Individual Australians are in a recession, with per-person income slipping since mid-2022. Interest rates are falling overseas. So forget rate hikes: the RBA’s next move is likely to be down.
A string of governments going back 30+ years cooking the housing market via investment opportunities/tax breaks.
Rental market being an absolute shitshow due to the above.
Some dickhead at the RBA, the group that sets cash interest rates, saying in 2021 that interest rate rises weren’t going to happen for a fair while and then 6 months later ratcheting up the rates.
People taking 2.05 percent variable rate loans during that time for the maximum they can when a simple chart of mortgage interest rates over the last 40 years would suggest that budgeting for a 6-10 percent mortgage would be a good idea.
Banks, mortgage brokers, etc, all pushing for - and allowing - people to get the biggest mortgage they can handle right now.
The warped Australian dream of getting the biggest house you can and living the best life you can with the best cars and toys, pushed by advertising from corporations.
And then we get to quasi-monopolistic companies that get between the consumer and basic goods and services, cranking up the margins to provide maximum return to investors. That’s Coles/Woolies/banks/telcos/power companies/Ampol/Caltex/etc.
The whole thing is a pressure cooker designed to get as much as possible out of the general public.
There’s a lot of blame to go around here:
The whole thing is a pressure cooker designed to get as much as possible out of the general public.