The newest culture war battleground: Australian house prices

First home buyers are the victims of an Albanese government culture war against property owners, the Coalition will claim as it ramps up its attack on the cost of housing amid Labor accusations that a Liberal plan to ease lending standards would lift interest rates for millions of existing borrowers. As questions grow over the Reserve Bank’s handling of interest rates , Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg will argue that the nation’s social fabric is at stake if homeownership continues to fall. Liberal senator Andrew Bragg says Labor is running a culture war against homeownership as he argues for changes aimed at first-time buyers.

Credit: Alex Ellinghausen Data released on Tuesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the total value of the nation’s dwellings increased to a record $11.1 trillion to the end of September. Over the past year, it has risen by $800 billion.



House values have jumped by $3.8 trillion, or 52 per cent, since mid-2020 as the Reserve Bank slashed interest rates to record lows while governments pumped hundreds of billions of dollars of stimulus into the economy. Meanwhile, homeownership rates have fallen across almost every age group over the past 40 years.

People aged 35 to 44 are 18 per cent less likely to own a home than they were in 1981, while for those aged between 25 and 34, homeownership is down by 20 per cent. Bragg will use a speech to the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia on Wednesday to argue for an overhaul of the nation’s banking regulator that recognises the central role of homeownership. The proposals, including changing the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s charter to include the plight of first home buyers while reducing the 3 percentage point interest rate buffer imposed on their loans, formed the key recommendations of a Senate committee chaired by Bragg.

“This is not just about economics; it is about preserving the social fabric of our nation. Homeownership fosters stability, security and individual aspiration,” he will say..