16633 Chapter 10: Policy issues: housing affordability and climate change
Document Summary
Current problem: many younger adults are facing difficulty in being able to purchase their first home. Often explained by looking at the length of time a potential first home buyer would have to work in order to save sufficient funds to purchase a home outright (that is, without borrowing some of the purchase price). Declining housing affordability has been attributed to many factors: House prices rising due to rapid population growth leading to housing demand outstripping supply. (cid:272)ha(cid:374)ges i(cid:374) pu(cid:396)(cid:272)hase(cid:396)s(cid:859) tastes increases in the cost of developing new homes increased government charges on home sales transactions. Increases the wealth of existing home owners at expense of first home buyers. Benefits are unevenly distributed across the population: older australians are benefitting at the expense of younger australians. Younger generation will benefit greatly from rising home values from inheritance, but will have to wait.
