I was lucky in one respect, being a tradesman in the building industry, I was able to buy my present block of land and build my own house, but then as a self employed person, my income has always been very precarious and never more that $20,000 a year when I was working.

If I could have afforded to have children, I probably would have, but on reflection I think it a blessing that I didn't add to this already overcrowded world as most of the problems that we have, such as shortages of water, food, oil, living space, pollution etc., all boils down to trying to cram too many people onto a finite planet. As David Suzuki so wisely pointed out in OLO on 31st March - "In 1900 the world population stood at 1½ billion and there were only 16 cities with more than a million people. By the year 2000 the world population had quadrupled to 6 billion and over 400 cities with more than a million People" We now live in a world where science and medical research have given us extraordinary benefits compared with even 50 years ago, so is it surprising that we are spoiling it all with overcrowding that raises the cost of everything ?

Nearly every Western government is committed to expansion and subsidising human breeding. I just hope that, to use a financial expression, we don't have a hard landing.

Governments - i.e. taxpayers. - should not be doing anything to assist people own their own homes.

People need to get their priorities right and save.

"Governments - i.e. taxpayers. - should not be doing anything to assist people own their own homes."

Nor should Governments distort a market, and that is precisely what they are doing. The current mess has everything to do with obscure and restrictive development regulations and to a lesser extent mass immigration. It has almost nothing to do with subsidies. We really need to move away from this "blame the victim" mentality.

Shipping containers fitted out and placed in front yards across Australia would end the problem very quickly. This is a problem resultant from people having their rights taken from them. Restore the rights and end the problem.

In my first week in Australia I bought three units on two corner blocks close to the center of the city and I was ready to start my own business but family problems blocked me. 5 years later I divorced, my ex wife took 75% of the value of the three units and a house (of cause the children) and soon she returned with the children to her country. Soon I sold my property and I went overseas to bring my children with me in Australia. This story was not easy, at the end I took my children in Australia but I lost my property. In few days I found work but as sole parent with three children was not easy for me to buy again my own house. When my youngest son entered to University, two years before, I have started to rebuild my life, my first step was to establish my own business without to leave my job. Now I am working in two jobs, 8 days per week, I have to build my own business, and it is not easy! No thoughts for house!

Mr Right... I think ur being a bit harsh there mate.

Consider this.. we are all one big national family.. some do better than others on an individual level...ok.. but why don't we give a leg up to those struggling, through our government? I really believe its pretty much impossible now for a young couple on average wage to have a family and buy a home and a car..
Although I do agree that a strong sense of personal responsibility would make a big difference. If young people would save like crazy as soon as they have a job, they will have a MUCH better chance when they want to marry and have a family.

Government policy is often the cause of the barriers to home buying. So, it is quite appropriate for them to help the most disadvantaged.

Antonios.. sounds like you got the rough end of the stick their mate... hope it works out for you cobber.

BD,

I don't think that I'm being harsh.The current generation is just going through what previous generations did.

Why should losers and wastrels get a "leg up" from taxpayers? A bloke of your age should know that the 'victims', as someone called them, who are doing all the bleating now, belong to a group wanting everything now. Their parents are probably to blame, but that's irrelevant. No government in its right mind will start handing out taxpayer dollars to these people beyond and above the first home buyers allowance - something I never got.

I have two daughters. One is 40, the other 37. The younger one has worked hard, got herself a business, a house, a Jaguar and has just about completed her law studies. The older one has no job, 3 kids by 3 different fathers, and lives in a Housing Trust duplex.

Same background. Same parents. I know what can be done and what won't be done by the mortgage generation.

What do you mean by "Government policy is often the cause of the barriers to home buying"?

Fester, the 'victim' poster, seems to agree that it's the government's fault, but doesn't spell it out, relying, rather, on unsubstantiated 'distorted markets', 'obscure and restricted development regulations'.

Perhaps you can spell out just what the government is supposed to have done? I certainly will not accept the high immigration bit because every time I mention that Austalia's immigration is too high, the same people who now bellyache about the unnaffordability of housing are the first to scream 'racism'.

Give it your best shot. Prove to me why taxpayers like you and me should help the current generation out when we had no help at all, and things were the same, relatively, as they are now.