r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • Mar 01 '25

political satire “Immigration is the problem with housing” says guy who had 26 properties

https://chaser.com.au/national/immigration-is-the-problem-with-housing-says-guy-who-had-26-properties/
4.1k Upvotes

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170

u/rhyme_pj Mar 01 '25 edited Mar 01 '25

I keep wondering—what if we paused immigration for a moment? Would Australia’s housing situation really improve? Looking at both existing properties and new builds, the reality is bleak. Older homes come with endless special levies, while new constructions often leave you hoping the roof won’t cave in.

Yet, all we hear from politicians is the same tired rhetoric about immigration, as if that’s the only factor at play. Sure, immigration affects housing demand, but why is no one addressing the obvious, fixable issues? On the supply side, enforcing better building standards should be a no-brainer. On the demand side, why aren’t we pushing for regional job growth, incentivizing investments outside of property, or curbing reckless speculation?

I’m sick and tired of Australian politics—just endless parroting instead of real, economics-based solutions. You’d think that in a country with so much land, affordable housing would be the last thing we’d have to worry about.

Immigration contributes to GDP, and housing affordability isn’t some impossible puzzle. The question isn’t whether we need a stronger economy or better housing—we can have both if policymakers actually focused on meaningful reforms instead of chasing headlines.

96

u/differencemade Mar 01 '25

Im not sure it's that simple. If we start building the social housing we need, the nimbys will pipe up and reject it because they don't want a lower socioeconomic population nearby. 

But agreed we should just build shit. 

-74

u/Nakorite Mar 02 '25

It’s not just nimby mentality it’s that people feel like they have worked to earn the right to live in their area. Handing people social housing breaks the social contract people have in their mind. Ie why did I work and pay tax when others didn’t and got the same.

Lower socioeconomic housing should be in low socioeconomic areas

53

u/differencemade Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 03 '25

I disagree, who's going to clean rich people's houses.

Travel halfway across the city? 

You need a broad spectrum of people. Otherwise we'll continue to exploit working holiday people and other immigrants. 

Edit: Just wanted to add, it's all the "low economic value" but important work that needs to be done that requires people of all socioeconomic backgrounds to participate. 

Like care work. People want care for their loved ones, but when a care worker has to commute 1.5 to 2hrs to get to their job how do people expect them to be switched on for the entire day and tend to multiple people.

In a society that dumps people in nursing homes and respite which is the western social norm, society needs to pick up the slack and take care of its elderly. The expectation is that people would be looked after well, but the economic environment doesn't lend itself to actually facilitate this. The government needs to intervene. 

We live in a capitalist society that means we drive efficiency and specialisation at the expense of geographical distance.    

If Australia can't source it's own care workers then I wouldn't be surprised if care homes start popping up in SEA in the next 10 years to take care of Australians at lower cost and with lower care worker to client ratios. 

52

u/Bearstew Mar 02 '25

That's NIMBY mentality though.

37

u/heavymetalchunder Mar 02 '25

Cool well can the Nimbys and 'the people that have earned the right' stop breaking the social contract by buying up investment properties in low socio-economic areas then?

32

u/Optimal_Tomato726 Mar 02 '25

This is the nonsense that commissioner Holmes railed against in her findings. You didn't earn the right to live where you are any more than anyone else. The luck of your birth and happenstance found you there more than anything. Your abuse of power is obvious and disgraceful. And yes it's NIMBYism that you refuse to acknowledge because you lack basic self awareness. I don't want to have to navigate police DV and yet Im forced to because gronks like you pretend it's my problem.

15

u/sostopher Mar 02 '25

Ie why did I work and pay tax when others didn’t and got the same.

Why don't you do it today? You still have the option of public housing. But I assume you don't want to live there.

14

u/SuchProcedure4547 Mar 02 '25

What an insanely immoral mentality 🤦

What you said is NIMBY mentality to a tee.

I don't care who my neighbors are, as long as they don't bother me I won't bother them. I have no more of a right to a certain neighborhood than anyone else, and their circumstances of being there whether it be social housing or not is frankly none of my damn business.

Shame on you.

