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This was the exact explanation of housing affordability issues in Sydney and Melbourne and apartment supply has been crancked up with building restrictions drop

This was the exact explanation of housing affordability issues in Sydney and Melbourne and apartment supply has been crancked up with building restrictions dropped to address this over the last 5 years. Number of cranes in these two cities has been compared to total number of cranes in all of Nth America. And still all of this supply has again been followed by constant growth in property prices with no dent in addressing affordability issues. I think you greatly understimate global forces at play when it comes to speculation levels in this asset class in some major metropolitan cities.

kevinburke 9y ago
If they had done nothing, it's likely things would have gotten even more expensive...
- tmnvix 9y ago
  Yes, but that wasn't the only option. They could have addressed the tax incentives that encourage people to speculate, but that is too politically unpalatable.
  - TomMarius 9y ago
    The conclusion: don't mess with the market, it ends badly.
elyobo 9y ago
Well, it has managed to keep apartment prices in the Melbourne CDB pretty flat.
- jen729w 9y ago
  Yeah but look at the apartments. They’re Bladerunner-esque cubes that nobody likes. I wouldn’t want to live in one. My girlfriend did (in Southbank) and hated it.
  - elyobo 9y ago
    Southbank isn't the CBD - it's is a dump in general, terrible amenities, and the new apartments there and in the CBD tend to be tiny. I live in an apartment in the CBD and have done since 2009 and it's awesome; ~80sqm internal with a semi-usable balcony overlooking the state library and RMIT, but it cost me much less than twice what it cost the original owner 13-ish years ago off the plan.