Australian folklore has always had us believing that we are high on the list of home-ownership. Actually, we are 26th on the list, at 66% (down from 70% seven years ago). Hungary is on top with 90% home ownership, and Switzerland comes in at 40%.

That leaves quite a few Australian renters more and more relying on private landlords because Australian governments are not big on providing shelter for people who can't afford to buy.

Between 1955 and 1978, Australia built an average of 15,400 public homes per year.

Between 1979 and 1990, the average annual number of public homes built fell to 11,700 per year.

Between 1991 and 1999, the average annual number of public homes built fell further to 8,000 a year.

And so far this century, the average annual number of public homes built has collapsed to only 4,000 a year.

So, the current housing crisis started 50 years ago. And leaving the problem to the market hasn't worked; the public percentage of all home building has gone downfrom 22% in 1955 to 2% in 2022, at a time when mass immigration has become more massive than it has ever been. (Source: macrobusiness.com.au).

Good statistics ttbn. Kudos.

CM

Thanks.

I'm glad you posted. You might be interested in downloading a free pdf issue of Quadrant on line containing arguments against the Voice, including a 'progressive' argument against. Others might be interested too, but I didn't think it was politic to make a special 'announcement' and be accused of advertising, particularly of something conservative, right wing and sundry epithets.

Yes ttbn I would be interested in the Quadrant article pdf on The Voice. Thanks.

Labor and the gangreens want to punish landlords for making money by renting out their properties so now there are less properties for rent and people are building fewer properties for investment.

Simple.

ttbn,

Thanks for the statistics, the housing crisis has been growing in Australia for 50 years, not since the 1970's has Australia enjoyed a decent supply of affordable housing, despite mass immigration during the 50's and 60's. The decline in public housing is only partly responsible for the slide in home ownership, an overheated property market created by cashed up buyers in a restricted market has forced up prices, firstly in Sydney, and then later in Melbourne and the other capital cities, it has now spread to the regional centres as well, and this is pricing new home buyers out of the market. Both state and federal governments have been responsible, for firstly failing to decentralise, and then failing to release enough affordable land to allow the less financial in society an opportunity to buy their own home. Its a difficult manoeuvre to turn the ship around, but action is need now, otherwise the homeless and unsatisfactory housing situation is only going to get worse.

If Google is to be believed, countries like: Laos (95%) at number one home ownership; down though Kenya, Iceland and Brazil, 70 percenters, to Canada and Australia 66%.

Makes you wonder, when "wog" countries outdo us. Even Vietnam beats us.

Of course, the dwellings might be humpies, but with different living standards anyway, are those people any worse off than we are, with no mortgages, enough to eat, strong families. In Australia, only 30% of owner occupiers do not have a mortgage over their heads - which will still be there when they reach retiring age. The days of paying off your mortgage before you retire - the relief and the pride - seem to have gone, according to available information. And the bank of Mum and Dad won't be around much longer, as boomers pop their clogs.

I'm OK. I paid off three mortgages in quick time, with saving, sacrifice and common sense. Most of my generation is OK. But those coming on need to start calling out the self-serving bullsh.t artists posing as politicians in this country.

Not surprisingly, our dropkick politicians have allowed Australia to be the top overseas destination for Chinese property buyers in the first half of 2023. Chinese buyers are more active in the market than the official Foreign Investments Review Board data claims.

Chinese buyer activity helps explain why house values have risen so rapidly despite ongoing interest rate hikes. Chinese buyers purchase without a mortgage, and are unaffected by interest rate rises.

Meanwhile, in the Queensland town of Glenden, 300 houses look like being bulldozed after the Glencore mining company quits, and an incoming company wants to build a workers camp.

There's been many funny and disturbing comments
today, and in the past, from leaders whose comments
were examples of their obliviousness to the conditions
and daily lives of ordinary people.

Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, during the French
Revolution when told that the starving peasant
subjects did not have bread responded with - "Let
them eat cake."( Cake being more expensive than bread.)

