Solving Australia’s Housing Crisis with Dionne Payn

So just stepping back a little bit, can you just explain what affordable housing is and how that works? Is that something that...

you were aware of before

or you've learned along the way? I've learned along the way and I had no idea.

And I'm really happy that you asked that question because when we don't have the definitions, we kind of get a little bit off track.

So the definition of affordable housing, according to the New South Wales state government anyway, is that it's housing that is no more than 30% of somebody's income.

So I like to think of the median or the sort of average household income in, let's say it's $100,000, 30% of that would be $30,000 a year on housing, no more than that, which kind of equates to a rent of around $650 a week.

Now there's not many places left where you can get a three-bedroom home for $650 a week.

No, no.

So that's the challenge.

That's what we're actually facing, not just in my local area, but all around Australia.

So one of the...

This has been brewing for a while.

It's not anything new.

But one of the key things was around the pandemic where people realised, well, if I can work from home, I can work anywhere.

I don't have to be tied to a capital city.

And particularly when there were lockdowns and, you know, it was quite intense to be in cities.

So a lot of people moved.

decided to do a tree change or a sea change.

And so it meant that the coastal areas, the regional areas, prices went up really dramatically, which is good from one perspective for people that have moved away from just being chained to a desk, but not so good on another perspective for those who were already on the margins of housing insecurity and are still really struggling to find somewhere to live that's affordable.

Yeah.