We are living through the worst housing crisis in living memory. Rents are surging, home ownership is slipping further out of reach, and homelessness is rising and more persistent.
Fri 6 Feb 2026 01.00
Unit blocks and stand alone houses are seen side by side in the suburb Brookvale, Sydney, Friday, September 19, 2025. (AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi) NO ARCHIVING
We are living through the worst housing crisis in living memory. Rents are surging, home ownership is slipping further out of reach, and homelessness is rising and more persistent.
If you want to understand why, look no further than Friday’s numbers from the Productivity Commission.
Analysis from ACOSS shows the Federal Government spends billions more each year on tax breaks for property investors than it does on social housing, homelessness services, and rent assistance combined. At a time when millions of people are struggling to keep a roof over their head, more federal public money is pouring into the pockets of property investors, rather than into helping those in need of a home.
This isn’t an accident. It’s a choice.
Instead of building homes people can afford, governments have handed out absurdly generous tax breaks to property investors and saying affordability will trickle down. Instead of providing secure public and community housing, they’ve pushed more people into a hyper-competitive rental market where unlimited rent increases are legal and rents are rising faster than wages.
The results are all around us. Workers can’t afford to live near their jobs. Older women are the fastest-growing group at risk of homelessness. Families are cutting back on food, healthcare and heating just to make the rent. Even people in full-time work are finding themselves one rent rise away from crisis.
Meanwhile, wealthy investors are being subsidised to outbid first-home buyers, speculate on housing, and chase higher returns from an already massively overheated market. When governments say they’re doing everything they can on housing, these figures tell a very different story.
Australia once understood that housing was the responsibility of government. In the decades after the Second World War, governments built homes at scale – for workers, families and returning servicemen. Public and community housing wasn’t a last resort, it was a normal part of the housing system that people could rely on. It kept rents down, provided stability, and gave people real choices.
That approach has been steadily dismantled. As governments pulled back from building homes, they ramped up support for private investors instead. Tax breaks like negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount pushed up prices of existing homes and added precious little to supply, even as public and community housing stocks shrank and waiting lists ballooned.
Today, we’re left with a housing system that works brilliantly for people who already have wealth, and brutally for those who don’t. We have more homes per person than ever before, yet housing has never been less affordable or secure. That’s not a market failure, that’s a failure of government policy.
If governments were serious about tackling the housing crisis, their spending priorities would look very different. They would invest heavily in public and community housing, creating tens of thousands of genuinely affordable homes each year. They would strengthen homelessness services so people aren’t left without support when things go wrong. They would ensure income support payments actually reduce stress, instead of being swallowed up by rent increases.
And critically, they would stop pouring billions of dollars into tax breaks that push housing costs up and worsen inequality.
None of this is radical. Countries that have avoided or reversed housing crises have done so by building affordable homes and treating housing as essential infrastructure, much like schools or hospitals. Australia already knows how to do this, and we’ve done it before. What’s been missing isn’t evidence or solutions. It’s political will.
The housing crisis didn’t just happen to us. It was created through years of government decisions that have treated housing as an asset rather than a basic need. These numbers make that impossible to ignore.
If we want a housing system that works for everyone, it’s time to stop lining the pockets of property investors and start funding homes that people can genuinely afford.
Maiy Azize is the national spokesperson for Everybody’s Home, a campaign to end Australia’s housing crisis, and deputy director of Anglicare Australia.
James Hall is a senior advisor at the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS).
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