Wherever the Grattan Institute appears, captured industry propaganda follows:
It’s more than a year since Daniel Andrews, in one of his last acts as premier, set a target for Victoria to build 800,000 new homes by the end of the decade. Now the Allan government, with its plans to upzone for more housing around 50 train and tram centres is finally getting serious about meeting that goal.
We have long known that Melbourne needs to build more homes in the inner and middle-ring suburbs where most Victorians most want to live.
I assume the Grattan shills mean their sponsor, property developer Peter Scalon, has long known Melbourne needs to be crush-loaded.
The broader media continues the fake concern about the housing crisis as well:
Younger Australians are failing to be swayed by populist promises to rein in negative gearing tax concessions, fearing any changes would force up rents and cruel their aspirations to one day own their home or build their wealth through property investment.
Amid a pitched battle between Labor, the Coalition and Greens over fixing the housing affordability crisis – highlighted by the political storm over Anthony Albanese’s purchase of a $4.3 million coastal home – the latest The Australian Financial Review/Freshwater Strategy poll shows more voters prefer the status quo than overhauling a tax concession enjoyed by almost 2.3 million investors.
One wonders why Freshwater doesn’t ask which party has the better housing policies because there is now a clear winner.
- The Greens central planning model is a disaster in the making with rent freezes and tax reforms combined with even higher immigration likely to result in a collapse of private-sector construction, making the housing shortage ultimately worse.
- Labor’s triple-headed price inflation carbuncle is so bad that it is a beggar’s belief. Shared equity, build-to-rent and massive underbuilding are its signature policies. It is hard to understand such terrible policy formulation at all until one recalls that the corrupt PM has just splurged $104.3m ($4.3m on the house, $100m on the approach road) on a coastal lovenest and needs prices to rise.
The winner is the LNP. Although it has several price inflationary ideas bouncing around as well – such as super for housing and easing lending standards for FHBs – it does, at least, address the elephant in the room.
The one-quarter cut to the permanent migration intake will dramatically lower pressure on rents so long as it polices the temporary visas currently being gamed by Albo’s Indian deluge.
The $5bn pledge for housing infrastructure is useful at the margin to boost supply.
As well, the material cuts to budget spending will help take pressure off interest rates, improving affordability. This will lift capital values so that construction can finally become profitable again. However, unlike the Labor model, combined with immigration cuts, that will restore supply and demand balance to the property market and prevent prices running away.
If you are unwilling to address demand then, like the corrupted Grattan and media, you are just another housing crisis phony.
