5 - Public housing's free market failure

In a serious indictment of the neoliberal policy consensus, John Quiggin, Professor of Economics at the University of Queensland, has blamed the lack of social housing in Australia on a series of policy failures.

In his submission to the Senate Economics References Committee inquiry into social housing, Quiggin slammed economic tax and public housing policy as tainted by the ubiquity of free market doctrine.

Taxation policies have produced a situation, he wrote, quote, "where houses are viewed as vehicles for tax-favored asset management rather than as homes.

In particular, these policies have produced a private rental sector dominated by individual landlords owning one or a few properties, rather than by commercial businesses specializing in the provision of rental housing," end quote.

Quiggin reported that around ninety percent of private rentals in the Australian market are owned by individual landlords owning portfolios of one to four houses.

Much of this is driven by tax considerations rather than any interest in providing housing services.

As for the common practice of calling this mum and dad investment, Quiggin noted that this cuddly term hides the substantial imbalance of wealth and power between landlords and tenants.

This situation has spelled much shorter periods of tenure for Australian tenants, which as the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute has reported, results from considerable turnover among rental investors.

Overseas, the proportion of such private rentals is typically below fifty percent, Quiggin wrote.

In a serious indictment of the neoliberal policy consensus, John Quiggin, Professor of Economics at the University of Queensland, has blamed the lack of social housing in Australia on a series of policy failures.

In his submission to the Senate Economics References Committee inquiry into social housing, Quiggin slammed economic tax and public housing policy as tainted by the ubiquity of free market doctrine.

Taxation policies have produced a situation, he wrote, quote, "where houses are viewed as vehicles for tax-favored asset management rather than as homes.

In particular, these policies have produced a private rental sector dominated by individual landlords owning one or a few properties, rather than by commercial businesses specializing in the provision of rental housing," end quote.

Quiggin reported that around ninety percent of private rentals in the Australian market are owned by individual landlords owning portfolios of one to four houses.

Much of this is driven by tax considerations rather than any interest in providing housing services.

As for the common practice of calling this mum and dad investment, Quiggin noted that this cuddly term hides the substantial imbalance of wealth and power between landlords and tenants.

This situation has spelled much shorter periods of tenure for Australian tenants, which as the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute has reported, results from considerable turnover among rental investors.

Overseas, the proportion of such private rentals is typically below fifty percent, Quiggin wrote.