(Peter Martin’s article from the ABC NEWS AUSTRALIA on April 14, 2021.)
But that can't explain the sudden take-off from
about the year 2000, the sudden take-off from about 2013, and again now —
against expectations — the stratospheric take-off in the wake of the COVID
recession.
Broadly, we've enough homes. The 2016 census found
we had 12 per cent more dwellings than households, up from 10 per cent in 2001.
That's 12 per cent of our houses and apartments empty — used as holiday homes
and second homes, or waiting for tenants.
If there really weren’t enough homes for people who wanted them, it would be more than property prices soaring; it would be rents. Instead, overall rents have been barely moving – growing even more slowly than wages – for half a decade.