retrofitted to be zero emissions within ten years. Households could halve their energy use and go gas free. Australian households currently…
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