‘The system is broken’, MP on housing affordability

Findings from an analysis released by the Australian Greens party have revealed the annual income needed to purchase a house and avoid housing stress sits 1.6 times above the average income.

The analysis by the Parliamentary Library compiled data from CoreLogic and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and has shown this annual income is $164,400, while an annual income of $130,599 is needed for an apartment.

For the eight capitals combined, the income needed for a house and a unit stood at $186,940 and $133,837, respectively.

According to the Greens, the analysis assumed that a mortgagor has a 20 per cent deposit while being offered a standard variable rate of 6.49 per cent and paying both principal and interest.

The data suggested that there are no city regions where purchasing a house is affordable for a single-income household where they would be paying 30 per cent or less in housing costs.

Only Greater Perth and Greater Darwin would be considered affordable, according to the Greens.

Greens spokesperson for housing and homelessness, Minister Max Chandler-Mather, stated: “When you need to earn $186,000 a year and have a $173,000 deposit to buy a house in a capital city in Australia, then you know the system is broken.”

Additionally, research commissioned by Everybody’s Home and conducted by RedBridge polling, found that 47 per cent of 1,500 respondents indicated that they were in housing stress (paying at least 30 per cent of income on housing).

Furthermore, 58 per cent of respondents supported limiting or outright abolishing negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.

The poll found that voters aged between 18 and 34 were feeling the most pressure, with half of the cohort spending 40 per cent or more of their income on housing.

Those aged 65 and over are only spending 9 per cent, according to the poll.

Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said housing stress is “rife”, as voters indicated that investor tax handouts are “unfair and make the housing crisis worse”.

“Most voters support the federal government limiting or abolishing tax handouts for investors. “Less than a quarter want to stick to the status quo. The appetite for change is here, and it’s happening in the absence of leadership from the major parties who are afraid to champion tax reform,” Azize said.

Minister Chandler-Mather threw barbs at the Albanese government for its refusal to scrap tax handouts for property investors.

“It’s no wonder that support for scrapping these unfair tax handouts is so high,” Minister Chandler-Mather said.

“First home buyers are losing at auctions to property investors who keep pushing up the price of housing with their tax handouts from Anthony Albanese.

“The only way we are going to fix this crisis is if Labor finally works with the Greens to phase out the massive tax handouts for property investors, like negative gearing, that are denying millions of renters the chance to buy a home.”

[RELATED: Buyers determined despite ‘extremely stretched’ affordability: Westpac]