Last time we talked about the rise of the solo household – the quiet surge of Australians who now live alone, and why one-third of all households could fit that description within twenty years. This time, we turn to the job side of the story. Because the way Australians work is changing just as fast…
Nationally, internal migration nets to zero. It always does. But where people are going – and leaving – tells you everything about housing markets, affordability, jobs and lifestyle trade-offs. At a headline level: Queensland still leads, but momentum has eased (+19,092) Western Australia is strong (+10,272) Victoria has quietly turned positive (+441) New South Wales continues to bleed (-23,353)…
This article discusses the proposed Local Infrastructure Fund and extended ban on foreign ownership of established homes across Australia. Both items were announced in the Federal Government’s Budget on May 12th 2026. Local Infrastructure Fund Australia’s new Local Infrastructure Fund sounds impressive at first glance. A $2 billion housing infrastructure package certainly makes for a good Budget…
For decades, Australia’s housing market has been powered by a dependable demographic conveyor belt. People pair up, get married, start families, need more space, trade up, and eventually downsize. That tidy progression created suburbs, justified infrastructure, and underwrote a century of housing supply assumptions. But the engine room of household formation is changing – quietly,…
With the Federal Budget landing this week, the housing tax debate has fired up again. Negative gearing. Capital gains tax. Investor “perks”. Housing affordability. You can almost set your watch by it. And what a yawn! Every budget cycle the same arguments reappear. And every cycle the same myths get recycled as fact. So before…
I recently ran a LinkedIn poll asking a simple question: What is actually driving Australia’s new housing stress? LinkedIn only gives you four options. So I went with what I thought were the big ones: • Lack of new housing supply • Planning approvals and delays • Interest rate settings • Population growth The result?…
Let’s get into it from the get go. “If we can’t house them, stop them.” Sounds neat. Sounds logical. It’s also wrong. The latest numbers show Australia’s population grew by 423,600 over the year to September 2025. Of that, about 311,000 came from net overseas migration. Just some 112,600 came from natural increase. And the fertility rate? Just 1.52. That’s not…
A few weeks back I explored the idea that planning approvals are routinely blamed for Australia’s housing shortage – yet when we dug into the numbers, the story proved far more nuanced. This post I want to explore the interplay between housing supply and demand and to see what an update of the national charts…
Most people assume that if costs rise due to a shock – such as the current Middle East shenanigans – they will fall back once things settle. But economics and, moreover, business doesn’t work that way. Prices move up quickly with rising costs, but they rarely come back down in any meaningful way. “Up like…
Australia loves a big housing target. A million homes here, 1.2 million there – bold numbers splashed across press releases and podium backdrops. But the latest BuildSkills Housing Workforce Capacity Study makes one thing painfully clear: We don’t have the people to build the homes we keep promising. And nowhere is that shortage sharper than in regional…
