HISTORICAL FACTS: Australian housing and urban research institute - The Untold Story

Will Help to Buy give first home buyers a leg up? Here’s what we can learn from the UK

New national figures have reiterated what most already know: buying a home in Australia is more unaffordable than ever.

The Conversation · Nov 26, 2025

The government wants more of us living in high rises. Here’s why Australians don’t want to

Australia was once a nation where the great Australian dream was owning a home with ample space for a lawn and a garden. But by the 1990s, the dream had shifted, at least politically, with then prime minister Paul Keating famously saying there was “more to life than the quarter…

The Conversation · Oct 15, 2025

Australian parents are helping their kids buy a first home with less money, but more rent-free living

As many young Australians struggle to enter the housing market, research shows the “bank of mum and dad” is often called on to help.

The Conversation · Aug 31, 2025

We need a 'lemon law' to make all the homes we buy and rent more energy-efficient

A long-awaited increase in energy-efficiency requirements for new homes is part of revised Australian construction standards taking effect on May 1. All new homes must achieve a minimum 7-star whole-of-home energy rating from October, following a six-month transition period.

The Conversation · Apr 26, 2023

Yes, the 1.5 million Australians getting rent assistance need an increase, but more public housing is the lasting fix for the crisis

Australia is in the grip of a housing crisis, with low-income households hit hardest by rising rents and falling vacancy rates.

The Conversation · Mar 22, 2023

Do tenancy reforms to protect renters cause landlords to exit the market? No, but maybe they should

More Australians are renting their housing longer than in the past. But they have relatively little legal security against rent increases and evictions compared to tenants in other countries. When state governments suggest stronger protections for tenants, landlords and real estate agents claim it will cause disinvestment from the sector,…

The Conversation · Nov 27, 2022

Think private renting is hard? First Nations people can be excluded from the start

Private rental housing provides homes, often long-term homes, for one in four Australian households. People can experience various forms of discrimination when seeking, living in or leaving a rental property, and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples it’s another one of many barriers they face. Our new research presents…

The Conversation · Oct 19, 2022

The market has failed to give Australians affordable housing, so don't expect it to solve the crisis

The federal Labor government has promised to craft a national housing and homelessness plan and to fund new social housing, returning Canberra to a field it all but abandoned for a decade. A new Productivity Commission report is scathing about current arrangements and calls for far-reaching change.

The Conversation · Oct 13, 2022

How 5 key tenancy reforms are affecting renters and landlords around Australia

Private rental forms an increasingly large part of our housing system. Just over a quarter (26%) of Australian households – 2.4 million of them – live in privately rented dwellings. And increasing numbers are renting long-term.

The Conversation · Aug 24, 2022

'We've all done the right things': in Under Cover, older women tell their stories of becoming homeless

The Australian documentary Under Cover, premiering at the Melbourne International Film Festival, presents the voices and faces of older women’s housing insecurity. Many of us would have seen the figures: the number of homeless people aged 55 years or above increased 28% between 2011 and 2016. And single women of…

The Conversation · Aug 19, 2022