Time is running out for Labor to rekindle interest in commitment to its affordable housing solutions with support from the most interested state and territory governments as in 2025.
Containing the momentum of One Nation (ONP) in Farrer before 9 May will not be moderated by a responsible early budget and more time to discuss the ABS cost-of-living data to be released on 6 May 2026.
The last ABS release on 4 February 2026 showed the extent of price volatility in the housing and rental markets. This ABS release might bring unwelcome news to progressive campaigners in Farrer almost on the eve of the by-election.
The trendlines in housing prices are nothing new to Australian domestic politics with six recessions since 1953 to add a sledge-hammer to contain the price increases on six occasions. Only the 1991-92 recession occurred under a federal Labor Government.
To commentators like Scott Kuru, as Founder and CEO of Freedom Property Investors, current housing prices have been inflated by progressive government spending initiatives. The accompanying graph shows that the biggest spikes in housing prices have occurred under the LNP governments of John Howard and Scott Morrison.
Labor inherited the LNP’s tax concessions for investment in rental housing. There is always pressure from the Murdoch press to retain these concessions even though they have contributed to the current affordability crisis in housing prices and rents. The appalling fiscal impact of housing investment offsets is well estimated by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) and Federal Treasury (Graph: Gemini AI):
| Financial Metric | Estimated Cost (2025–26) | 10-Year Projection (2025–2035) |
| Negative Gearing Losses | $12.3 billion | $135 billion |
| Capital Gains Tax (CGT) Discount | $21.5 billion | $247 billion |
| Combined Investment Support | $33.8 billion | $382 billion |
From Mom and Dad investors to the corridors of power at state and federal levels, our mainstream leaders have a strong commitment to these investment tax breaks which are adding flames to the current housing markets. The robots at Gemini AI are keep a critical watch on multiple rental home ownership by mainstream federal MPs down under in in far-off Australia:
Recent audits of the parliamentary register indicate that around 95% of federal MPs and senators own at least one property, compared to 68% of the general Australian population.
. Multiple Property Owners: 130 to 138 out of 226 parliamentarians (60%) own two or more properties.
. The Landlord Class: At least 91 members (40%) have explicitly disclosed receiving rental income, making them active landlords.
. High-Volume Investors: A smaller “elite” group of about 34 members (15%) own four or more properties. Notable examples include MPs like Michelle Ananda-Rajah and Tony Burke, who have declared up to six properties each: Nola Marino has historically held interests in eight.
Within Australia’s federal system of government, the Albanese Government must work with supportive states and territories to assist indirectly in delivering more affordable rental outcomes and housing prices. The newer style of commitment to affordable social housing can be delivered now through a private sector investment housing mix with more funding for social housing as an alternative to currently upmarket developments like the Pradella Groups $1.3 billion investment on popular bus route 60 at West End in Brisbane.
This overseas equity would support private public partnerships in social housing components of new housing and infrastructure spending. This investment model has already delivered a TOD project at West End in Brisbane with ground floor retail and first floor services plus layers of middle income rather than social housing thanks to risk-taking investment by the Pradella Group with a $1.3 billion investment (Image: Montague Markets):
An Attractive Inner-City Architectural Mirage at Montague Markets
Progressive state and territory governments might want to copy the enterprise shown in delivering additional Montague Markets to enhance higher density housing options over urban sprawl with an embedded social housing mix in new constructions. Support could come through state-owned investment funds like the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC). The QIC still maintains a Ping An Investment Bond with China which was arranged in 2019 through the Bank of Ireland (Boost for bilateral business bonds with China – Ministerial Media Statements).
In Outer Metro Brisbane at Ipswich, Transport Oriented Developments (TODs) could deliver inner-city housing, retail upgrades and commercial services adjacent to the splendid architecture and community facilities in the Ipswich CBD. Investment could deliver a second Ipswich Station and Integrated Transport Terminal in the Top of Town Precinct with regional bus connections to the public transport blackspots on the Ipswich-Kenmore and Ipswich to Toowoomba corridors even prior to the arrival of the proposed railway from Springfield through the Ripley Valley. The transport terminal would logically be connected by a green bridge to the Riverlink Shopping Centre which is the main retail outlet for Ipswich.
The Property site offers an excellent folio of pictures of this site:
State governments should be able to attract overseas equity for such multi-billion-dollar projects which are beyond the budgetary resources of the current Crisafulli Government with its current $9 billion deficit in 2025-26. Expect the US Trade Representative staff to keep a close watch on this style of state sponsored investment through its staff members embedded in US Embassies and Consulates with their America First Agendas:
As recently as November 2025, the LNP State Government and its finance minister the Hon Ros Bates concluded successful trade mission to Asia as covered in the media release on 2 November 2025. More Asian investment is needed to finance TOD medium and high-density development as an alternative to a return to the urban sprawl style of housing development which clears forests, farmland and previous wildlife for motorways and new subdivisions. Relying on companies with a long commitment to urban sprawl is a recipe for future environmental and social problems:
A Lament for More Urban Sprawl
Unaffordable urban corridors
With house and land deals all the way
Past every urban infill whistle stop
Right North to Hervey Bay
The Land Activation Fund is working
No Labor electorates in the way
Perhaps 100,000 future residents
Should be grateful every day.
