There are many complicating factors:
- Too much immigration
- Government leaving it to private ownership
- Housing price bubble
- Post-COVID materials increases
- Red tape
- Wages not keeping up
- Councils not having the land
- A fixation with standalone housing
Governments blame councils, councils blame developers, developers blame costs, and around and around it goes. Lots of promises, but our housing supply is going backwards relative to how many residents we have.
When I was a kid, in NZ, poor people often lived in “council houses”. They were pre-concrete slab houses, square, weatherboard, and often painted light green, yellow or blue. The were recognisable because there were so many of them.
Nowadays, in Australia, after the debacle of tower block “commission flats”, often in nice suburbs (well, nice now), our governments have shied away from such endeavours. There is one key reason why, and it was seen around the world.
Putting all the poorest people in one place never works out well.
A half-arsed solution is that some councils require some medium density developments to allocate a percentage of apartments to be extra-affordable, or be public housing. If implemented nationally as a rule of law, that would be a start.
Another problem we have is that, being one of the richest countries in the world, we like to build things to high standards. Making sure a house will last 100 years sounds like economic common-sense, except the world will soon have negative population growth, and those houses might end up being empty by then.
I propose a public-private partnership.
People can buy long-term bonds that pay 5%, or some amount above the prevailing rates or cost of living increases. Appealing, but long-term, at least 10 years, but tradeable.
The government designs cheap, medium density housing. It will be pre-fab, maybe 4 apartments per floor, with an elevator. No parking because it is near a public transport hub. The smallest bedrooms. One bathroom (no en-suite). A small but functional kitchen. European laundry with a washing machine/drier that actually works. Or a communal laundry. Hard-wearing, practical flooring. Large windows. No balconies.
Super efficient with insulation and rooftop solar and batteries.
Every fridge, every oven, every shower stall, every door, every wall, in all of these homes, is the same. Every elevator, every roof tile. Bulk purchases, bulk maintenance and repairs.
50% of occupants will be people who need a helping hand.
50% will be people who want frugal living, but have jobs etc.
The government designs, and purchases, everything. The same tradies are used for efficiency.
Small isn’t something Aussies like – we were once building the biggest homes in the world – McMansions. And yet in the UK, people live in little terrace houses and it isn’t terrible, just different. Japan also.
Stop building palaces, start building affordable homes that are cheaper because they are smaller.