City Futures Blog

News and research in housing and urban policy, from Australia’s leading urban policy research centre.

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Entries Tagged as 'Finance'

Why western Sydney is a magnet for investors

February 19th, 2020 · No Comments · Demographics, Finance, Housing, Private rental, Sydney, Tenancy

Western Sydney is popular with investors but most of these investors do not live there. Photo: Brendan Esposito By Hal Pawson and Chris Martin, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published at Domain. With the latest ABS statistics indicating a fourth straight quarter of rental investor housing finance growth, it appears that Australia’s private landlords are rediscovering a taste for […]

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Australia’s housing system needs a big shake-up: here’s how we can crack this

February 17th, 2020 · No Comments · Affordability, Economy, Finance, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, Tenancy

By Hal Pawson, UNSW; Judith Yates, University of Sydney, and Vivienne Milligan, UNSW. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Despite two years of housing market cooling in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia stayed near the top of the global unaffordability league in 2019. And with prices rebounding […]

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The First Home Loan Deposit Scheme: Housing affordability action – or just more busy work?

October 31st, 2019 · No Comments · Affordability, Finance, Government, Housing

By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. The Australian Government has this week revealed the policy details for the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (FHLDS). From 1 January qualifying first home buyers (FHBs) become eligible for a government guarantee that will enable them to access a mortgage with a 5% deposit rather than the normal […]

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Australia’s social housing policy needs stronger leadership and an investment overhaul

June 26th, 2019 · No Comments · Economy, Finance, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, Productivity

Energy efficient social housing in Tasmania. Xsquared, Hobart, Author provided By Julie Lawson, RMIT University; Jago Dodson, RMIT University; Kathleen Flanagan, University of Tasmania; Keith Jacobs, University of Tasmania; Laurence Troy, UNSW, and Ryan van den Nouwelant, Western Sydney University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. […]

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Is social housing essential infrastructure? How we think about it does matter

February 6th, 2019 · No Comments · Finance, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Productivity

By Kathleen Flanagan, University of Tasmania; Chris Martin, UNSW Sydney; Julie Lawson, RMIT University, and Keith Jacobs, University of Tasmania. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. We know that safe, adequate, affordable and appropriate housing is essential for our health, well-being and social and economic security. […]

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Labor’s housing pledge is welcome, but direct investment in social housing would improve it

December 19th, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Finance, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply

By Julie Lawson, RMIT University and Laurence Troy, UNSW. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Despite recent falls in the housing market, housing costs and indebtedness bite deeply into household budgets, especially at Christmas time. Just over 433,000 households confront housing stress and homelessness every day […]

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Australia needs to triple its social housing by 2036. This is the best way to do it

November 15th, 2018 · No Comments · Demographics, Finance, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply

By Julie Lawson, RMIT University; Hal Pawson, UNSW; Laurence Troy, UNSW, and Ryan van den Nouwelant, Western Sydney University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Australia needs to triple its small stock of social housing over the next 20 years to cover both the existing backlog […]

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The new national housing agreement won’t achieve its goals without enough funding

July 17th, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Finance, Government, Housing, Housing supply

By Vivienne Milligan, City Futures Research Centre. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. This month, yet another policy agreement on housing between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments came into effect. The National Housing and Homelessness Agreement is the latest version of a 73-year-long series of such intergovernmental […]

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Last year’s affordable housing green shoots have withered

May 22nd, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Economy, Finance, Government, Housing

By Chris Martin and Hal Pawson. This article was originally published on John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations. Budget 2018 fails the 1.5 million Australian households living in unaffordable rental housing or officially homeless, despite the urgent need for Commonwealth leadership on affordable housing policy. On Budget night 2017 Treasurer Morrison announced a ‘comprehensive plan to […]

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Wealthy landlords and more sharehousing: how the rental sector is changing

April 5th, 2018 · No Comments · Demographics, Finance, Government, Housing, Housing conditions, Marginal rental, Private rental, Tenancy, Uncategorized

By Chris Martin. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. More people are becoming heavily indebted by buying rental properties and shared accommodation is flourishing, as third party tech platforms help people find a place without a real estate agent. A new report from the Australian Housing and Urban Research […]

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