A Home Out of Reach: How Policy Failures Are Hurting Our Neighbors

Friends, as an IT guy, I deal with complex systems all the time. But sometimes, the most complex systems – like our housing market – break down in ways that have very real, very painful consequences for everyday people. We’re seeing a situation unfold that directly impacts the ability of families to put a roof over their heads, and it’s largely due to policies we can and should change.

Here are the hard facts:

• The median price for a patch of land in our country has hit a record high of $391,420 – that’s six times what it was at the turn of the millennium.
• Expert reports, even from within the housing industry, are calling this a "government policy induced market failure," directly blaming things like limited land supply and forcing developers to shoulder massive infrastructure costs upfront.
• These hidden costs are directly passed onto families, making the ground their home sits on significantly more expensive. We’re talking about paying up to an extra $1000 per square meter in some cities, even as the block sizes themselves shrink.

Friends, this isn’t some abstract economic problem happening far away. This is a quiet crisis unfolding right here in our communities, in our own backyards. As someone who believes in helping the "least of these," my heart breaks seeing how these policies are pushing families to the brink. A stable home isn’t a luxury; it’s a foundation for a decent life, a place where kids can grow up safe, where people can build a future. When that foundation becomes unreachable for so many, we’ve got a serious problem on our hands – a moral and practical crisis we simply cannot afford to ignore. We need common-sense solutions that prioritize people over profit and make housing attainable again.

This story was analyzed for Christ P2P. You can read the original reporting here: https://www.realestate.com.au/news/government-causing-artificial-land-demand-behind-aus-housing-crisis/