City Futures Blog

By Hal Pawson and Vivienne Milligan In just four years since the advent of COVID-19, Australia’s house prices have climbed by a dizzying 50%. Defying orthodox expectations that property inflation would be quelled by rising interest rates, that upward trend has continued even since the RBA’s monetary tightening phase began in mid-2022, with prices up […]

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By Hal Pawson With this week’s announcements from the Coalition and Australian Greens, the contours of next year’s election housing debate have begun to take shape. It’s pretty clear that, as in four of the past six national polls, this policy area will be a flashpoint of the coming contest. While not laying out any […]

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Last week’s news of Australian house prices rising to a new record this month is notable, although with significant inflation affecting the country for the past 18 months, that won’t be a new peak in real terms. Even so, a 7.6% since January 2023 means a resumption of real terms price growth. That seems surprising […]

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By Hal Pawson After more than six months of Parliamentary wrangling, the ALP’s flagship housing future fund bill finally cleared the Senate last week. For Australia’s neglected social housing sector, this presages a welcome revival of federally-supported capital investment, absent for most of the past quarter century. But, in a longer-term perspective, the resulting program […]

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By Ben Knight, UNSW Media Social housing in Australia has been in neglect for more than two decades. With a growing shortfall, ballooning waitlists and exploding queueing times across the country from minimal investment, the sector desperately needs a way to fund the construction of new below-market rent dwellings, and quickly. With Federal Parliament sitting […]

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By Hal Pawson Along with a new scheme for first home buyer assistance, Federally-led rental reform is now on the PM’s agenda. But this week’s National Cabinet and Party Conference housing announcements badly need to be integrated into a coherent and ambitious long-term strategy. Anthony Albanese has signalled backing for ‘harmonising’ tenants’ rights, country-wide, importantly […]

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