By Andrew Mackinnon

Last updated: 21st August, 2024

The housing market in Australia is not a free market. The Australian federal government has intervened in the housing market in Australia since 1947 by allowing more than 9.4 million immigrants to move to Australia, who subsequently had at least 4.3 million children, which combined is more than half the current population of Australia of about 27.4 million. This dramatic increase in the population of Australia has caused demand for housing in Australia to increase and thereby caused house prices and rents in Australia to increase. The housing market in Australia is therefore a rigged market, courtesy of the Australian federal government.

Australia – Population and Demographic Data – 1900 to 2022

In fact, the increase in the cost of buying a house or apartment in Australia over the past five decades and longer has been so conspicuous that economists in Australia do not take the cost of buying a house or apartment in Australia into account when calculating the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in order to determine the rate of inflation in Australia.

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