Some issues not addressed here:

Single occupancy is a grossly inefficient use of the critically short domestic housing. Ideas and action are needed to encourage single occupants to move out and make room for desperate family groups.

Short term leasing of properties for holiday letting, reduces potential availability of housing for the long term rental market currently in critically short supply.

Converting suitable unused buildings in local areas into emergency accommodation as homeless shelters with a short to long term view of dealing with increasing homelessness driven by affordability and availability of domestic housing.

This article totally misses the point of dealing with the current housing crisis, either in the short term or a longer view of a very shaky future for those needing to be housed in suitable dwellings, and in a time frame that deals with the failure of all levels of Government to foresee or even care about Government inefficiency and neglect of the critical housing shortage.

It also fails to make mention of immigration as a pressure on the crisis of housing existing residents efficiently.

Dan

"If we are serious that housing is a human right, or that home ownership should be an attainable goal for all Australians regardless of how much they earn or who their parents are ..".

Talking about "human rights" won't get anyone into a house, and the idea that home ownership should be attainable for all Australians is just a fairy tale.

Home ownership has always been an obsession in Australia, not shared anywhere else. We have been lucky up to now, but the luck has run out. Too many people; too much immigration; too many people not taught to budget; too many people voting for socialism.

The atmosphere of this article is the old, "We know Best for You"
The no minimum car space rule suggests that people only want to go
where the trains, busses or ferries go.
The electric cars only laws will make the scene in London of power
cables being draped over the footpath to charge your car on the road.

There are only a certain number of bricklayers, carpenters,
electricians, plumbers etc etc and a certain number of council clerks
shuffling building applications.
You either train more building tradesmen or reduce immigration.
No other path is available, but the we know best mob do not understand.

No other path is available, but the we know best mob do not understand.
Bazz,
Yes and, too many are adverse to discipline, responsibility & respect hence so many are against a National Service which is the core of guiding people to be better citizens !

I believe we need to remove rezoning from councils and state governments. And put in the hands of the Federal parliament.

Councils dribble out rezoned land in order to increase land valuations and rates. state governments do likewise to increase front loaded tax like ubicutous stamp duties! Even though they promised to remove them when the GST became theirs. And should be withheld until they honour their agreement!

Simply put, the aforementioned should not be able to ration rezoned land to simply pad income streams but be forced to cut their cloth to suit their budget.

Instead of increased rates, councils need more rate payers and done by releasing more rezoned land as housing blocks and industrial estates.

And we need to import those skills we can't get like brickies and chippies. Some of which could be improved via adult apprentiships which come at a higher pay rate than kids straight out of school.

We need more factory built houses to supplement lower cost supply factory built houses which can come as flat packs that can be assembled on site in a day by semi-competent labourers overseen by relevant tradies.

All the assistance schemes advocated thus far can only make housing more unaffordable! And time for a different approach on the supply side bottlenecks and deliberate scarcity paradigms.
Alan B.

If you are the single occupant of a house you scraped and went without to own. And a couple of spare rooms left to cater for visiting kids and grandkids!

If some piss it up against the wall dropkick that thinks you should be forced to move so some family can move in while you are forced to move to more expensive single bedroom dwelling, just doesn't fly.

Piss it up against the wall dropkicks need to do what others have done to own their own home and stop drinking, smoking and gambling!

And buy their own like those before them did, with gut busting 7 days a week work and sacrifice. And by following the higher paid work across the length and breadth of the land!

And by using the one weapon they have to usher in change, their ballot and by voting for what they want to see as public policy!
Alan B.

Alan B,
I agree with your above posts. One of the ideas I'd like to add is that no-one who hasn't served in a National Service should be entitled to a position in the public Service.
Of course, exemptions could arise in cases of disability etc.
But in general we really, really need a National Service to cultivate more competent & responsible citizens.
One just has to look at our society since that great big Goaf traded responsibility for votes in 1972. Surely that's more than enough proof that such a NS is desperately needed.

The author is a town planner. Her Institute wants Australia to have a population of 50 million, but it also wants to blame the supply side of housing.

We have a word for this in our language - hypocrisy.

Why not have Govt. run Home Lotteries ? Instead of one 10 million Dollar home as one first prize, have three prizes with normal homes. Three houses per month times twelve months provides quite a few families with a home AND creates jobs !

Good point Steve S.

Ayn Rand said that communist 'looters' and social democrat 'moochers' destroyed productive businesses and their job creating capacity concurrently saying "we have to help the poor". Their words don't match their actions.

If housing continues to be treated as a commodity not a social right, poverty in Australia will dramatically increase, irrespective of political colouring of incumbent Government.

