Australian Property

Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, who authored the 1000-page review of Australia’s tax system in 2010, has urged the federal government to pursue tax reform.

Everybody knows that Australia is suffering from a severe housing shortage.

For a profession based on sales commissions, Australian real estate agents are experiencing their own version of the Hunger Games.

Albo’s recent promise breaker tax cut changes have triggered an iMSM debate about the prospects of Labor backflipping next on negative gearing.

HSBC has released analysis showing how since the pandemic, birth rates have fallen considerably faster than predicted three or four years ago.

The ABC was at it again last week admonishing “shoddy development work” across NSW.

On Australia Day, I was interviewed by ABC Brisbane’s Steve Austin, where we discussed in detail the impact of the federal government’s mass immigration policy on Australia’s rental crisis.

NAB CEO Ross McEwan has released the bank’s 2024 outlook, in which McEwan worries that “the great Australian dream of owning your own home is at risk”, amid the worst affordability in 30 years, soaring rents, and the deepening housing shortage: “Affordability is at a 30-year low, and rental prices are rapidly increasing.

New analysis from Domain shows that asking rents in most major capital cities have risen at least twice as quickly as wages since the pandemic began, placing pressure on tenants facing a cost-of-living crisis.

Oxford Economics has released its Residential Property Prospects report, which forecasts a growing gap between the number of dwellings being built and the number needed to house Australians.

NSW Building Commissioner, David Chandler, has admitted that recently built Sydney apartments are riddled with defects.

Analysts at Citi have warned that Australian housing construction could hit an “air pocket” in 2024 as the backlog on homes under construction finally catches up with falling approvals.

Perth is currently Australia’s house price leader.

Last decade saw the biggest boom in high-rise apartment construction in Australia’s history, led by Sydney: The boom led to disastrous results, with huge numbers of apartments experiencing cracking, water leaks, balcony defects, flammable cladding, and other quality problems.

Last year, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) reported that Australia had a record 2.2 million landlords in 2020-21, when the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lowered interest rates to an all-time low 0.1%.

The primary cause of Australia’s current rental crisis is obvious: the record surge in the nation’s net overseas migration, which saw an unprecedented 518,000 net migrants land in 2022-23: This surge in population demand has driven rental vacancy rates to historical lows, while driving rental prices to the moon.

Below is a panel discussion featuring me, Warren Hogan (chief economic advisor to Judo Bank), and Sky News host Sharri Markson discussing Australia’s cost of living crisis and whether relief will be provided by the Albanese government.