"Which brings me to an annual event which illustrates the failings of real estate journalism more than any other situation: the publication of a piece of self-serving propaganda called the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey.
This document is political posturing by vested interests and should never be featured by any media outlet in Australia. It is published by a lobby group that campaigns for the end of government regulations that restrict the activities of land developers. The group argues that regulation causes prices to rise and makes homes unaffordable. It has created a political document masquerading as research to support their views.
Members of this group are particularly feverish in their condemnation of prices in Australia and usually declare that we have the world’s most unaffordable real estate – despite the fact that their “research” features only six nations. Nowhere in Europe is included, nor any nation or city in Asia except Hong Kong. Africa and South America are ignored."
