An easy solution to making housing affordable in Australia is to make every process of building affordable rentals or affordable housing tax free, when I say every part tax free, I mean all, ranging from regulation taxes to council taxes, to capital gain taxes, to any other form of government tax. At the same time remove regulations stopping apartments from being built in certain areas.
This would dramatically incentivize builders to build low cost housing and fast to benefit from the scheme alleviating housing issues in Australia within a very short period of time.
Now, what do I mean by affordable, I have to break this down because most of the Government of Australia does not know what affordable housing really is. An affordable housing solution is a solution that provides housing for any income class, not just middle class and upper class. Many in Australia work hard and housing should be available to them even if they are only earning around 30k a year. In fact housing even if small in size should be available to even those earning as low as 20k to 25k.
No one should have to consider living in a tent as a solution to the housing problem.
There is no reason that if a reasonable sized apartment can rent for 600pw, that an apartment half the size could potentially rent for half at 300pw. Anyone close to being evicted because they cannot afford 600pw can then make the choice to downgrade to a cheaper apartment or house, my point is give people the option of this, instead what is happening is every apartment and house in Australia is being built with large spaces, plenty of room and then this adding a premium to the cost.
What we need is choice..
Why not have places people can rent that are 300 per week, 450 per week and the 600 per week standard at the moment is my point? No reason why the lower cost options are not being built as well.
In summary, no matter what income anyone is on there should be housing available to that person no matter what. We cannot allow as a culture people of any income to be living in tents.
This is partly why the saying housing is a right is becoming more and more popular.
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