Housing Policy in Australia

This book, extensively revised and updated in its second edition, presents a comprehensive overview of housing policy in Australia over the last quarter century. At a time of widespread concern about declining housing system performance, it investigates the many dimensions of housing affordability and housing wealth inequality, together with government actions affecting these outcomes. The authors analyse the causes and implications of falling home ownership, rising rental stress rates and the long-term neglect of social housing, as well as the housing situation of Indigenous Australians. Building on its analysis of housing policy evolution in modern Australia, this new edition also documents and critiques the numerous government efforts of the early 2020s to halt the decline in housing affordability. These reforms span tenancy regulation, land-use planning and housing supply, first home buyer assistance, and social/affordable housing investment. Throughout, the book identifies current and future housing challenges for Australian governments, recognising these as a complex set of inter-connected problems. Drawing on its coverage of the economics, politics and governance of housing provision, the final chapter outlines a pathway to the transformational national strategy needed for a fairer and more productive housing system.

Hal Pawson is an Honorary Professor, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney. Renowned as a housing researcher and commentator both in Australia and the UK, he is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and a former Managing Editor of the international journal, Housing Studies. Vivienne Milligan PSM is an Honorary Professor, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney. Her distinguished career has spanned over 40 years as both a policymaker and a researcher specialising in social and affordable housing and Indigenous housing. Judith Yates AM was an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Sydney. Following her co-authorship input to the first edition of the book, Judith sadly passed away in 2022. This second edition is dedicated to her immense contribution to Australian housing policy analysis as the nation’s most highly-esteemed academic housing economist of her day.

1. Introduction.- 2. Why governments intervene in housing.- 3. Unpacking Australia’s housing affordability problem.- 4. Social housing in Australia: Evolution, legacy and contemporary policy debates.- 5. Home ownership and the role of government.- 6. Private rental housing: Market roles, taxation and regulation.- 7. The Indigenous housing policy challenge.- 8. Financing and governing affordable rental housing.- 9. Roles of land use planning policy in housing supply and affordable housing.- 10. Housing policy in Australia: A reform agenda.