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Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison delivered an hour-long pre-budget address on housing affordability hosted by AHURI at the State Library in Melbourne on Monday 10 April. The speech focused not only on affordability challenges to do with home ownership, but also the difficulties faced by Australians in the rental market, particularly those in social and affordable housing.

The Treasurer, the Hon Scott Morrison, addressed the issue of housing affordability in an hour-long lecture hosted by AHURI at the State Library in Melbourne on Monday 10 April.

Whatever the respective merits of home ownership and superannuation as forms of ‘forced saving’, it is difficult to find compelling evidence that giving first home buyers access to their superannuation for a house deposit will be effective, particularly in a context of constrained housing supply.

Treasurer Scott Morrison and the Federal Government are actively considering a bond aggregator model that could raise finance for community housing providers to build and supply social housing.

A newly published AHURI report, ‘A new look at the channels from housing to employment decisions’, undertaken by researchers from RMIT University and Curtin University, finds that rising levels of mortgage debt may cause workers to extend their working lives in order to pay off their mortgages.