Former PM Scott Morrison's comment:

"If you can't afford rent, buy a house," is both funny and
disturbing.

So many Australians, many of whom are young people with
low wealth and heavily taxed incomes and government subsidies
for a relative minority put upward pressure on prices for the
many, preventing a trade off where it is more difficult to
save a deposit for a home.

Therefore such comments are
disturbing and reflect on how far removed some leaders are from
the reality on the ground.

We have a housing crisis - and it is only going to get worse
with wasteful attempts at funding of expensive
undertakings such as the Commonwealth Games.
Rational planning is needed - which appears
that our elected officials are not
capable of undertaking
and instead of trying to solve problems, some play politics by
creating even further problems - which in many more cases are
very expensive to resolve.

Are we going to end up with "tent cities," as we see in other
countries?

Hi Foxy,

Morrison has become a pathetic character, a dead weight sitting on the Liberal Party backbench, offering nothing of substance, simply drawing his pay under false pretences. There he was yesterday addressing an almost empty parliamentary chamber, even his own side of politics uninterested, or uncaring, about what he might have to say. There was the "once great man" wailing to the few, crying of his innocence with his part in the scandalous Robodebt, sobbing how he's been framed by vengeful conspirators and detractors. Guilty as sin, Morrison fools no one! The quicker the bloke disappears into the dustbin of history the better!

Dear Paul,

I guess Morrison has a right to sit in parliament until he,
like Tony Abbott was, gets tossed out of his electorate.

Another agreement with Paul.

Yes Paul it is government, but particularly state & local restriction of land release that is causing a large part of housing costs. Interestingly it was none other than that idiot Peter Beattie that wanted Yarrabilba delayed for 20 years. Now already the area is carpeted with houses on postage stamp block, offered at $299,000 for so little it would be hard to play marbles on them.

Not only do they restrict release of building blocks, they load all developments with gross charges adding 10s of thousands to each block.

You know why there's a housing crisis?
- Because it suits the government for things to be this way.

They could fix things if they really wanted to.

All this talk about the cost of living crisis is barely any different.

Do you all not realise when you see shops advertising 50% off or half price
- That means they PUT AT LEAST 100% on top of what they paid to begin with?

It's simple maths, if I buy something wholesale for $100 and mark up the item 100% it then becomes $200 retail.
- Only then can I offer a 50% discount and not lose money
($200 item selling for $100 with 50% discount)

If I was losing money, then I wouldn't say 50% off, I'd say 'below cost'.

50% off = 100% on.

Everywhere you go, everything you buy, 50% off during sales and at other times
Think 100%+ on, not 50% off.

And the government's happy with this cartel, they're the worst of all.

It took 10% from the manufacturer, 10% from the wholesaler and 10% from the consumer, on JUST ABOUT EVERY SINGLE ITEM YOU PURCHASE.

It even wants a cut of the toilet paper sales when you have to wipe your bum.
- Might as well be a tax on eating.

Climate change agenda, well that's a global tax on breathing.
Payment due, just for being born.

This Greens halt on rent increases is ridiculous.
Are they going to put a halt on interest rates as well?
A halt on payrises for tradies?
A halt on fuel and construction costs?
A halt on inflation?

No they choose the weakest target, the citizens themselves.
It'll just mean less houses are built and exasperate the problem, while the government brings in another 200,000+ immigrants a year.
- They've been doing far more to create this housing crisis themselves than they're even capable of fixing.

Their mouths write checks that they can't cash.
- And we all know they are liars anyway.

Our country is held hostage by complete morons who hold power.

Peter Beattie
I was just a young bloke back then, I'd barely hit puberty when I first started to understand politicians are liars.

Do any of you remember him saying it would only be a few years of tolls and the gateway bridge would be free?

A couple of years later I came to understand it was all a lie.
Close to 40 years later they're still charging tolls to cross that bridge.
It had a lasting impact on the way I saw politicians I think.
- Just that one single broken promise.

Liars.

It would be interesting to know just how much money they've actually made off that bridge over the years...
- Pick any number and then add a whole lot of zeros...