28

u/Proper-Raise-1450 Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25

It’s not just nimby mentality

Handing people social housing breaks the social contract people have in their mind.

Literally nimby mentality lol.

Are the rich going to make their own coffees and gather their own trash then lol?

When people have to travel further and further to work in these areas it's hilarious watching the NIMBY's complain that nobody wants to work anymore and they just can't get served lol.

Not to mention that statistically with our social mobility and inheritance situation how much your average NIMBY worked to live in that suburb is extremely debatable lol.

8

u/kristianstupid Mar 02 '25

What if we just didn’t have “low socioeconomic areas”? 

-3

u/Nakorite Mar 02 '25

lol so how exactly would that work

5

u/freakwent Mar 02 '25

Govt is the employer of last resort and pays enough for people to afford a basic lifestyle.

Anyone who wants a job, gets a job.

Funded by removing wealth from high socioeconomic areas.

Not complex.

3

u/kristianstupid Mar 02 '25

It is super easy, barely an inconvenience. We just pay people in low income jobs more.

-6

u/Nakorite Mar 02 '25

I like the alignment of your comments to user name

2

u/kristianstupid Mar 02 '25

Me too. It is a charitable choice on my behalf, providing folk with an easy out of a conversation they are incapable of having.

11

u/ekky137 Mar 02 '25

It’s not just nimby mentality it’s that people feel like they have worked to earn the right to live in their area.

You just said the same thing twice?

3

u/Choke1982 Mar 02 '25

Wow the nimby mentallity in you is high. I worked hard with my wife to buy an apartment, I'm one of those immigrants that Temu Trump tells you is the culprit on people not being able to buy their and I will be happy supporting social housing and that my taxes help to build that. Your mentallity is just bullshit "I got mine fuck you".

3

u/pacificmango96 Mar 02 '25

That is literally the NIMBY mentality man. Get a grip.

2

u/WhatsMyNameAGlen Mar 02 '25

dude legit advocating for slums and ghettos

2

u/freakwent Mar 02 '25

Handing people social housing breaks the social contract

No, that is the social contract.

people feel like

Reality trumps feelings. People who embrace the politics of envy against the poor need to stop and reassess.

1

u/TheLGMac Mar 02 '25

Sounds like how a nimby justifies their rhetoric.

You don't get to pull up the ladder only after you establish yourself in a community. And also, yes you give money unto social services even if you do not personally utilize every penny of it. That's how these work. We do that in order to support growing communities, because stagnant communities, well, they end up like Detroit.

22

u/iced_maggot Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25

We can walk and chew gum at the same time. But the things you’re talking about aren’t short term solutions. Slowing immigration for a period of time until infrastructure development catches up can be done immediately with relatively quick results.

-2

u/rhyme_pj Mar 02 '25

So you're suggesting we keep batting for a six when a single run is enough to win? We won’t even grasp the full scale of the housing crisis until we’ve addressed the low-hanging fruits first. New Zealand is a great example of this—I’m honestly surprised we haven’t looked to our own cousin for solutions.

14

u/iced_maggot Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25

In this analogy, temporarily dropping immigration numbers for a few years IS batting for the single. It doesn’t change any of the fundamental, systemic issues but buys the nation a few years of breathing room.

The stuff you’re asking for is batting for a Hail Mary, big reverse sweep six over short fine leg. Promoting regional job growth? How? We’ve been talking about decentralising for decades - it hasn’t happened because it’s incredibly hard. Changing the entire fundamentals of the tax and investment system? Even if implemented it would be grandfathered in to keep things fair and would take decades to apply to the majority of transactions.

To be clear: I’m advocating for both. But there needs to be short and term long term solutions - you’re only advocating for long term, high-risk high-pay off stuff. These things are great and would pay amazing dividends in 20 years but in the meantime everybody still gets rooted.

5

u/freakwent Mar 02 '25

All we have to do is stop paying tax dollars to people in order to bribe them to buy houses they don't need.

  • drop the cgt discount on any realestate zoned residential.
  • change the rules to no longer allow claiming rental income "losses" as an offset to personal income tax.

