Crowded house
Politicians are always ready to blame each other for the housing crisis. Yet both sides' solutions are remarkably similar.
Andrew Hauser is happy that the markets and economists appear to be finally convinced that interest rates aren’t shifting for a while longer. When the Reserve Bank deputy governor took to the stage on Monday afternoon at a Commonwealth Bank fireside chat, he said the recent response to the data had been “encouraging”.
But it’s hardly welcome news in Canberra.
Housing affordability was already set to be one of the hottest topics of the upcoming federal election. Now, with rates likely to stay firmly at over decade-long highs of 4.35% for at least a few more months, property is all but certain to dominate the discussion.
This is a high-stakes issue on many levels. AMP deputy chief economist Diana Mousina warns there’s “a high risk that affordability issues with housing will lead to social unrest”.
“The US, New Zealand, Australia and Canada are in the top 10 OECD countries with the highest homeless populations per 100,000 persons,” she says. “Generational angst around affordability is also an increasing problem … and will be a debated issue in the 2025 federal election.”