In the same way as Marie Antionette never said "Let them eat cake". Morrison never said "If you can't afford rent, buy a house," even though Foxy put it it quotes.

Its just another one of those myths that are too good for people to want to check.

mhaze,

Why are you so adamant they didn't say those things, were you there in the golden coach sitting between Marie and Scotty when they were mouthing off? Or is it because they are both from your side of politics. Me thinks so. Some even say Marie was trying to be kind, if you don't have bread, naturally you eat cake, what do want rump steak! Not so sure about Scotty. He could have said, if you you can't afford to live in a house, then live in a mansion, like me. Was it Scotty who said something like, if you can't find a job, then just start a dot com business and become a millionaire like me. Scotty was full of great ideas, like Robodebt, French subs, blackboards, car parks etc etc.

The Robodebt fiasco is the clearest indicator yet why Public Servants should not be allowed to vote, especially when 90% of them are Labor supporters out to sabotage anything a Coalition Govt does to discredit it !

I watched a couple of videos this morning.
And I couldn't help asking myself 'At what point does democracy itself become so toxic that it becomes the main problem'

Senior ABC journalist caught on hot mic making ‘astonishing’ COVID admission
http://youtu.be/ZH2Z1URrRwk

This bloke seems to be admitting that bias within the ABC (because of anti-trump rhetoric) kept him from looking at and reporting things impartially.

What’s Actually Happening At U.S.-Mexico Border Is MIND BLOWING!
http://youtu.be/Or-nL97vwU0

This one was RFK Jr talking about 7 million illegal immigrants crossing the US southern border with the help of, and after paying off mexican cartels to the tune of 10 to 15 thousand each.

Because of fighting between the Trump position and and the Democrats position, a problem has remained unsolved, and the border policy might as well be set by the mexican cartels, and the US may as well be funding them billions every year to manage it.

- And think about that in relation to Russian sanctions, the collective west has done a pretty good job destroying itself for those sanctions, all the while the US government is more or less directly funding the mexican cartels to bring million of illegal immigrants in.
- It's complete madness.

I understand that democracy means we have 2 main political parties, but what happens when they can't agree and can't work together for the best interest of the people.

At what point does democracy itself become hamstrung, and not at all in the interests of the citizens who already live in the country and by the ideals and purpose of democracy are supposed to be able to determine a future for themselves?

i.e not a future determined by party v's party fighting and inaction.

[Cont.]
A dictator, would just move to fix the problem and stop the illegal immigrants.
- The US has 2 parties, but neither of them can do that.
Even a dictator if one hypothetically ruled our nation, would just reduce immigration and build more houses.
- We have 2 parties and neither of them can do that.

And how are they ever going to fix the problem rather than exasperate it bringing in 400 thousand people a year?

How are house prices and rent not going to increase?

Think about the government giving Qantas 2 billion during the pandemic.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/22/qantas-on-track-to-collect-2bn-of-support-as-morrison-government-criticised-for-not-seeking-stake
What do we get - 1000 immigrants a day exasperating the housing situation for the whole entire country?

The government is planning on spending 10 billion to build 30,000 homes over 5 years.
https://www.dss.gov.au/housing-support-programs-services-housing/national-housing-and-homelessness-plan

6,000 a year, and who is going to get those homes?
Not Australians, given the woke nature of our government.
Those homes will go to the immigrants.
'vulnerable minority groups' will likely get priority.

So who wins under our 'democracy'?
Not us, it's the immigrants getting the majority of the benefits.
- At the expense of everyone else.

And who writes the policies for our country? not the politicians,
- That would be the bankers, industry and big business.

Paul wrote: "Why are you so adamant they didn't say those things...."

Because I bothered to check. You should try it some time.

Foxy said-
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, during the French
Revolution when told that the starving peasant
subjects did not have bread responded with - "Let
them eat cake."( Cake being more expensive than bread.)