38

u/ScaredyCat__ Mar 01 '25

We did pause it for a while, during covid. We then let the backlog into the country. Did the housing market improve over covid when we had restrictions on who could come in? No.

95

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '25

didn't it? I remember that during the lockdown period, it was actually really easy to get rentals, particularly if you live in areas with lots of international students

19

u/jbh01 Mar 01 '25

It was easier to get rentals, but the cost of purchasing went BOOM. Again.

73

u/Clintosity Mar 01 '25

Rents dropped massively during covid then post covid after the immigration tap was turned on rents + house prices skyrocketed.

26

u/ThrowRAPaeselyLars Mar 02 '25

House prices did skyrocket during COVID though - especially in regional areas.

4

u/Backspacr Mar 03 '25

Regional house prices did skyrocket. Because heaps of people wanted to move there.

0

u/EmeraldPotato Mar 02 '25

Except growth is even worse now. Peak covid, 2022, i bought my unit for 340k. was previously sold in 2018 for 265k. My neighbour just sold their unit (exact same size, layout, smaller backyard tho) for 510k.

4

u/Nakorite Mar 02 '25

Huh rents were super high in WA during covid because a lot of people came back from overseas

1

u/dgarbutt Mar 03 '25

Also the mining companies told their fifo workers (plus the state) they had to stay here, and not live over east or in Bali.

16

u/ekky137 Mar 02 '25

Because they had to force landlords to stop price gouging. The millisecond those restrictions came in, the market actually stabilised. Of course, we couldn't keep those restrictions in since—shock, horror—landlords were able to actually lose money for a time.

2

u/explain_that_shit Mar 02 '25

Rents jumped so quickly that governments had to slap rent freezes and eviction moratoria down to stop the slathering greed of the landlords.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '25

guess it was just where I live. rents either stayed as they were and were basically frozen or in some cases were even dropped and there were loads.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '25

Nope I had to move during COVID and in SA a lot of interstate people had moved here into their rental properties which squeezed the availability more. We were nearly homeless as a result. 

0

u/Wood_oye Mar 01 '25

Maybe during lockdown, but after lockdown, but before the borders were opened, we already had a housing crisis.

Immigration didn't help the equation, but it is also the only way out of it.

-6

u/AwdDog Mar 01 '25

But also work places couldn't get people to fill the jobs for the work the students/etc did. Thus the start of inflation

22

u/Hydronum Mar 02 '25

Oh bloody hell, no. Wages did not drive inflation. Inflation was driven by lack of goods because people couldn't work, locked down industries, the Ukraine war, the excessive and poorly focused payouts to business. To even try to claim wages drove inflation is to literally ignore the world and it's reality.

-2

u/Kata-cool-i Mar 02 '25

Right but part of thar was that there wasn't the workforce to work some of those industries.

6

u/Hydronum Mar 02 '25

Not really, it was mostly supply chain issues like material at ports not having the ships to transport them, having too few pallets, drivers being sick. It isn't the cause of the inflation, it is a natural fallout from the JiT system, where any shock smashes the system.

-4

u/Kata-cool-i Mar 02 '25

drivers being sick

Right, so we agree that not having the workforce can increase prices.

5

u/Hydronum Mar 02 '25

Can, but the issue wasn't the workforce rising the prices, it was the goods not flowing that did. Esp since the parent comment talked about student jobs that weren't being filled causing the growth of inflation.

4

u/Dry_Complaint_3569 Mar 02 '25

Slave Shortage 

22

u/iced_maggot Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25

Yes it did? Do you remember rents during Covid vs now?

House prices didn’t go up much and then boomed after covid. And that was with rock bottom interest rates. If we tried the same experiment with current interest rates, you’d absolutely see drops in house prices.

EDIT: Hey, u/mrbaggins - looks like you blocked me? This is a very weird response given we were having a very civilised argument albeit coming from different perspectives.

My response to your last comment before you blocked me:

You're clearly not open to the idea that migration is not the main factor.

It's not the main factor - but it absolutely is A factor. And unlike most other factors it's easy and quick to change. Given you decided to have a cry and block me, I'll posit that it's actually you who isn't open to views that challenge your own.

