The Green Party is pledging to restore city centre vibrancy by ensuring market rent reviews for small businesses can lower rents, and letting councils run rental auctions for spaces that have been empty for longer than 12 months.

Lower house prices can have far-reaching consequences – for mortgage default rates and consumer spending Australians like to reference the idea that house prices only ever go in one direction: up. For those lucky enough to have stepped on to the home ownership merry-go-round, they’ll wonder at how their home has appreciated so much over the past five, 10, or 20 or years. But for those still renting, they’ll most likely be lamenting how they may never get a foot in the door – both figuratively and literally. Rapidly rising house prices is not a new phenomenon in the majority of cities in Australia. Over the 20 years from 1980 to 2000, average house prices increased by 225%, according to CoreLogic data. Over the following 20 years, they increased by another 200% and have notched up a further astounding 40% in just the last four years, thanks to ultra-low interest rates and the failure of supply to keep up with demand. Nicki Hutley is an independent economist and councillor with the Climate Council Continue reading...

Lower house prices can have far-reaching consequences – for mortgage default rates and consumer spending Australians like to reference the idea that house prices only ever go in one direction: up. For those lucky enough to have stepped on to the home ownership merry-go-round, they’ll wonder at how their home has appreciated so much over the past five, 10, or 20 or years. But for those still renting, they’ll most likely be lamenting how they may never get a foot in the door – both figuratively and literally. Rapidly rising house prices is not a new phenomenon in the majority of cities in Australia. Over the 20 years from 1980 to 2000, average house prices increased by 225%, according to CoreLogic data. Over the following 20 years, they increased by another 200% and have notched up a further astounding 40% in just the last four years, thanks to ultra-low interest rates and the failure of supply to keep up with demand. Nicki Hutley is an independent economist and councillor with the Climate Council Continue reading...