Campaigning intensifies in the federal election of small ideas

Somewhere behind the much repeated mantra of ‘reducing the cost of living’, housing is high on the agenda as a hot button topic for the election that will take place on Saturday 3 May.

Campaigning for the newly announced federal election has gone into overdrive but do either of the main political parties have any big ideas to tackle such an entrenched affordability and housing supply crisis?

In short, probably not.

Households are wrestling with hugely inflated food and retail prices and mortgages that have added hundreds of dollars per month, or even per week, to repayment obligations.

The response of the major parties?

Anthony Albanese’s Labor is dangling an additional $5 a week in tax savings if you’re willing to wait more than a year for it to take effect.

Peter Dutton’s Liberal party is trying to buy its votes with a fuel excise reduction that experts say would save the average household a similar $5 amount per week.

Both borderline insulting key policies would be massively overwhelmed by inflation before they even came to fruition.

Does any party have housing solutions?

So where are the big ideas? When it comes to the property market, not really anywhere, is the short answer.

Labor showed its cards in the Federal Budget, which API Magazine reported upon as it was released on Tuesday evening (25 March).

Politically contentious issues like negative gearing, which many experts suggest would lead to a possible decrease in demand for investment properties and a subsequent improvement in affordability, are off the table.

The centrepiece of the Liberal Coalition’s housing policy is to reduce immigration, scrap Labor’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) and prevent foreigners from buying property in Australia. Mr Dutton would also allow Australians to spend savings in their compulsory workplace pension funds on down payments to buy new homes.

The foreign buyer restraints are effectively already in place and neither of the first two items will build an extra home when more than a million are needed over the next five years, with or without the arrival of more migrants.

For its part, Labor admits barely any new homes have eventuated from HAFF but insists it is still “the single biggest investment to support social and affordable housing in more than a decade,” with the aim of building 30,000 (of an overall “pipeline” of 55,000) “social and affordable” homes over five years.

The Albanese government has announced it will grow its housing support budget to $33 billion.

It will raise the income and price caps for its Help to Buy scheme through which potential purchasers receive up to 40 per cent of the price of a home through its shared equity loan scheme. They pay it back only when they sell. For first-home buyers, Labor has also pressured banks to exclude HECS debt from mortgage application calculations.

Neither major party has captured the imagination of the public. Around a third of voters choose alternative candidates.

The Greens are running on arguably the biggest policy ideas of the electoral campaign period, with rent freezes, negative gearing and capital gains tax reform in their sights.

Greens Treasury spokesperson Nick McKim has said he wants banks to offer a discount mortgage called HomeKeeper to all home owners, including first-home buyers and owner-occupiers.

‘More homes at less expense’

Professor Nicole Gurran of the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, suggested there were more slogans than cement in the policies put forward so far.

“The electorate is primed for genuine housing solutions and the evidence shows this should include greater investment in social and affordable housing, nationwide rental protections, and a fairer tax system.

“Younger people are disenfranchised by high rents and fading hopes of home ownership, parents are fearful for their children’s futures and many older-aged renters are facing retirement without housing security.

“But history suggests that we are in for a repeat of simple slogans about the problem of supply that don’t address structural barriers to new and affordable housing production.

“Nor will we make home ownership more attainable without genuine reform to demand-fuelling tax incentives, which pump prime the value of existing housing stock without delivering new or affordable homes for lower income renters or aspiring first home owners.”

Property Council Chief Executive Mike Zorbas said national housing policy must prioritise streamlining investment and planning processes to get more homes out the ground at less expense.

He also rebutted the Coalition position on migration.

“Building world-class communities takes too long in Australia; pipelines of land often take up to a decade to achieve the necessary planning and environmental approvals and navigate utility delays and expense.

“In building the assets our growing communities need, both major parties should remember that international investment and skilled migration have shaped our cities for the better for over 80 years.

“We will need to grow skilled migration in coming years to help bridge our skills gaps, sustain our tax base and support our ageing population.”