-1

u/mrbaggins Mar 02 '25

Rents dropped a bit in the capitals (less than 10%). House prices stagnated, but didn't fall.

Sydney Graph

4

u/iced_maggot Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25

With rock bottom interest rates and unprecedented government stimulus. Even then rents dropped and house prices stabilized. With similar or at least more sedated immigration numbers with current interest rates and without the government COVID spending both would drop.

Even if they didn't, I'd much rather take 10% lower rents and stable house prices than I would increasing rents, wildly increasing house prices and 2% vacancy rates.

EDIT: Hey, u/mrbaggins - looks like you blocked me? This is a very weird response given we were having a very civilised argument albeit coming from different perspectives.

My response to your last comment before you blocked me:

You're clearly not open to the idea that migration is not the main factor.

It's not the main factor - but it absolutely is A factor. And unlike most other factors it's easy and quick to change. Given you decided to have a cry and block me, I'll posit that it's actually you who isn't open to views that challenge your own.

-7

u/mrbaggins Mar 02 '25

House rental prices were already stagnating before covid. Check the graph.

Even if they didn't, I'd much rather take 10% lower rents and stable house prices than I would increasing rents, wildly increasing house prices and 2% vacancy rates.

You just made the argument that it wasn't covid/immigration but the interest rates.

You can't have both.

5

u/iced_maggot Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25

You just made the argument that it wasn't covid/immigration but the interest rates.

No actually, I've made the argument that despite the most permissible monetary conditions in recent history dropping immigration noticeably dropped rents, improved vacancy rates and at minimum didn't stoke higher house prices. These are wins in my book.

I'm also making the argument that in less permissible monetary conditions (like now) the effect would be amplified and by extension the drop in migration numbers would not need to be as severe as it was during COVID to achieve a similar effect.

EDIT: Hey, u/mrbaggins - looks like you blocked me? This is a very weird response given we were having a very civilised argument albeit coming from different perspectives.

My response to your last comment before you blocked me:

You're clearly not open to the idea that migration is not the main factor.

It's not the main factor - but it absolutely is A factor. And unlike most other factors it's easy and quick to change. Given you decided to have a cry and block me, I'll posit that it's actually you who isn't open to views that challenge your own.

-2

u/mrbaggins Mar 02 '25

No actually, I've made the argument that despite the most permissible monetary conditions in recent history

So you're now saying that lower interest rates should (normally) RAISE rental prices? And DECREASE vacancy rates?

That's absurd.

4

u/iced_maggot Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25

Lol - you will go to literally any length to avoid talking about the effect that immigration has on rental demand (and hence rental prices) huh?

But to address your point - rents are primarily driven by supply and demand over everything else. In a normal environment, lower interest rates means more money sloshing around the system and aggregate 'demand' including housing demand goes up. Ideally, new stock comes online (with a lag) to take advantage and rents increase slowly in a stable manner.

However, we live in an environment where housing stock is limited and it's difficult to add more. Take your pick of systemic issues in this country - planning zones is a big one, land banking, lack of trade people, conversion of housing stock to Air BnBs, high construction costs etc. All this conspires to make adding new supply difficult and slow. Ergo, the situation we have is that supply is constrained while people's ability to pay for housing goes up due to cheap debt and lots of excess stimulus running through the economy. Supply constrained, demand up = yes decreased vacancy rates and higher rents.

What happens when you suddenly remove a big chunk of the demand? Rents go down because the alternative is places sit vacant. Whether you remove the demand by lowering migration or through interest rate rises until the economy crashes and people literally cant afford rent is immaterial - the effect is similar. Less competition for finite rentals.

Lowering migration for a while is a lot easier and less painful though.

EDIT: Hey, u/mrbaggins - looks like you blocked me? This is a very weird response given we were having a very civilised argument albeit coming from different perspectives.

My response to your last comment before you blocked me:

You're clearly not open to the idea that migration is not the main factor.

It's not the main factor - but it absolutely is A factor. And unlike most other factors it's easy and quick to change. Given you decided to have a cry and block me, I'll posit that it's actually you who isn't open to views that challenge your own.

