Tuesday, 3 October 2023

Housing affordability

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:40): As we have a new Minister for Housing in this chamber, I thought I would make a quick comment as the youngest person here. A new CoreLogic report shows that house prices are still on the rise and heading for a new record high. The median price for a dwelling in Melbourne is currently sitting at $776,716. According to the latest release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the median income in Melbourne is about $52,000. I popped open a mortgage calculator and, guess what, the repayments on a median dwelling would be more than an entire median income.

I am a young person and a renter, and I worry about my and future generations being able to have access to secure, long-term housing. Home ownership is frankly a pipedream for many. It appears public housing – another vital source of long-term secure housing – is also on the chopping block. So many people are now left wondering if they will ever have a long-term, fixed and affordable home. Young people have been thrust into the insecure private rental market, and most will be stuck there for their entire lives. Is this the best that they can hope for, being at the whims of the private market, forced to relocate every few years, living with constant insecurity, with no way to build community? We can do so much better.