Desperate buyers camp out for housing lots

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At various times over the past 20 years we witnessed desperate home buyers camp-out at developers’ offices to secure new land releases.

Former home builder and MP, Bob Day, explained this phenomenon in his maiden Parliamentary speech in 2014:

“To buy a block of land on which to build their first home, young couples are forced to camp out overnight by rent-seeking land developers and their state government cronies for the privilege of paying an exorbitant amount of money for a measly one-tenth of an acre of former farmland—land that developers and state governments between them managed to convert from $10,000 a hectare to $1 million a hectare. It leaves all other forms of price gouging in its wake”.

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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.