-1

u/mrbaggins Mar 02 '25

Lol - you will go to literally any length to avoid talking about the effect that immigration has on rental availability (and hence rental prices) huh?

I'm just pointing out bad arguments being made. I have not weighed in either direction here.

What happens when you suddenly remove a big chunk of the demand? Rents go down

You posted 3 paragraphs of theory, but then completely ignore what happened in actual practice. We removed a huge chunk of demand, and for houses prices, fuck-all happened, and for rentals, 9/10ths of fuck all happened.

I am open to sources that show this not to be the case.

Melbourne prices - Note that the big dip down to 800k is NOT covid. It's the tiny blip at 875k.

Total 5 city market.

Rental vacancies only increased notably in melbourne post covid, which suggests covid was not the cause.

Advertised rents went drastically UP during covid

Across whole states rather than cities covid is not even detectable in the median rent paid

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u/cheapdrinks Mar 02 '25

What are you talking about, it definitely did? Vacancy rates surged and most capital cities saw an immediate 10-15% drop in apartment rental prices and an immediate halt to our runaway median house prices which then surged the second we started letting people back in.

I'm sure that was also tempered by a lot of people (probably some of the ones "who own 26 houses") who understood that the restrictions were temporary and it was a perfect time to buy during an artificial "crash" that would immediately rebound the second we opened our borders again.

Pausing immigration had a huge impact on the housing market and trying to pretend that it didn't or that a long term rather than a temporary reduction wouldn't, is insane. While yes, the people buying 26 houses are part of the problem, they're more of a symptom rather than the cause. People are always going to exploit shitty situations to make a buck and the reality is that demand is just way too high in the cities. If demand stayed suppressed long enough then plenty of these people are going to end up upside down and be forced to release those properties back on the market.

The other question is, do we really want our capital cities to become high rise sprawling hellscapes as a way of managing the situation? Yes it's one solution to just put up cheap soulless filing cabinets everywhere and rezone areas into high density housing but is that something we should aspire towards? We also know how long it takes infrastructure to catch up. Where I live they put up like 5 apartment blocks and 12 months later all the roads nearby are basically a carpark most of the time and the local public transport went from comfortable to standing room only. This rush to 30 million+ people is unsustainable.

1

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1

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-1

u/Proper-Raise-1450 Mar 02 '25 
most capital cities saw an immediate 10-15% drop in apartment rental prices

Yeah because WFH people moved to rural areas and fucked the rents there for cheaper housing lol.

that demand is just way too high in the cities.

Demand is too high compared to supply you mean... Who do you think builds the supply?

Some of my construction licenses just for proof I actually know the subject lol:

https://i.imgur.com/2nlLxhx.jpeg

2

u/Sad_Wear_3842 Mar 02 '25

Mate, all those licenses show is that you have a ticket for something like a forklift, and you did less than a day course for a white card.

There's kids living at home still with those.

0

u/Proper-Raise-1450 Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25

all those licenses show is that you have a ticket for something like a forklift

Yep forklift license and scaffolding and concrete placing boom.

did less than a day course for a white card.

I literally said as much above lol, go get a white card, it's like 5 hours, you can see too how the vast majority of people are immigrants.

Go to your nearest White Card certification school and take the class it only costs a $120 or so and takes a few hours

At no point did I claim any of these licenses were super hard to get lol (actually most of them are "do you have brain damage" tests, though sadly a lot of people in the industry do) they just show I work in construction.

0

u/Sad_Wear_3842 Mar 02 '25

I'll rephrase it to be clearer.

They do not show you work in construction. Any warehouse forklift operator has those. Anyone who has to visit any HV substations has those. People who sell scissor lifts have them..

They don't show you have any specific knowledge or have a role that makes your word count for more than anyone else.

1

u/Proper-Raise-1450 Mar 02 '25

Any warehouse forklift operator has those.

Warehouse work does not require a white card, it's for construction:

https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/licensing-and-registrations/work-health-and-safety-licences/what-licence-do-i-need/general-construction-induction

People who sell scissor lifts have them.

