Marcus Neil bought his first house, on the outskirts of Brisbane, Australia, at the end of his adolescence with little money and financial know-how, but a strong feeling that he was working on future stability. Decades later, he has four investment properties, which, according to him, will be his security net to retire.
“I just see him as a really safe bet,” said Mr. Neil, 53.
He was on money. Australia is now one of the most expensive places in the world to have a house.
But high sky values have evaluated many people outside the housing market and caused an accessibility crisis, especially for young Australians. They were exasperated by statistics like the one that shows the typical costs of the Australian house Eight times median income – Make it a more expensive real estate market than that of New York. These citizens have the opportunity to request a change on Saturday, when the Australians go to the polling room.
For the first time here, the millennials and voters of generation Z are more numerous than baby boomers during a federal election. But it is not clear to what extent this demographic change will influence the results. Recent polls indicate that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is likely to gain a re -election. The head of the opposition, Peter Dutton, whose campaign took President Trump’s signalssaw his support fall because Mr. Trump’s policies have sparked the global tumult.
Some young voters are too aware of this. “All I can see is that the prices of houses are increasing and even more,” said Lamisa Islam, 24, who lives with her parents in a southwest suburbs of Sydney while she saves for her own place. “My little piggy bank will fall away again, far behind.”
Saul Eslake, an independent economist, distilled the country’s approach to real estate, saying: “In Australia, housing has become a vehicle to accumulate paper wealth rather than something that satisfies a fundamental human need.”
There are of course other factors beyond real estate investors. The biggest problem, according to many, is a disastrous lack of housing supply, which has been aggravated by a range of problems such as complex zoning and planning laws, a recent shortage of workforce and building materials, the existing owners resistant to new constructions in their neighborhoods, and a shortage of viable land in a country where most of the population cities. Decades population boomFueled by immigration, has also increased housing demand.
On the campaign track, Mr. Albanese, of the Labor Party, and Mr. Dutton promised not to modify the tax laws which, according to many economists, have fueled speculation in real estate.
One of them is a tax law called negative gearwhich allows those who invest in property to claim losses associated with it, including interest costs, such as deductions. Another concession for real estate investors: they receive a discount on the tax on capital gains billed on the sale of a house. Although other countries, including the United States, offer similar tax reductions, economists say that those in Australia are unusually generous.
The two main parties have announced policies to stimulate housing supply or infrastructure. But in the centerpiece of their electoral platforms, proposals will help buyers from a first house.
Mr. Albanese, the Center-Gauche Labor Party leader, is committed to extending a program to allow new buyers to buy a house with as little as 5%. Mr. Dutton, who is the head of a conservative coalition, has promised to authorize new buyers of newly built houses to claim tax deductions on their mortgage reimbursements.
These policies will only increase the demand, which will increase prices, “said Steven Rowley, professor of property at Curtin University in Western Australia.
Jerath Head, 37, a tenant in Melbourne, said that he had found the speaker of the affordability of the two parties’ accommodation. However, he said, he could vote for work on a minor or independent party, if only to ensure that Mr. Dutton’s Liberal Party did not take power.
For Mr. Head, who worked as a writer and publisher, but recently changed his career in the quarantine and returned to school to study medicine, property feels completely out of reach.
“It is so far where I think that I am, at this stage of my life, that it is not even something that registers,” he said.