Another useful idiot. This time at Crikey which is borderline unreadable as a younger generation takes over.
Meet Benjamin Clarke:
When Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe raised the prospect last week of people co-habiting with more housemates as rents rise, some lambasted him as if it was an aloof prescription.
But Lowe was merely describing what will inevitably happen if more housing isn’t built, amid concerns that fewer cranes are on the horizons.
Last Tuesday, new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed a large drop in residential buildings approved for construction.
Apartment construction in particular is at a 10-year low. Unsurprisingly this has contributed to the rental crisis.
CoreLogic found recently that the rental price gap between houses and apartments went from $64 a week to $39 a week over the past 12 months.
Australians were building and moving into increasing numbers of apartments before the pandemic, albeit from a low base. But the overall share of detached homes in cities remains very high. And most new homebuyers still want to live in a three-bedroom detached home with parking.
They are mostly economising by forgoing yard space, but not so much floor space.
Our apartment aversion is a particular cultural pathology — the Australian dream has long been synonymous with owning a big block with a huge backyard and a garage for multiple large cars.
Indeed, the Commonwealth Bank found Australia has the largest average home size in the world.
Since when is being rich and comfortable “cultural pathology”?
Why must Australians give up their love of space and comfy homes just so Millennials can feel culturally superior?
This is beyond arrogant. It is stark, raving mad.
Have any of these pontificating Millennials traveled in Asia? The hubbub of highrise life is fun to visit but it is no place to raise kids. And it comes with immense squalor.
Generally speaking, they only do it owing to spacial or freedom constraints that Australia does not have!
Why would you choose that? Why are so many migrants trying to get into Australia to leave it?
The supply side of Australian property will never be fixed. The impediments are enormous and there is no will to do it in any political sphere anywhere in the country. Pinching the supply side is the economic model.
The only chance for those who do inherit to access a home is to reduce demand via immigration cuts which will be wildly popular with everybody (except, apparently, the youth that benefits most).
I feel very sorry for the Millennial generation. Education has brainwashed it with the woke mind virus, not uplifted and empowered it with history.
As a result, it cheers on its own demise via a cultural Marxist foghorn sold to it by vested interests capital.