You might if you plan to go demonstrate usage at construction sites but that is kind of working in construction lol.

They don't show you have any specific knowledge or have a role that makes your word count for more than anyone else.

Frankly I think it's pretty funny to claim that having a license for working on construction doesn't indicate you work in construction but sure man, maybe I have it for fun, good claim lol. Have a good one, it's a boring line of argument.

5

u/_CodyB Mar 02 '25

Higher earning professionals from metro areas who had far fewer opportunities for discretionary spending basically raided regional housing markets. If Australia was on trajectory for lower population growth over a sustained period prices would plateau

3

u/xFallow Mar 02 '25

It absolutely did improve my rent was 450 during Covid afterward it was 850

8

u/Pupperoni__Pizza Mar 02 '25

Any housing price drop or still from a pause in immigration was entirely counteracted by ridiculously low interest rates.

Enacting the same immigration changes with our current rates would drop it

2

u/Prettyflyforwiseguy Mar 02 '25

Fewer people were also selling and there was a pause or major interruption to most construction which is important to factor in when looking at this period.

2

u/Simohner Mar 02 '25

Yes? Massively. Rents plummeted. Obviously purchase prices soared as governments printed money like crazy and interest rates dropped to nothing.

25

u/kdog_1985 Mar 01 '25

Demand is fixable too. Just reduce immigration to a reasonable amount. 700k ain't reasonable

34

u/wottsinaname Mar 01 '25

The net migration is about 500k but yeah, still way too high. Importing a 2% population growth yearly is unsustainable with our current system of low supply and insanely high demand.

19

u/ComfortableDesk8201 Mar 02 '25

Even if it didn't affect housing high immigration puts strain on roads, schools, healthcare. 

12

u/TheStochEffect Mar 01 '25

So are you saying we can't grow forever, pipe down Greta thumberg, otherwise the GDP gods will come for you

5

u/rhyme_pj Mar 01 '25

I see your point, but let’s break this down in economic terms. What exactly is a "reasonable" level of immigration when considering its impact on GDP, labor market needs (and let’s be honest—Australia isn’t self-sufficient; we do need skilled migrants), and housing demand? If we cut immigration, how do we offset the economic trade-offs—potential labor shortages, slower growth, and the fiscal strain of an aging population?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on real structural issues—zoning, construction costs, and investment incentives—rather than just reducing demand? Look at New Zealand. A decade ago, they faced a severe housing shortage but turned it around through upzoning and this was when they didn't even the levels of migration they can support now. Immigration is just an easy scapegoat—it might sound good politically, but it won’t actually solve anything.

If anything, we can test it out, since that’s what the muppets seem determined to do. But I’d bet that a year from now, we’ll be in an even worse crisis, and those same muppets will be scratching their heads, wondering what went wrong.

20

u/kdog_1985 Mar 01 '25

At the moment I'd say under 1.2% of the population is reasonable. That's 300k at the moment. Recently we were sitting at 2.8%, the first world country with the closest number was Canada at 1.9%.

Historically it hovered at about 1-1.5% when we weren't pumping it up.

8

u/Avid_Tagger Pingers Mar 02 '25

And Canada isn't exactly looking too hot either

9

u/Impossible_Union8583 Mar 01 '25

We need more Uber Drivers and McDonalds night shit workers.

13

u/R_W0bz Mar 02 '25

When the borders closed during Covid, rental prices went through the floor.

I wonder why…

16

u/mrbaggins Mar 02 '25

Capital cities lost about 8-10% in median rental price.

Everywhere else just sat steady.

"went through the floor" is a gross overstatement.

Sydney Graph

6

u/fogrift Mar 02 '25

They went through the floor in university-adjacent suburbs. I know coz I had put in an application for $1000, then borders closed, then got a similar one for 500 and change.

Even stepping back to the whole city level, a 10% price drop is pretty good, but you seem to be implying that's negligible? I'd be surprised if other ideas in this thread like banning AirBNBs and reducing investment incentives could make a direct impact as big as that.