Answer- I think that Marie Antoinette wanted to give the peasants cake- not sell it to them- hopefully ScoMo isn't likewise misrepresented.

Antoinette's failure perhaps was more that she wanted to give the scraps of their party- highlighting the peasants position in society. Perhaps Antoinette should have managed by walking around as later American business systems have advised- rather than give an opinion of something she didn't understand. She wasn't bad just foolish- perhaps the communists are more bad than foolish- and current technology enables slavery by the government surveilance state much more effectively than 18th Century France. As Sadam Hussein said even dictators need to be aware of the will of the people.

In a sense I see the system as a kleptocracy- the government co-opts elected into systemically unstable actions and then they are buffered against those attempting to reverse it. Just shows how law and policy can be used to move the mass on the scale every against the long term interest of a people. Like the mafia- but wasn't John Locke's Liberal Democracy designed to replace gang politics- it isn't doing it.

Armchair Critic said-

-You know why there's a housing crisis? - Because it suits the government for things to be this way.
They could fix things if they really wanted to.

-6,000 a year, and who is going to get those homes? Not Australians, given the woke nature of our government. Those homes will go to the immigrants.

-At what point does democracy itself become hamstrung, and not at all in the interests of the citizens who already live in the country and by the ideals and purpose of democracy are supposed to be able to determine a future for themselves?

Answer- Kudos. It seems that our so called democracy is not providing value to the people. It's been hijacked by special interests. Someone should do a "Julius Sumner Miller" and investigate "why is this so?" Famous for the adverts of the boiled egg in the milk bottle. Foxy will be keen to say that he was Lithuanian.

"We are approaching a darkness in the land. Boys and girls are emerging from every level of school with certificates and degrees, but they can't read, write or calculate. We don't have academic honesty or intellectual rigor. Schools have abandoned integrity and rigor."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Sumner_Miller

I believe that communist woke-ism also writes the policies for our country. But yes also global businesses are strangely complicit in communism- until the globalist communist power brokers have taken over the businesses. This is "not a government of the local people" it is a dictatorship as the declaration says.

Also thanks Mhaze again for persistently holding certain parties accountable for their own comments

Perhaps a native monarch would be/ is more democratic than our klepto-democracy.

"Even a dictator if one hypothetically ruled our nation, would just reduce immigration and build more houses."

The trouble is that dictators rarely act in the best interests of their country. They work in their own best interests. Everyone thinks the next dictator will be benign, and are surprised when they're not.

While you naively think a dictator will resolve the homeless problem by building more houses, history suggests that a dictator will look for other solutions.... http://thejewishvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Special-Features-Cattle-Cars-article-pic-1.jpg

The "Let them eat cake," quote was given simply
as an example of an out of touch leader. An
example of a frivolous disregard for the starving
peasants and a poor understanding of their plight.

Whether Marie Antoinette really made that statement
is debatable. The monarchy was abolished and Louis XVI
was executed by guillotine as was Marie Antoinette.

It's doubtful if giving the starving peasants cake
would have saved her.

Mhaze- I think Armchair Critic included "Monarch's and Dictator's" under the heading of "Dictator"- but he can speak for himself. I'm not sure that all Monarch's and Dictator's are equal and are to an extent dependent on the supporting infrastructure. Aristotle's breakdown is useful. But as they say there is a time for all things. National crises often demand a different form of governing processes- but those governments that manufacture crises in order to justify and validate their response in a self serving way are probably "different".

The obvious solution to Australia’s chronic growing pains is to reduce immigration to levels that are proportional to our ability to supply new housing and infrastructure.

Nobody voted for Labor’s massive immigration plan, and the overwhelming majority of voters oppose it.

Hey ttbn,

"Nobody voted for Labor’s massive immigration plan, and the overwhelming majority of voters oppose it."

The problem is, it's not labors plan.
They are just implementing UN Sustainable Development Goal plans.
(Which means that you could probably expect the other team to do exactly the same)
See for yourself:
http://publications.iom.int/books/migration-and-2030-agenda-guide-practitioners

What we regular Aussie's want or think is best for the country doesn't matter,
And if we complained our voices would be drowned out by people who identify as immigrants and who would scream 'racist!'.

