There has been some talk on other threads of the likely effect of abolishing negative gearing and, of affordability issues that may see our housing prices collapse, albeit deferred to the rest of the globe, as that famous economist from the Uni of Western Sydney is now espousing as he prepares for his trek.
House prices and rental rates are flavour of the month in the media, be it daily press or the investment magazines and associated periodicals.
There seems to be some national conditioning and belief that ancillary to the Aussie dream of owning our own "home", we all "deserve" home ownership as some sort of right or constitutional entitlement.
Shelter is certainly up there after oxygen, water and food and unfortunately there are many homeless that exist in all our cites. Their plight, however significant and troubling, is not what I wish to allude to with this thread.
I wish to challenge the notion that all housing must be affordable for the masses.........it is not an entitlement that everyone of us must own their own home. The cries in the media that affordability is going down the tube merely feeds the entitlement mentality of those who miss out, or more accurately choose not to entertain alternatives of a lesser quality and/or location for their first home.
Unlike their parents, and their parents before them, settling for homes and locations more in tune with their current financial situation and striving to upgrade as the depth of their pockets allow, significant numbers have the bar set too high and feed their disappointment with an inability to spend less than they earn.
Now, I could also go on and on about instant gratification and other such notions, however, in order to keep to my contention, I do not believe that housing was ever affordable. People borrowed within their means and servicibility. They didn't graduate from the school of "having it all now".
Further, I contend that we will see more renters becoming the norm. In Australia, home ownership is ostensibly at circa 70 %. This is not so in other parts of the world,as indicated in home ownership ranks below:
Showing latest available data.
# 1 Ireland: 83%
# 2 Italy: 78%
= 3 Australia: 69%
= 3 United Kingdom: 69%
= 5 Canada: 67%
= 5 Finland: 67%
= 7 United States: 65%
= 7 Belgium: 65%
= 9 Japan: 60%
= 9 Sweden: 60%
# 11 France: 54%
# 12 Denmark: 53%
# 13 Netherlands: 49%
# 14 Germany: 43%
Weighted average: 63.0%
DEFINITION: Home ownership as % of all households (Data is for 2000).
SOURCE: Economist, 30 March 2002, and Euromonitor
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_hom_own-people-home-ownership
There are no doubt more specific figures on a micro level with cities within those and other countries and someone may wish to come up with some charts, however on a qualitative (gut instinct) level, I wish to contend that we will (by necessity of the cost of delivering new housing estates and the necessary follow up infrastructure to population pressure) see denser development in a broad sense and more people electing to become renters, and/or deferring home ownership for longer and longer. Some by choice and some by necessity. Certainly urban (revised) planning and some optimisation of current and improved transport links needs to occur, however, I don't see the sprawl as necessarily sustainable nor intelligent as far as amenity and further feeding the reliance upon two car families, etc.
It ain't carved in stone that we all must own our own home and I think we will start to go the way of some European cities particularly in our major capitals, where the percentage of renters is higher than our general 30 % here in Australia.
Good for the landlords me thinks
House prices and rental rates are flavour of the month in the media, be it daily press or the investment magazines and associated periodicals.
There seems to be some national conditioning and belief that ancillary to the Aussie dream of owning our own "home", we all "deserve" home ownership as some sort of right or constitutional entitlement.
Shelter is certainly up there after oxygen, water and food and unfortunately there are many homeless that exist in all our cites. Their plight, however significant and troubling, is not what I wish to allude to with this thread.
I wish to challenge the notion that all housing must be affordable for the masses.........it is not an entitlement that everyone of us must own their own home. The cries in the media that affordability is going down the tube merely feeds the entitlement mentality of those who miss out, or more accurately choose not to entertain alternatives of a lesser quality and/or location for their first home.
Unlike their parents, and their parents before them, settling for homes and locations more in tune with their current financial situation and striving to upgrade as the depth of their pockets allow, significant numbers have the bar set too high and feed their disappointment with an inability to spend less than they earn.
Now, I could also go on and on about instant gratification and other such notions, however, in order to keep to my contention, I do not believe that housing was ever affordable. People borrowed within their means and servicibility. They didn't graduate from the school of "having it all now".
Further, I contend that we will see more renters becoming the norm. In Australia, home ownership is ostensibly at circa 70 %. This is not so in other parts of the world,as indicated in home ownership ranks below:
Showing latest available data.
# 1 Ireland: 83%
# 2 Italy: 78%
= 3 Australia: 69%
= 3 United Kingdom: 69%
= 5 Canada: 67%
= 5 Finland: 67%
= 7 United States: 65%
= 7 Belgium: 65%
= 9 Japan: 60%
= 9 Sweden: 60%
# 11 France: 54%
# 12 Denmark: 53%
# 13 Netherlands: 49%
# 14 Germany: 43%
Weighted average: 63.0%
DEFINITION: Home ownership as % of all households (Data is for 2000).
SOURCE: Economist, 30 March 2002, and Euromonitor
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_hom_own-people-home-ownership
There are no doubt more specific figures on a micro level with cities within those and other countries and someone may wish to come up with some charts, however on a qualitative (gut instinct) level, I wish to contend that we will (by necessity of the cost of delivering new housing estates and the necessary follow up infrastructure to population pressure) see denser development in a broad sense and more people electing to become renters, and/or deferring home ownership for longer and longer. Some by choice and some by necessity. Certainly urban (revised) planning and some optimisation of current and improved transport links needs to occur, however, I don't see the sprawl as necessarily sustainable nor intelligent as far as amenity and further feeding the reliance upon two car families, etc.
It ain't carved in stone that we all must own our own home and I think we will start to go the way of some European cities particularly in our major capitals, where the percentage of renters is higher than our general 30 % here in Australia.
Good for the landlords me thinks