Many Queenslanders are still fans of the Garden City Movement from another time zone in Edwardian England. The lot size might still be three hundred square metres but it is still a house and garden with a million-dollar price tag on the northern approaches to Brisbane.
For many, the LNP has a strong appeal as these are very conservative electorates. Alternatively, there are still loud protest voices in the LNP’s Environment Minister’s Electorate of Glass House Mountains. Consider supporting the Save Our Glass Mountains Movement on Facebook.
Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building on the critical issues raised in each article. Your comments on this and related articles can be recorded on theaimn.net site.
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“House rental asking prices fell or were stagnant in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin over the past three months, Domain’s December Quarter Rent Report found.
Even so, house rents across Australia’s combined capital cities rose a total of 2.3 per cent — or $15 — over the quarter, with Brisbane (3.1 per cent increase), Hobart (1.7 per cent) and Canberra (1.4 per cent) leading the way.
Over the 12 months to December, Hobart saw a 7.1 per cent increase in house rents — the most nationally — followed by Brisbane (6.3 per cent) and Perth (4.5 per cent).” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-15/rental-market-capital-city-rents-domain-lack-of-affordability/106223682
The rise in house values since Covid has been around 70-75% in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane. It has only been just under 10% in Melbourne. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-14/charts-show-how-the-housing-market-has-changed-since-covid/105052772
I don’t know that Brisbane is the place to be looking at for solutions to the housing/rental crisis.
High housing and rental prices are embedded in the reflexive resort to neoliberal agendas which have become more audacious
The housing price crisis has no easy solutions. The LNP’s subsidies to investors with tax breaks has only inflated the property market. Treasurer Jim should rationalise this spending in the new budget as it is patronage to the LNP’s support base. Working through larger higher density housing suppliers might help and ease the LNP’s return to urban sprawl as a solution in SE Queensland under the Crisafulli Government. The wildlife needs a break from the land clearing contractors.
The above residential real estate investments of those Parliamentarians should correctly, exclude them all from any legislative cure for sky-rocketing house prices. However, in this time of unused dominant voting strength it is of little relevance.
Better to limit Negative Gearing (NG) to fresh new build residential properties so that the national housing portfolio is expanded. Introduce this in the same grandfathering strategy as CGT was first introduced in 1985.
Better to reduce the rental income of the about 25,000 landlords holding multiple residential properties by using tax incentives to divest those properties in an orderly fashion over say, five (5) tax years, down to the universal one only NG allowable property.
Better to return CGT back to the pre-Howard levels, reduced by Howard in an attempt to buy votes of aspiring middle class persons.
Better to de-centralise government departments & instrumentalities into regional cities to provide the drought-free economic spine for the community, and provide jobs building the necessary public infrastructure and residences to house the incoming work force.
Under the present market conditions some banks are investing in residential real estate to benefit from the taxation incentives and capture the capital gains from ownership over say ten (10) years ownership, which is greater than both the share market and government bonds.
Where is the commitment to sustainable planning in the LNP ‘s development agendas .
Back to the Joh era in Queensland with property interests allowed to finance the LNP in its urban sprawl agendas on the Sunshine Coast: This style of development has embedded mental health problems. The vacuous sub-cultures of the Sunshine Coast hinterland are breeding grounds for some nasty cultural outcomes. Many people at the caravan parks near Nambour cannot afford a local bus fare of 50 cents.
The wildlife cries out for relief from urban sprawl: Does the LNP want a wildlife free zone across Queensland’s Southeast
Thanks for an interesting commentary about the issue of housing afforability in Australia.
Looks like the Joh era is being revisited in Queensland as One Nation is also on the rise.
Better to consolidate urban expansion through higher density housing near township centres: Control of development by commercial developers is a recipe for higher prices and social alienation in the future as today’s new residents become burnt out by years of mortgage repayments.
Will improvements in the social housing mix of medium and higher density housing be a feature in Uncle Jim’s Budget on 12 May 2026?
The current interest rate increase makes the federal budget even more significant for the survival of the Albanese Government after 2028.
There are few Labor governments worldwide and the prospects of a third term in government after 2028 will be carried by the budget on 12 May.
This is the time for a renewal of the shaky loyalty of working class people and the lower middle classes in outer metro and regional areas.
The Labor government must proceed with a lowering of tax rates and an extension of the minimum tax thresholds for taxable incomes below $80,000 as well as a tightening of tax relief for speculative investors in rental housing with adjustments to capital gains concessions for multiple home ownership.
Taxation subsidies for the most exploitative of the multinational companies must be ended.
These perks cost the budget billions at the expense of commitments to social housing.
Finally, the appeal of more defence spending must be checked as it is a subsidy from taxpayers to the military industrial complexes of the US and Britain.
Sending planes and naval vessels off to annoy our most profitable trading partners is a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.
Offer the military brass tickets on Taiwan’s Eva Air of direct services from Taipei to Guangzhou so that they can view the Taiwan Strait over a stiff whiskey to annoy their fears.
Enjoy your Sunshine Coast holiday
Wall to wall housing
All the way.
Fewer dreamtime forests and farmlands
More real estate subdivisions to cheer your stay.