Increasing immigration aggravates this social condition.
Building granny flats for rent in back yards, building more poor quality ill conceived positioning social housing in isolated areas away from transport and jobs, aggravates not helps those most vulnerable to the bad effects of inappropriate or non existent housing supply.

What is needed is a revolution in thinking, strong Government directives that step outside of the neoliberal mind set and personal interest of politicians most able to help the situation out of its bind and current negative consequences.

Housing treated as a commodity is the sole problem which needs urgent action to resolve.

Dan

The housing industry needs more physics/arithmetic, not economics. Same number of people, same number of dwellings -- how can any housing shortage be alleviated? Only by magic. The problem lies in the huge range of desirability of the land component of housing, primarily where it is. More desirable = more expensive. As the population rises, the number of desirable properties stays constant. So they get more expensive and the richest get the most desirable, the poorest the least. How can it be otherwise? As night follows day. "Solutions" to the housing problem are exercises in magical thinking.

The author wrote, in response to the housing policies of the Coalition and the socialists (now the Federal Government): "The problem with these sorts of schemes is that they increase demand – putting upward pressure on house prices – while doing nothing to address supply".

This should be the starting point in any program (that will deal with both Demand and Supply issues) whose aim is to make housing more affordable. And it's an easy place to start which will have near term positive consequences: restrict foreigners from buying any residential property, say costing less than (here someone should pick a figure that will not imperil Australians trying to get into the housing market). Only above that figure should foreigners be allowed to buy.

I wasn't aware that foreigners should be buying property in Australia at all- from memory there were enforcement issues that the Labor Party didn't stop last time they were in power disappointing that the Coalition probably didn't stop them either- and hence our young can't buy property. There seems to be something "dangerously magical" about our economy. And the Greens would see our entry level properties filled with refugees.

Foreign residents cannot/couldn't buy residential property in Australia.
My son's Father in Law wanted to buy a flat in Melbourne for when they
come to Australia from Britain for 3 to 4 months a year.
He could not do it so he got his daughter to buy it.
As far as I know that is still the rule.
My son later bought a four bedroom house so they sold the flat.

Foreign residents cannot/couldn't buy residential property in Australia.
Bazz,
My view also. If an Australian can purchase land in another country then someone from that country yes but no if not !
Even 99 year leases are nothing short of criminal. Btw. are the morons/criminals who leased out Darwin Port still free ?

I think there's a loophole- foreign students buy property in Australia using parents money- but the government doesn't check to see if they are entitled- certain people benefit from the market increase- some from development- so they keep it quiet- those in the know keep it quiet- Australia suffers- an example of a purity spiral I suppose. In a sense it's a way of funneling funds out of Asia- China and India. If you're been to an auction recently the outbidding is interesting- though much can also be attributed to immigration.

We probably need to start controlling the entry of NZ citizens into Australia- there is an international stream of people coming through NZ.

"Alternatively, the Australian Government could follow the example set by our Kiwi cousins.."

New Zealand's housing market is even more unaffordable than Australia's! Why would we want to copy failed New Zealand?

Saint Jacinda Ardern's government has failed dismally on housing.

NZ Labour's promised ‘KiwiBuild’ program to build 100,000 public houses descended into a farce. Under Ardern, home ownership in NZ has plunged to a 70-year low. A complete disaster.

"We need reform to ensure that there are enough homes to go around."

If Natalie Rayment is sincere in wanting housing to become more affordable, then why does she ignore the demand-side of the equation?

Yes, we need to build more houses. But what about easing demand pressures by reforming the tax system and reducing immigration? Changing the rules around capital gains and negative gearing and bringing immigration levels back down toward historical norms would certainly ease demand.

Economist Leith van Onselen:

"The single best thing policy makers can do to ‘solve’ Australia’s housing supply issue is to ensure that immigration does not return to its manic pre-COVID level, nor is raised to the insane 235,000 annual NOM projected by the Centre for Population.

Policy makers and commentators should quit gaslighting the public on housing supply and address the source of the problem.

Indeed, many of Australia’s problems – from housing to infrastructure to the environment – could be ameliorated with the stoke of a pen by simply lowering immigration to sensible and sustainable levels below 100,000 people a year – the historical average. Doing so would also be electorally popular."

http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2022/04/more-proof-immigration-drives-housing-shortages/

There should be an analysis of homeless people.
Just who are they ? Are any of them millionaires ? Probably not.
Do any of them have $1000 ? If so why are they sleeping on the street ?
If they have no money, then why ? Even the unemployment benefit
should enable them to find some sort of shelter.
Even the Opal card would enable them to buy a ticket on an overnight
train.
Lot warmer than on the street.
I might be out of touch with reality, but I thought most charities
have available overnight accommodation.
There is supposed to be a dramatic shortage of workers !