Housing Policy in Australia

This collection provides a comprehensive grounding in contemporary policy settings across all sectors of the Australian public policy housing system and investigates the many dimensions of housing affordability and government actions that affect this concern. The book analyzes the causes and implications of declining home ownership, rising rates of rental stress and the neglect of social housing, as well as the housing situation of Indigenous Australians. The book covers a period where housing policy primarily operated under a neo-liberal paradigm dominated by financial de-regulation and fiscal austerity. It critiques the broad and fragmented range of government measures that have influenced housing outcomes over this period. These include regulation, planning and taxation policies as well as explicit housing programs. The book also identifies current and future housing challenges for Australian governments, recognising these as a complex set of inter-connected problems.Introducing the reader to the economics and administration of housing provision, this book sets out strategic priorities for the transformational national housing strategy needed to improve affordability outcomes for the most vulnerable in Australian society.-

Hal Pawson is Professor of Housing Research and Policy, University of New South Wales Sydney, and an Associate Director of UNSW's City Futures Research Centre. Renowned as a housing researcher both in Australia and the UK, he is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing, and a Managing Editor of the international journal, Housing Studies.
Vivienne Milligan is an Honorary Professor, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, Australia. She has had a distinguished career, spanning nearly 40 years, as both a policymaker and a researcher specialising in social and affordable housing. She has a Doctorate in Geographical Studies from Utrecht University and is a life member of the Australasian Housing Institute.
Judith Yates currently is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Sydney following a career of over 40 years in academia. Her primary research has been in housing economics, finance and policy. She holds a Doctor of Economic Science from the University of Amsterdam.

Introduction.- Why governments intervene in housing.- Unpacking Australia's housing affordability problem.- Social housing in Australia: Evolution, legacy and contemporary policy debates.- Home ownership and the role of government.- Private rental housing: Market roles, taxation and regulation.- The Indigenous housing policy challenge.- Financing and governing affordable rental housing.- Roles of land use planning policy in housing supply and affordable housing.- Housing policy in Australia: A reform agenda.