Housing affordability: cutting immigration superior to planning reform

It appears that the average Australian knows more about housing affordability than YIMBY lobbyists, such as the Grattan Institute and the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS).

The Report from the 2025 Australian Cooperative Election Survey by Macquarie University, based on the views of 4,012 survey participants, showed that immigration/population growth was considered the leading contributor to Australia’s housing crisis, with 39% of respondents placing it in their top three causes:

In contrast, despite the howls from YIMBY lobbyists, “overly restrictive planning” barely registered as a cause of the housing crisis, with only 8% of survey respondents ranking it in the top three causes.

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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.