Housing Crisis? How about Housing Solution. | Nicole Gurran | TEDxSydney

[llr]

This has been on my mind so much lately. Entrepreneurship is great, but at what cost to someone struggling just to have a roof over their head. Cutting out the middle man makes sense to make it more affordable to own a home. I might add, zoning laws are making it more difficult as well. What about relaxing some of the tiny home restrictions. And then, why couldn't you buy your home in sections, to make payments more affordable. I'm not sure about Australia (although I lived there briefly many years ago and loved it btw). But here in the US tiny homes I believe are more than a passing trend. There has to be a way to make home ownership more available to everyone. It's the humane thing to do.

[gaiuscatullus]

Why would she use Hong Kong and the UK as an examples of a regiions with afffordable housing when they're both consistently ranked among the MOST expensive on the planet?

[ReturnOfTheJ.D.]

Houses are literally now million-dollar works of art on auction - those who buy them only want to store large amounts of capital in them and realise gains over time. The purpose of the artworks themselves is not a factor - people getting to appreciate them is not a consideration. They exist for their financial value to the investor, not for the purpose for which they were originally intended - to house people, or display great works of art to the average person.

[ethanielclyne]

I only ever hear about the London housing crisis, didn't know other cities also had it so bad

[johnriley]

Take this problem and quadruple it, and you got America.

[paulhaze]

Gee an almost 14 minute video about housing affordability, and no mention of our HUGE 250, 000 net overseas migration intake per year (almost all are NOT refugees, but relatively affluent individuals, that come here for better economic prospects).

Migrants unlike a baby born here, need a home the minute they arrive, whereas that babies born here spend the first 18 or more years at their parent/s home. More people =more housing demand, more demand=more expensive housing.

[shadowshow]

OMG. She could have said what she had to say - precious little - to three mins. Whole thing was 90% padding

[nthperson]

There is no shortage of affordable housing. What there is a shortage of is affordable land. Our society is plagued by centuries of land speculation and land hoarding. How is this possible. Simple. Land is severely under-taxed everywhere. People can hold onto vacant land for decades because land rarely gets reassessed as land prices are increasing. We need to exempt housing units from taxation. The annual tax on housing equates to a sales tax on housing imposed year after year after year. We need to move to a land-only property tax, the optimum annual tax charged equal to the potential annual rental value of whatever land is held. Doing so will force land onto the market. Owners will have a real financial incentive to bring the land they hold to its highest, best use, or sell to someone who will.

For more information, search on "land value taxation."

[Rob-fxdw]

The presenter talks about Hong Kong housing property prices. Not exactly cheap for a 2 bedroom apartment in New Territories or Kowloon which are prices of over A $30, 000 per square meter ( $3 million per 100 square meters. )

[tillitseac]

thanks Nicole, so why are "they" not doing this? and who are "they" who are preventing this?
These are the questions. It's almost as if we know the answers but just can't implement the policies. It's as if, or so it seems to me, they refuse and persist in the same old behaviours which ensure the same old outcomes.

[youreincredible]

Yeb looking for affordable housing is terrible with so many people on low income.

[caliemm]

That's why people are  living in their cars, converting school buses....to live in cheaper...

Its up to our gov't to put RENTERS AS A HOT !!! topic ....as a priority

Im a cyclist have a ride around the neighborhoods....anyone of them...there's tons of abandoned houses in every neighborhood.

There needs to be a bylaw on these owners...sell or get it rented.

Tons of abandoned industrial factories everywhere...unoccupied...get ren'vating these into low income units.. The lists are long...this is nuts....people need affordable places to reside.

[Amanda-jdxs]

So ironic that, the advertisement youtube has chosen for this talk, is for homestaging. 😏

[dustingoldsworthy]

Average age of a first home buyer (FHB) is 37 years old!
FHB cant buy a house now without a grant from the tax payer.

[Amanda-jdxs]

Yes! FFS please let government listen to this woman. And I would like to add that it is not only stigma that keeps people out of housing commission accommodation. It is the high density and lack of private outdoor space. Single Australians do not want to live in little boxes stacked on top of each other, sharing walls with neighbours, whose bathroom plumbing runs communally down the walls of each successive flat floor by floor.

[jamespea]

Her solution is just that..a dream..Human nature is always about greed..

[Rob-fxdw]

The problem with the idea that government housing somehow would result in housing for more at a lower cost is that the cost of providing public housing would be at the cost of the same public who can't afford to purchase housing today.
The reason is the elephant in the room that the presenter fails to acknowledge and that is the reality that government has no wealth of it's own to put into housing without taking that wealth from the public via taxation. Taking it from the same people it would be proposing to help.

[dustingoldsworthy]

Scrap negative gearing. Make a 20% deposit mandatory. Don't scrap responsible lending. Stop importing 333, 000 migrant and over a million temporary workers. Stop housing grants. Mortgauge holidays etc. Let the market play out and have a natural cycle or one day it will collapse for good!

[dragonore]

The solution is simple folks, get government out of the economy.

[duc]

Public housing is a good idea. But in Western countries, land is private property, which makes it impossible for government to construct public housing.