- 29 Dec 2023 07:24
#15299947
This is an article about how housing prices in Australia have reached high levels, and many people cannot find housing.
They say that the "Australian Dream" is over.
The year the Australian Dream died, by Tiffanie Turnbull, BBC News, Sydney, December 28, 2023
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-67723760
The usual wacky Left continues to blame capitalism and the free market, but very little talk over how the nation's population has increased 51% over the last 30 years - that population growth entirely fueled by immigration.
But that couldn't possibly have anything to do with the housing shortages and competition bidding up prices sky high, could it.
While it may be true Australia has a large land area, about 65% of Australia's total population resides within 70 km of just four major cities, and over 86% of Australia's population lives in urban areas.
From the article:
At the age of 31, Justin Dowswell never imagined he'd be living in a shared room in his childhood home.
He had a full-time, well-paying job in Sydney, and had rented for a decade before an unprecedented housing crisis forced him to upend his life and move back in with his parents, two hours away.
"It's humbling," he says. But the alternative was homelessness: 'So I'm one of the lucky ones'.
For generations, owning a house on a modest block of land has been idealised as both the ultimate marker of success and a gateway to a better life.
It's an aspiration that has wormed its way into the country's identity, helping to shape modern Australia.
But for current generations the dreams proffered to their parents and grandparents are out of reach.
After decades of government policies that treat housing as an investment not a right, many say they would be lucky to even find a stable, affordable place to rent.
"The Australian Dream… it's a big lie," Mr Dowswell says.
The average property now costs about nine times an ordinary household's income, triple what it was 25 years ago.
It's particularly dire for the three quarters of Australians who live in major cities. Sydney, for example, is the second least affordable city on Earth to buy a property, trailing only Hong Kong, according to the 2023 Demographia International Housing Affordability survey.
Australia has made home ownership virtually unattainable for almost anyone without family wealth. Last month the boss of a major bank, ANZ, said home loans had become home loans had become "the preserve of the rich".
Chelsea Hickman, a 28-year-old fashion designer, always imagined she'd become both a homeowner and a mother, but now worries that may be impossible.
"Financially, how could I ever afford both? The numbers just do not add up," she says.
She tells the BBC from her Melbourne shared house that despite working full-time for almost a decade, she can't even afford to rent an apartment by herself. Her friends are in a similar boat.
Tarek Bieganski, a 26-year-old IT manager, laughs when asked if he thinks he'll ever own property.
"It's just so obviously out of reach that it's not really even a thought anymore," he says. "And this is coming from someone that, really, has got it pretty good."
But with interest rates rising faster than at any time in Australia's history, even many of those who have scraped their way on to the property ladder now live in fear of falling off it.
The level of home ownership across the nation - while significantly dropping for young people - has overall stayed around two-thirds.
And those Australians are quite content to see house prices climb and their wealth grow.
Vacancies are at unprecedented, prolonged lows. And, with the greater demand, rents are skyrocketing.
The crisis is tipping people into homelessness or overcrowded living conditions.
Social or subsidised housing - once a safety net for those on low or moderate incomes - is not an option for most Australians either. The number of homes available is less than half of what is needed to meet immediate demand and wait lists are years long.
Melbourne woman Hayley Van Ree told us her rental prospects were so bleak that her mother raided her own retirement fund to buy an apartment and is now Ms Van Ree's landlord - eliciting what she describes as a confusing mix of relief, embarrassment and guilt.
"Friends who have parents who are in property have this kind of morbid knowledge that when their parents die, they might be ok," Ms Van Ree says. "I hate that it's my reality."
The government announced earlier this month that it would halve Australia's immigration intake and triple the fees for foreign homebuyers, both things they argue should help ease the strain.
They say that the "Australian Dream" is over.
The year the Australian Dream died, by Tiffanie Turnbull, BBC News, Sydney, December 28, 2023
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-67723760
The usual wacky Left continues to blame capitalism and the free market, but very little talk over how the nation's population has increased 51% over the last 30 years - that population growth entirely fueled by immigration.
But that couldn't possibly have anything to do with the housing shortages and competition bidding up prices sky high, could it.
While it may be true Australia has a large land area, about 65% of Australia's total population resides within 70 km of just four major cities, and over 86% of Australia's population lives in urban areas.
From the article:
At the age of 31, Justin Dowswell never imagined he'd be living in a shared room in his childhood home.
He had a full-time, well-paying job in Sydney, and had rented for a decade before an unprecedented housing crisis forced him to upend his life and move back in with his parents, two hours away.
"It's humbling," he says. But the alternative was homelessness: 'So I'm one of the lucky ones'.
For generations, owning a house on a modest block of land has been idealised as both the ultimate marker of success and a gateway to a better life.
It's an aspiration that has wormed its way into the country's identity, helping to shape modern Australia.
But for current generations the dreams proffered to their parents and grandparents are out of reach.
After decades of government policies that treat housing as an investment not a right, many say they would be lucky to even find a stable, affordable place to rent.
"The Australian Dream… it's a big lie," Mr Dowswell says.
The average property now costs about nine times an ordinary household's income, triple what it was 25 years ago.
It's particularly dire for the three quarters of Australians who live in major cities. Sydney, for example, is the second least affordable city on Earth to buy a property, trailing only Hong Kong, according to the 2023 Demographia International Housing Affordability survey.
Australia has made home ownership virtually unattainable for almost anyone without family wealth. Last month the boss of a major bank, ANZ, said home loans had become home loans had become "the preserve of the rich".
Chelsea Hickman, a 28-year-old fashion designer, always imagined she'd become both a homeowner and a mother, but now worries that may be impossible.
"Financially, how could I ever afford both? The numbers just do not add up," she says.
She tells the BBC from her Melbourne shared house that despite working full-time for almost a decade, she can't even afford to rent an apartment by herself. Her friends are in a similar boat.
Tarek Bieganski, a 26-year-old IT manager, laughs when asked if he thinks he'll ever own property.
"It's just so obviously out of reach that it's not really even a thought anymore," he says. "And this is coming from someone that, really, has got it pretty good."
But with interest rates rising faster than at any time in Australia's history, even many of those who have scraped their way on to the property ladder now live in fear of falling off it.
The level of home ownership across the nation - while significantly dropping for young people - has overall stayed around two-thirds.
And those Australians are quite content to see house prices climb and their wealth grow.
Vacancies are at unprecedented, prolonged lows. And, with the greater demand, rents are skyrocketing.
The crisis is tipping people into homelessness or overcrowded living conditions.
Social or subsidised housing - once a safety net for those on low or moderate incomes - is not an option for most Australians either. The number of homes available is less than half of what is needed to meet immediate demand and wait lists are years long.
Melbourne woman Hayley Van Ree told us her rental prospects were so bleak that her mother raided her own retirement fund to buy an apartment and is now Ms Van Ree's landlord - eliciting what she describes as a confusing mix of relief, embarrassment and guilt.
"Friends who have parents who are in property have this kind of morbid knowledge that when their parents die, they might be ok," Ms Van Ree says. "I hate that it's my reality."
The government announced earlier this month that it would halve Australia's immigration intake and triple the fees for foreign homebuyers, both things they argue should help ease the strain.
- By Rich
- By ingliz
- By Skynet