In most countries a house is just a building you live in - not...

In most countries a house is just a building you live in - not an investment and certainly not something you would be speculating in - and to a large extent that was also the case here in Australia.

The best you could hope for was a preservation of wealth - and maybe a 2% growth over and above that would be fantastic.

I can see property having its day again (after it falls back first by say 20%) in an inflationary environment with inflation rates of 8% plus and with rising wages, rising cost of living and rising rents vs the rapidly eroding value of money (such as the inflation rates experienced in the 1970's and 1980's).

But ..
I don't quite see that today with high interest rates and low inflation and low affordabilty ... I see we are at the other end of the cycle.

If the affordabilty falls further from 8 years of average income to pay off a house to say 16 years - I could see a real crisis and social unrest maybe even a revolution happening - and what would be the point of people migrating here away from their family and learning a new langusge etc.. if they are a slave to owning a house and if they had a better chance of owning a home in their original country of origin.

Furthermore ..
Population growth has always been a factor since the 50's - is not a new phenomenon and the impact of a 200,000 population growth when we had a population of 10 mill is the same as the impact a 400,000 would have today.

We need affordable housing for the upcoming generations.