Their aim is not to prevent migration, but to facilitate it.

...Funny how I don't remember a referendum for this.

"Whether Marie Antoinette really made that statement is debatable."

Not really - she didn't.

What's not debatable is that Morrison didn't make the statement you attributed to him.

There are other ways of doing things.

"Austria has the second-highest share of social housing in its total dwelling stock among OECD countries, reaching 24 percent in 2019 (OECD, 2020). This high average ratio across the country is driven by the concentration of social housing in the capital city, Vienna, where the share of social housing is nearly 44 percent (in 2019). This performance results from a specific way of supplying and managing social housing, which involves municipalities and limited-profit housing associations. Both pillars of the system matter: for instance, in Vienna, almost 23 percent of households live in social housing provided by the municipal government and 21 percent in social housing provided by the limited-profit housing associations."
http://housingpolicytoolkit.oecd.org/www/CountryFiches/housing-policy-Austria.pdf

And just look at where Australia sits in graph (d).

According to a poll conducted by the Strata Community Association NSW in October 2021, nearly four out of every ten new apartment complexes in NSW had major flaws.

Massive immigration necessitated the construction of tens of thousands of additional dwellings each year, resulting in a focus on speed above quality and poor building standards.

The Albanese Government has now opened the floodgates to record levels of immigration, with 1.5 million net overseas migrants predicted to arrive in Australia by 2026-27, with the vast majority settling in major capital cities.

Building standards will be lowered in order to build apartments as quickly as possible in order to house the soaring population.

More shoddy high-rise apartments will be developed in Australia’s cities to house the Albanese Government’s rash mass immigration policy.

Not surprisingly, our dropkick politicians have allowed Australia to be the top overseas destination for Chinese property buyers in the first half of 2023. Chinese buyers are more active in the market than the official Foreign Investments Review Board data claims.

Chinese buyer activity helps explain why house values have risen so rapidly despite ongoing interest rate hikes. Chinese buyers purchase without a mortgage, and are unaffected by interest rate rises.

hey ttbn,
"According to a poll conducted by the Strata Community Association NSW in October 2021, nearly four out of every ten new apartment complexes in NSW had major flaws.

Massive immigration necessitated the construction of tens of thousands of additional dwellings each year, resulting in a focus on speed above quality and poor building standards."

Why do you think the standards dropped?

- Those same unskilled immigrants were given construction jobs

AC

That could be right. We might be seeing the same shoddy workmanship that causes horrific building collapses and deaths overseas. Safe buildings were not something we had to worry about prior to mass immigration of people from Third World countries where standards are lower than we used to expect here.

I certainly wouldn't want to live in one of the high rise chicken coops that are being flung up.

Hi AC,

True, there has been a decline in construction standards, and some of it is down to shoddy workmanship. But a lot can be attributed to poor design, and cost cutting on the part of developers. The old build it cheap, and sell dear philosophy. Over the years, project home builders were notorious for shoddy work and cost cutting. right back to the 1960's

p/s High rise is simply "meccano set" style construction, and given 30 years, we'll see how well they stand up.

Paul1405,
I can't argue with that assessment ! Greed is the overall cause !

The news is that landlords are dumping investment properties - sales of rental homes up from 8% to 29.5% in a month. Rising costs, including mortgages are blamed.

The real blame lies with government interference and incompetence in matters they have no business meddling in.

"The real blame lies with government interference and incompetence in matters they have no business meddling in."

What has government ever been competent in, apart from spending other peoples money?

This is National Homeless week, with 120,000 people, that's just shy of the population of Darwin, without a roof over their heads. Australians sleeping rough in parks, tents, the bush, doorways, on concrete, in cars. Its a national disgrace, and a pox on all political parties, state and federal, Labor, Coalition, Greens and the others for allowing such a terrible situation to develop, while all the time bickering among themselves. trying to score political points.