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One of the main problems with this policy is that it's addressing something that isn't actually a problem. The main driver of house pricing is land use and bui
by duncan_bayne 9y ago
One of the main problems with this policy is that it's addressing something that isn't actually a problem.
The main driver of house pricing is land use and building regulation, unsurprisingly. If it's harder and / or more expensive to build housing, houses will cost more.
http://pc.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/australasia-world-leader-in-excessive.html http://pc.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/australasia-world-leader-i...
- elyobo 9y agoThe main driver in AU and NZ is property speculation, driven by terrible tax and pension policies in combination cheap money.
- duncan_bayne 9y agoThat is certainly a driver, but I'm not convinced that it's the main one in Australasia. Certainly, it's not the main one worldwide.
- elyobo 9y agoI can't comment on the worldwide situation, but it's pretty clearly the main AU + NZ driver and it's one that's very easy to address; removing the tax perks would be fairer even if it had no effect on prices at all anyway, so it's a win win scenario. The only difficulty (and it's a biggie) is that actually doing something meaningful on housing affordability requires knocking down prices and that's political suicide, so nobody is willing to do it.