Housing and why it sucks
Housing affordability has become a bit of an issue around here of late. Both sides of politics are talking about it quite a bit, as are commentators of all stripes.
The proposals so far have not been particularly relevant to us as we’re in an “interesting” position. Specifically, neither of us can drive so we absolutely must be near good public transport, and our income is such that we don’t qualify as “low income”. Most proposals are either geared toward making rentals less expensive for low-income earners or for those buying newly-constructed houses, and the latter are almost entirely on the very fringes of our cities where public transport barely exists.
What would make us happy? Well, the ideal would be for the housing market to calm down and prices to drop so we could reasonably afford to buy a two or three bedroom house with a yard within a 45 minute commute by train to the CBD. And when I write “afford” I don’t mean “will a bank lend us an insane amount of money that’ll cripple us?”, I mean “for an amount of money we can repay over 25 years without having to eat cardboard”.
But leaving aside that fantasy-land, what’d be nice would be to make renting less horrible. Leases of five years or more, the right to make cosmetic changes to the place, a cap on just how much rent can be increased each year (indexed, perhaps?), and lease terms that allow pets. If an entire generation is to be locked out of the property market then we ought to at least be able to settle down in a rented house, make it our home, and have some moderate level of security.
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