We suggest, however, it is not only the hike of the last two decades … but why did house prices escalate in a matter of weeks over Christmas to January 2021?
We are told ‘it’s the market’ … that’s what Agents say … BUT who set the prices?
In 2020 Agents before launching house sale campaigns … we have been told … argued that they market by advertising a low price guide to entice more buyers.
But in January 2021 we saw that some like houses went on the market at the reserve or above! At $200,000 more than the sale prices of those in November/December 2020!
Was it through these agents ‘laying the track’ that set the course for the further escalation of prices across Australia in 2021?
Real Estate Agents, or rather the game now being played is to ask Buyers how much would they pay? And as the campaign rolls on with dozens if not 100 aspirant buyers competing for the same house … in a 30 minute ‘Open Home’ … the price rises …
There may only be one or two ‘Open Homes’ available in a week … maintaining FOMO with this high competition … it would seem that the ‘marketing’ needs to be addressed by a consumer commission like that of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission?
And what led to this BOOM in house prices, and a whole Cohort of Australians being locked out of the market?
In the late 1990s the Howard Government introduced Temporary Visas for foreign workers which undercut wages for our people!
Prior to the Pandemic there were 2.3 MILLION Temporary Visa Holders in Australia! They were lured by an opportunity to invest in property and education to gain ‘Permanent Residency’ …
Compare this to the prior annual 70,000 permanent migrants intake!
In addition to this high immigration, Mr de Mello from the Economics Department of the OECD, also said that restrictive regulations of land use and zoning in our major cities contributed to the supply of new housing failing to meet this demand from high population growth.
Mr de Mello, who is not from here, can be forgiven for being unaware of how in Sydney we have already lost most of our ‘Green Belt’ mid 20th Century due to landbanking and redevelopment by developers!
But why do the RBA, Commonwealth and NSW Productivity Commissions call out planning restrictions when they are in full knowledge of the loss of our Green Belt, and how it came about?
‘Gradually the Cumberland County Council was forced to release more and more land in the Green Belt during the 1950s until it was abolished in 1963 and replaced by a state planning authority.’
“What happened to Sydney’s Green Belt? The bush to the west of Sydney in the Cumberland district was to be protected from suburbia,” was the question!
Read more!
And indeed ‘Migration matters’ to the developer lobby, the Urban Taskforce!
Extract from the first edition of ‘Urban Ideas’
‘What is now needed is a planning policy that drives the development of up to 10,000 well designed apartment buildings, in appropriate locations in metropolitan Sydney, over the next 25 to 30 years.
The Urban Taskforce supports the growth of Sydney as outlined in the Metropolitan Strategy. In fact, we believe that the growth could be higher than the governments predictions, if immigration levels are maintained.
We also understand that the community has concerns about the change of character that will flow from a move to a more urban environment. But somehow the extra 770,000 new housing units will need to go somewhere so we are demonstrating one approach towards this.’
https://www.urbantaskforce.com.au/urban-ideas-2/
DESPITE the fact that we are still part way through the COVID-19 PANDEMIC with its spread across the globe particularly in high density cities, this mob persist with plans for ever more high density high-rise!
AND here in Sydney and Melbourne due to lock-downs thousands of Australians in 2020 and 2021 moved out of apartments seeking the freedoms of living in detached housing, and moved to the regions to seek more affordable housing!
WHY should we in Australia ‘have to get outa the way for a more urban environment to benefit developers and foreign buyers’?
Australians largely live on the narrow coastal strip of the east coast for good reason … because Australia at its heart is desert country with mountain ranges. Australia experiences severe thunderstorms, droughts, heat waves, occasional floods and frequent bushfires!
There is a shortage of affordable housing for Australians, and even more locked out now with prices escalating in 2021!
Australians, it would seem obvious, need to lobby their politicians for a STOP to Political Donations of which the Liberal Coalition gets the lion’s share from developer groups!
And to lobby for a return to sustainable permanent migration of 70,000 per annum or less!
THE WAY out of this problem is to build affordable housing for Australians … to stop with the high immigration and return to the permanent sustainable migration system of 70,000 per annum … or less!
READ MORE! ‘Australian households have more mortgage debt than almost any advanced economy, a new OECD report finds. It blames one key factor’ https://www.businessinsider.com.au/australian-households-mortgage-debt-oecd-2021-6 SEARCH CAAN WEBSITE: https://caanhousinginequalitywithaussieslockedout.wordpress.com/
COMMUNITY ACTION ALLIANCE FOR NSW (CAAN): HOUSING INEQUALITY WITH AUSSIES LOCKED OUT! 