Me too.

So this is the basic problem with renting right now, is that there are a lot of renters looking at not many homes.

We have a situation like this, and we call it a supply problem because the number of homes available, the supply, does not meet the number of renters who want to rent, the demand.

We could call this mismatch a demand problem, but I think those in the room with me would agree this is not the right framing.

We shouldn't think of young people coming to the city for university, new migrant families, or downsizers as a problem.

I don't think we should think of people wanting homes as a problem.

The problem is that as a society, we have not delivered enough homes for those people to live in.

I'm going to hand over to Jonathan now for your rebuttal.

W- what are we getting right? What are we getting wrong?

wrong?Yeah, so Brisbane, uh, similar to Melbourne, has done a pretty good job, uh, with building out a CBD.

Only really Brisbane and Melbourne have, have kind of built significant amounts of, of residential land in the CBD.

And when I go back to Brisbane, it's a city I really love.

Um, you know, I'm really impressed by kind of what's going on on, like, Elizabeth Street.

You know, it's much more cleaned up than it was kind of when I was a youth, you know, uh, parading around the streets, as it were.

Um, and you've done a really good job in the CBD.

But does there need to be a tweak in how we approach, I guess, what we call character zoning?

But does there need to be a tweak in how we approach, I guess, what we call character zoning?

Yeah, so your character zoning is incredibly restrictive.

It's kind of one of the most restrictive sort of broadly laid out planning controls in the country.

Look, I think Brisbane is going to have to reckon with the fact that, you know, you've got hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders.

A lot of them are really excellent.

I was lucky enough to grow up in one of them.

Brisbane's going to have to reckon with the fact that probably you can't keep every single Queenslander.

And I reckon we've got to preserve those.

... go thr- through eliminating Algeria.

Yeah.

I mean, if you sit down and look at the whole thing again, the first half is perfectly normal.

It's not great obviously, but it's not, it's clearly not fixed either.

There are chances.

Breitner goes close for West Germany a couple of times.

Walter Schachner of Austria gets brought down in the box for a clear penalty that the referee missed.

... no one would try to score again

Do you think that any house price to climb will last very long?

I think you were right in the introduction to say that it's too early to tell.

I think there's a reality that in a lot of house price models, a lot of house prices or some portion of house prices can be explained by the expectation that they will always go up.

There's sort of a feedback loop, a reflexivity in the market.

I think there's a real potential that right now we're seeing price discovery.

People are working out how many investors are going to auction.

People are working out, well, okay, how many people are bidding on new versus existing stock.

That is a vacant block of land on which they might build the house.

Do you think that any house price to climb will last very long?

I think you were right in the introduction to say that it's too early to tell.

I think there's a reality that in a lot of house price models, a lot of house prices or some portion of house prices can be explained by the expectation that they will always go up, right? There's sort of a feedback loop, a reflexivity in the markets.

I think there's a real potential that right now we're seeing price discovery.

People are working out how many investors are going to auction.

People are working out, well, okay, how many people are bidding on new versus existing stock.

I think I would like to believe that we are seeing a stabilization at the very least of house prices, a reduction in real terms.

So you might see that investors and first home buyers are actually still bidding on the same type of property that is a vacant block of land on which they might build the house.

Now, it seems to me that if the government stopped putting [laughs] taxation on those houses, that they would be a lot cheaper to build.

Yeah, so the bulk of that 30 to 40% number is in stamp duty, and stamp duty is an incredibly bad tax.

It makes it harder for people to move.

It'll make you, it'll make it harder one day, Tom, for you to do your downsizing.

Um, it is a, it is a tax that incentivizes people to stay put, and it is a tax that is unfairly levied, as you've pointed out, on, you know, new home buyers and new homes.

Um, I mean, both I think Labor and the Libs are taking, um, various versions of a policy of cutting stamp duty, uh, for, um, first home buyers.

So I think everyone's kind of recognized that, that, that that tax, uh, that tax problem is, is very real.

What if we changed that mentality and said, "No," like a lot of cities around the world, your first house will be a high-rise apartment?

Now, it seems to me that if the government stopped [laughs] putting taxation on those houses, that they would be a lot cheaper to build.

Yeah.

So the bulk of that 30% to 40% number is in stamp duty, and stamp duty is an incredibly bad tax.

It makes it harder for people to move.

It'll make you, it'll make it harder one day, Tom, for you to do your downsizing.

Um, it is a, it is a tax that incentivizes people to stay put, and it is a tax that is unfairly levied, as you've pointed out, on, you know, new home buyers and new homes.

Um, I mean, both I think Labor and the Libs are taking, um, various versions of a policy of cutting stamp duty, uh, for, um, first home buyers.

What if we changed that mentality and said, "No, like a lot of cities around the world, your first house will be a high-rise apartment"?