Housing affordability
Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:51): (1953) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Housing and Building, and the action I seek is that this government’s affordable housing policy be updated so that it actually does what it says on the tin. If you are aged 25 to 39, if you earn $129,000 a year and if you have somehow managed to save a deposit, you could only still afford to buy just 17 per cent of all homes sold last year. And speaking of 17 per cent, residents living in this state’s new so-called affordable housing just copped a 17 per cent yearly rent rise, and this government wants to push this privately run, affordable housing lottery model as the future of housing in this state. Young people cannot buy a home, but then they also cannot afford to rent, because even the bragged-about and limited affordable option is still slugging people with huge rent increases. I mean, what a future! Also, Melbourne house prices, we have seen, are on the rise again – rapidly. If you are an investor that is fantastic news, but it is soul-crushing news for anyone looking to buy a home. The major parties have shown no interest in house prices slowing down. First home buyers and renters are being forced to fit a square into a circle because you keep giving them more squares – any small hope short-lived, almost every housing announcement a smokescreen and every question asked met with deflection, met with finger-pointing. But the question is simple: if young people cannot buy a home or afford to rent them, what can they even do? How will we ever make housing affordable if the word ‘affordable’ means nothing to this government?