Here’s why increasing productivity in housing construction is such a tricky problem to solve
By: Martin Loosemore, Professor of Construction Management, University of Technology Sydney This week, the Productivity Commission released its much-awaited report into productivity growth in Australia’s housing construction sector. It wasn’t a glowing appraisal. The commission found physical productivity – the total number of houses built per hour worked – has more than halved over the past […]
Rising house prices don’t just make it harder to become a homeowner – they also widen the racial wealth gap
By: Dorina Pojani, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of Queensland Homeownership – long a cornerstone of the “the American dream” – is increasingly out of reach for the average American. Over the past four decades, U.S. house prices have risen by 75% in real terms, pushing the costs of homeownership for the typical first-time homebuyer […]
Home ownership is slipping out of reach. It’s time to rethink our fear of ‘forever renting’
By: Dorina Pojani, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of Queensland A wide range of voices in the Australian media have been sounding the alarm about the phenomenon of “forever-renting”. This describes a situation in which individuals or families are unable to transition from renting to home ownership, due to rising property values and wages that can’t […]