Another pro-sprawl hack. I could tell long before I read that he
"initiated and co authors the Annual Demographia ..."

How could I tell ? Easy - he complains about the cost of housing - sensibly observing that this is related to limited supply. But he then
goes on
"The fringe is the only supply or inflation vent for an urban market"
and, amusingly,
"One would think something as simple as this would be easily understood."

Easy to understand, maybe, but not true. Supply can be increased by allowing higher density housing, not only by extending urban sprawl ad infinitum. The Demographia folk want to hide this fact.

An Australian quarter-acre block is actually quite cheap. per square metre, compared with housing in many other cities. Maybe because they're more liveable - everything is much closer. But they're the cities which (last time I looked) were totally left out of the lists on the Demographia website.

The costs are not understood by the socially progressive, as their nose will be cutoff despite their face.