Is there a gradient to housing assistance in Australia?

Abstract

Over the last decade housing has been at the forefront of public discourse and policy debate in Australia and this has been a significant shift from its neglected position over the last three decades. Evidence of this change in emphasis includes the commitment of the incoming Rudd Labor Government to a raft of housing affordability measures as part of its election campaign in 2007. More recently, Prime Minister Gillard commenced her election campaign in 2010 with a commitment of funds for housing in non metropolitan Australia (ABC 2010a; 2010b). Two inter-related factors have recast housing in the public and political consciousness: first, there has been an on-going housing affordability crisis that first emerged in the 1990s (Berry and Dalton 2005) and became more acute after the year 2000. Second, turmoil in world financial markets from 2007 highlighted the level of vulnerability within Australia's housing markets, with both home purchasers and landlords reliant upon access to affordable and secure credit. Instability within financial markets threatened to increase the cost of housing finance, raised the prospect of house price deflation and the subsequent risk of wide spread negative equity in housing markets and, at the same time, reduced the supply of housing finance for the most marginal borrowers. In combination these processes have recast public awareness of housing issues and forced governments to reconsider the ways in which they engage with housing market processes in Australia.