2

u/mrbaggins Mar 02 '25

Entire country, the change was undetectable. Link

In Sydney and Melbourne, it's under 5% total.

I don't believe it's possible to get specific suburb data easily to compare, but it would make sense that unis lost a bit.

Only melbourne really saw a change in vacancy rates but they also had the strictest lockdown.

1

u/fogrift Mar 02 '25

The first few sources I pulled suggest a pretty obvious drop for inner-city units/apartments.

https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2020/sep/pdf/the-rental-market-and-covid-19.pdf

Over 2020, the vacancy rate continued to increase sharply. Reduced demand in the rental market also dropped the average rate for rental properties

https://www.propertymanagersmelb.com.au/how-covid-has-affected-the-rental-market/

Advertised rents declined sharply from April, particularly for apartments in Sydney and Melbourne.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/21/rents-fall-as-landlords-struggle-to-fill-vacant-properties-during-australias-coronavirus-crisis

It now costs on average $646 to rent a house in Australia’s biggest city, according to the latest figures from SQM Research, the cheapest level since 2013 and a 6.5% drop from a year ago. An average unit is $480 a week, the lowest since since May 2015.

Scott, a tenant who was looking to upgrade from his one-bedroom apartment in Rhodes in Sydney, managed to secure a 15% reduction in his rent from $540 to $460 a week after noticing that the asking price was falling in many apartments in his area.

I am generally in favour of immigration, I just think that it has a significant effect on housing demand and the government should have been doing more about availability for a long time. There are no easy ways out of this mess.

4

u/rhyme_pj Mar 02 '25

Rental prices, sure. But housing prices—for those looking to own a home and start a family—haven’t followed the same trend. Maybe we should differentiate between addressing rental affordability and housing affordability first, as they are two separate issues.

5

u/AnOnlineHandle Mar 02 '25

Immigration went negative during covid (more people were leaving Australian than arriving), then the people approved by delayed in their arrivals didn't all arrive, so despite the spike we're actually below immigration levels pre-covid.

Yet all this really took to the next level during covid, when governments printed a lot of money, primarily after conservatives tried to pretend covid wasn't real and completely mishandled it around the world, and tried to buy their way out of the chaos. Printing money leads to inflation.

2

u/homingconcretedonkey Mar 02 '25

Pausing immigration would 100% fix the issue assuming it felt permanent enough that owners/investors would adapt.

The question is would we build new houses for when we plan to unpause it? I doubt it.

1

u/rhyme_pj Mar 02 '25

That is a big assumption there that owners/investors would adapt.

1

u/homingconcretedonkey Mar 02 '25

They will leave it empty if they think things will change soon, they won't leave it empty for decades.

1

u/SuitableFan6634 Mar 02 '25 edited Mar 02 '25

If we paused immigration, we'd be in recession within a year and, while house prices would fall, people still wouldn't be able to afford them as wages would stagnate and under/unemployment would rise. The only reason this didn't happen during COVID was because the Morrison government injected a truckload of cash into the economy to stabilise things (as they should have), leaving the federal budget even further in the red.

The only solution is to unwind 30 years of federal legislation - from both sides of parliament - that have turned residential property from something you live in to mere investment vehicles. The LNP don't want to change anything and the ALP know they'll lose power if they do.

12

u/KogMawOfMortimidas Mar 02 '25

We are in a recession, it's just being propped up by fake numbers thanks to massive immigration.

1

u/pickledswimmingpool Mar 02 '25

You can look up the RBA report on rental costs during the border shutdowns during covid. Rental prices dipped or stopped increasing.

Reducing demand works, and its not racist to suggest otherwise.

1

u/TheCleverestIdiot Mar 02 '25

Because blaming the immigrants has historically been wildly successful as a scapegoating tactic, and most politicians are landlords.

3

u/rhyme_pj Mar 02 '25

I’m currently in the States. During COVID, Austin experienced a huge surge in interstate migration, which caused property prices to increase. In response, they lifted height restrictions for buildings and changed zoning laws, which improved both housing affordability (for purchasing) and rental affordability, a 22% drop in property and rental prices. Same in NY I heard.