Severity of the housing affordability crisis

Australian cities are facing a growing housing affordability crisis. As an example, in Sydney the median house price has increased from $37,000 in 1976 to $1.4 million in 2024. Note that references for all claims in this petition are provided in the following SubStack article.

Although wages have also risen, they have not kept pace with this astronomical increase Consequently, the median house price has risen from 3.4 times the median annual income, to 13.1.

Economists and researchers classify cities with a median multiple above 5 as “Severely Unaffordable”. Given that the median house price in Sydney is nearly triple this rate, it is clear that the housing affordability crisis urgently needs to be solved.

Solution to the housing affordability crisis

Numerous researchers have investigated the cause of the housing affordability crisis in Australia. These investigations have reached a consensus. Simply: "Australian cities have not built enough housing to meet the needs of Australia’s growing population".

Consequently, there are two possible solutions: Either we must increase the rate of home construction, or decrease the rate of immigration.

The consensus among researchers is that increasing the rate of home construction requires interventions that will take several years to implement. For example, one economist stated: "Even if you've got perfect policy tomorrow, it will take many years longer than a decade".

By contrast, the immigration rate can be changed immediately, as it is wholly under the control of the Federal Government. It should also be noted that 80% of Australia's population growth was due to immigration in 2022. 

Actions called for by this petition

Having established that reducing immigration is the only viable pathway to restoring housing affordability, we call for the Federal Government to enact the following policies:

1. Reduce the annual immigration rate to Zero.
2. Allow exceptions only for the following: 
   • If a critical shortage of clinical healthcare workers becomes imminent.
   • If a critical shortage of construction workers becomes imminent.
   • In other exceptional circumstances. This does not include workers in non-essential industries, refugees, or international students.
3. Continue this policy until the median house price in all capital cities decreases below five times the median annual income.

We also call for you to act upon this matter with urgency. This is because every day there is a net influx of over 1,000 immigrants, for whom sufficient housing is not available, making this crisis even worse.

Consequently, we call upon you to immediately raise a bill to enact these policies, calling an emergency session of parliament if necessary.

We also realise that the government has recently announced measures aimed at improving housing affordability. However, as mentioned previously, these will take a decade to adequately increase the housing construction rate. As a result, if you should fail to take the above actions, please understand that we will have no choice but to cease entrusting you with our votes in future elections.