Aussies politicians are pigs in the property trough

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If you have ever wondered why Australia’s politicians never implement genuine policies to improve housing affordability, you only need to follow the money.

Genuinely improving housing affordability necessarily means that dwelling prices must fall. But with the majority of Australian households being homeowners, any decline in home values also means a reduction in value of their biggest source of wealth.

Our politicians’ high degree of property ownership acts as a second strong disincentive to implementing fundamental reforms to fix Australia’s housing affordability issues.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.