Unsustainable pressure on the housing market follow Natural disasters:

Rising immigration pressure on housing, recent floods and cyclone event in Queensland and Victoria give way to rent gouging in Tully following cyclone.

Traditional running sores of exacerbation are:
Lack of government controls on rents and total lack of interest in the consequences to Australians of the housing crisis.
Lack of alternatives to expensive available housing as caravan parks join the rent gougers, offering inferior alternate housing at super inflated prices.

A market abandoned to a fundamental of self serving profiteers in the real estate industry. (The new age mafia).

No end in sight. The market system has failed Australians, and worsens by the day.
Housing is the new and emerging National catastrophe. Will the trail of this Engineered human cyclone be tracked and dealt with

diver dan maybe you are looking at it from the wrong angle.
Governments do not build as much public housing as they once did.
I think they should do more there.
But it is the only intervention I support, rentals would be hard to control using laws and such ,other than quality of building rented.
I doubt government intervention is an answer to every thing.
It is true we are bound for shortages of trades persons and every thing that comes with building.
And price increases for every thing follows.
The way to ease this pressure on rents is in My view more public housing, but it too should not be at a loss.
In fact honest rents could finance more public housing.

Belly:

“Freedom of markets is positively correlated with the degree of evolution in society”..

If that is true then;

Do you agree that the Free enterprise housing market is forcing societies evolution in the wrong direction by creating deliberate shortages, or are the shortages of affordable housing accidental? If accidental, then how do Governments correct the trend in time to stall the inevitable crisis of homelessness the shortages will create

Your talking of a selective market. Supply and demand is the name of the game. On this occasion you want govt; control.
It's wrong to blame govt; You will have to think a bit deeper.
It's incredible how no one has mentioned Tony today.

Do not think I do not understand dan, I very much do.
I am from a large family dad worked on the railways and we rented and moved a lot.
Market forces are the driver, markets and investors owe us nothing.
We are not a socialist country, and if every one forced home their wishes we would have to be.
I went through the fire many times of looking for another house to rent.
Public housing is an answer but sorry not as it is used , well of people renting while the poor suffer.
I would target more of them if I wanted things to get better.
I purchased second hand home transported from Sydney and rebuilt.
If I ever won enough I would stay here still McMansions will bring great pain to many,we should build smaller.

Dan, you do go on.

Suggesting that landlords are self serving profiteers is not getting you anywhere. Why don't you say what you mean? What should rents be, do you think?

To put a floor in the rental market, look at alternatives.

Any bank will give me 6.0% on a 6 month term deposit. If I walk into any of them, with the $350,000 I would have to pay for any new or reasonable rental home, in an outer suburb, I would do much better than that. But lets use that for the moment.

6% on $350,000 gives me a little over $400 a week net. To equal that income from a house I would have to get in excess of $450 a week rent minimum, more likely over $500.

With house prices falling, I could have difficulty getting my money back, in the short to medium term. The prospect of capital gain, which is usually necessary to make any real estate investment viable, is very long term indeed.

So what do you think would be a reasonable rent?

Public housing is definitely immoral. Governments will usually manage to spend $500,000 on a $350,000 house, so the rent should be much higher than private.

Why anyone believes they have some right to have those paying high private rental, or mortgage repayments, subsidise their accommodation, with their taxes, I really can't imagine.