Albo’s all-new house price ponzi scheme

Thursday 12 February 2026

In reality, the housing bubble has been eating into all levels of government budgets for many years.

Stamp duty is a revenue component that has increased structurally over time.

AHURI estimates that Australian governments have spent a total of $20.5 billion on first-home-buyer schemes of various kinds from 2012-2021.

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:

$24.99 / month

$249 / year

Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe

About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.