In this article, Leith van Onselen skirts around what has been a cornerstone of his previous arguments that Victoria’s investor targeted land tax hikes that have arguably made housing more accessible for first home buyers. Instead, he veers into vague statements about the state’s economy being ‘weak’ and ‘crime’ being a concern, without evidence or explanation. If he truly prioritised readers, he’d lean into the policy discussion he used to champion and not include superficial and distracting comments that detract from a meaningful dialogue on affordability.

#auspol #housingcrsis #landtax #vestedInterests #propertylobby

https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/09/if-you-want-a-cheaper-house-move-to-melbourne/

Why have young people turned away from the #Tories?

John Burn-Murdoch (FT) suggests (not implausibly) that two factors loom large:

1. the #housingcrsis & the increased difficulty the young have owning their own home;

2. #Brexit

which also goes some way to explaining while the abandonment of the right by the young is more extreme in the Uk than elsewhere (even it is a broad global trend).

the right-wing gerontocracy may have gone too far & taken too much?

Further to the ongoing discussion in my timeline about the #housingcrsis, #JeremyHunt has decided to continue (in some cases by slightly different means) help for first time buyers...

given that stoking demand will do little more than raise prices, this can only be seen as an indirect sop to house-owners worried about the significant real terms drop in the price of their home(s).

Solving this housing crisis this is certainly not about!

Trying to reassure home-owning #Tory voters, more so!