Edit: I didn't realise National said they'd keep these before the election. When Bishop got asked about it he said "that was then, this is now". What a bunch of fucking crooks.

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand these types of subsidies ultimately just drive up prices further, same as when interest rates go down. People can pay more so prices move up.

On the other hand, in the absence of doing anything to drive landlords out of the market (and of course this government is doing the opposite of that), removing support like this just gives them yet another leg up to speculate on housing at the expense of people who just want a place of their own to live in.

[–] BalpeenHammer 4 points 6 months ago (9 children)

Is there any evidence that subsidies drive up prices? This seems like one of those economic deepity like "rising tide lifts all boats".

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Certainly in Australia they do

https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/governments-spent-20-5b-on-first-home-buyer-help-that-pushes-up-prices-report-20220707-p5azx3.html

Australian governments spent more than $20.5 billion on first home buyer help in the past decade, which made housing affordability worse by driving up property prices and left existing homeowners richer, new research found.

[–] BalpeenHammer 1 points 6 months ago

How did they determine the cause and effect in this relationship given the amount of overseas investment in housing in Australia?

load more comments (7 replies)