Most Aussie voters want house prices to drop

Everybody's Home

Everybody’s Home is urging parties and candidates to sign on to a roadmap for housing reform ahead of the election, as new polling reveals most voters want house prices to drop.

The national housing campaign’s 'Roadmap to Reform' puts forward real solutions to end Australia’s housing crisis.

RedBridge polling of 2,000 Australian voters released by Everybody’s Home reveals:

More than one in two (54%) want house prices to go down over the next five years, while one in five (21%) want prices to increase
Even people with mortgages want to see house prices come down, with two in five (44%) supporting a drop, compared to one in four (28%) wanting prices to rise
Seven in ten (72%) renters want house prices to fall.

The polling also finds:

Two in three (67%) say the cost of housing is causing them stress
Four in five (84%) are worried about housing affordability for young Australians
Seven in ten want the government to spend more money creating more social housing (69%), and build, rent and sell affordable housing to workers (67%)
Nearly half want the government to limit negative gearing tax breaks to one property at a time (46%) with only one in five (20%) opposing.
Most voters agree that Australia needs more drastic solutions to housing affordability than those being considered by government, high house prices are increasing the gap between the rich and poor, and expensive housing is making it hard to live near good jobs.

Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said: “Australia’s runaway home prices are so out of reach for so many voters that most want to see them come down. It’s a tired trope that homeowners want house prices to keep rising. Rents and mortgages have gone through the roof and there’s only so much people can afford to pay.

“Many Australians are in housing stress, sacrificing their basic needs to cover housing costs, and worried that their children may never afford to move out of the family home. Most voters believe that expensive housing is widening the gap between the rich and poor and making it harder to live near the jobs they want and we all rely on.

“Crucially, voters want drastic solutions to address housing affordability. This lines up with what our campaign hears everyday - people are tired of piecemeal solutions.

“Scrapping investor handouts would make housing cheaper and fairer for more Australians. Negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount push up housing costs and make our country more unequal. Most voters don’t even receive these handouts yet they’re paying the price, losing billions of taxpayer dollars each year to line the pockets of investors.

“The tens of billions of dollars we are set to lose over the next decade to investor tax breaks could build social housing that we desperately need. Australia has a social housing shortfall of 640,000 homes. We need the federal government to get back into the business of building homes, and strive for at least one in ten homes to be social housing.

“Housing affordability will be a defining election issue. Continuing to outsource to the private market won’t end the housing crisis, and it won’t convince the electorate. Our ‘Roadmap to Reform’ offers the housing solutions that candidates should champion: scrapping investor handouts, building more social housing, and protecting renters.”

Everybody’s Home is calling on all parties and candidates to sign on to their ‘Roadmap to Reform’ to commit to:

Raising the rate of JobSeeker and income payments
Coordinating nationally consistent protections for renters: Limit rent increases, require longer tenancy agreements, and introduce minimum living standards
Phasing in tax reform: Reducing the capital gains tax discount for property investors over the next decade and phasing out negative gearing handouts
Implementing a broad-based social housing program: Expand social housing each year, working up to a social housing target of 940,000 new homes within the next two decades, with the help of revenue savings from tax reform.

Polling results can be provided upon request.

Media contact: Sofie Wainwright 0403 920 301