Tim Gurner recently made himself the top candidate for Australia’s most unpopular man when he declared the following:
Gurner Group founder Tim Gurner tells the Financial Review Property Summit workers have become “arrogant” since COVID and “We’ve got to kill that attitude.” https://t.co/lcX3CCxGuj pic.twitter.com/f9HK2YZRRE
— Financial Review (@FinancialReview) September 12, 2023
Now he is back with his blame game for workers:
One of Australia’s biggest property developers says Peter Dutton’s plan to slash permanent migration as a way to fix acute housing shortages will only make the problem worse, driving away desperately needed skilled migrants while damaging long-term productivity and economic growth.
“You cannot fix supply by reducing demand,” developer Tim Gurner told AFR Weekend, responding to the key policy announcement in the opposition leader’s budget reply speech.
…“By reducing demand even more, supply completely evaporates, which has huge ramifications for jobs and productivity.”
This is completely backwards, of course. The immigration-led population growth model is wiping out productivity because of capital shallowing. This is a simple statistical fact:
If immigration is cut enough that housing (and wider) demand slows (we are not even talking about falls), interest rates will fall and property prices will rise.
This will make building easier, not harder, as it becomes profitable again while capital values rise and building material costs fall.
If Tim Gurner Constructions can’t attract the workers he needs, that’s his problem.
