Federal government must address immigration, superannuation, and international investors to expand home ownership
The Institute of Public Affairs welcomes the opportunity to provide this analysis to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics as it conducts its inquiry into the financial regulatory framework and home ownership.
Home ownership is central to the Australian way of life and gives Australians a stake in the nation. Ensuring the right policies are in place to enable and encourage Australians to become homeowners should be a key focus of the federal and state governments.
Australia’s housing affordability and availability challenge is a consequence of supply and demand issues. On the supply side, the construction of new housing is constrained by restrictive planning laws and regulations applied at the state and local level. On the demand side, Australia has experienced an unprecedented surge in its migration intake in recent years, and this is straining the housing market.
The policy levers available to the federal government have significant influence over the demand side pressures on the housing market. These include:
• Dramatically reducing the intake of net migration to reduce housing demand.
• Allowing Australian buyers to access their super to help purchase their first home.
• Strengthening the restrictions on foreign property investors.
